Oct 12, 2013 | lsmith | 961 views
"West Bound and Down"
Early Friday morning the Panthers started their journey west to the windy city! With a train ride and bus trip on the agenda for the day the girls were anzious, excited and barely awake!
We arrived in the early morning light (some might say dreary darkness) at the Port Huron Amtrak station to board the train for the 6 hour trip to Chicago Union Station. Thanks to the efforts of Michelle, Heather and Derek the girls were treated to an entertaining and eventful train ride west.
Once we found and loaded our bus in the middle of downtown Chicago the race was on to get to the beautiful and somewhat historic Lake Forest College campus 30 miles north of Chicago.
At Lake Forest we were treated to and informative tour of the campus by two current students, both of which have GPA's higher than Derk's IQ! The campus is home to 1600 student from 47 states and 87 countries. They offer an excellent education program as well as 17 varsity teams.
Once the campus tour was complete it was off to the ice rink for a tour and meeting with women's hockey Coach Zaban. The girls and the coach discussed the rigors and efforts required to be a successful student athlete at the Division III level. They also got the scoop on the importance of education, commitment and time management. Overall the tour of both the campus and the ice rink was an excellent learning opportunity for the girls and peaked their interest about what is available for them if they work hard in the class and on the ice!
Next stop for the team was the Embassy Suites in Deerfield. The girls were treated to an exceptional catered dinner and a few moments to settle in prior to our departure for our first of five games.
Our first game was against our host the Chicago Falcons. After a long day of travels and tours your Panthers managed to pull together enough energy to paly an excellent game coming out on top 4-2. With a break here or there we could have easily made it 6-2!
At the end of the day each player was able to say they had a great day!!
Until tomorrow....rule number one is....no number two on the bus!