Season Opener

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When I first arrived in DMBC.

  This past Saturday my team, DMBC Dunkerque, opened up the 2011-2012 basketball season. As you know (if you have been reading, of course!), I have been battling a bum ankle for the past three weeks (The Dreaded Injury Bug).

  Going into the game, I was pretty confident that I would be able to play. While I wasn't 100% comfortable with how WELL I might play, I was feeling better and thought I could make a positive contribution to the team. I had practiced hard on Thursday and Friday and felt good, so I thought the injured ankle was behind me.

  Guess my ankle had other ideas.

  We left Saturday morning for Paris. From Dunkerque it's about a three hour drive. Throw in a stop for a pre-game meal, navigation through Paris traffic, and we were looking at a 4.5 hour trip to the gym.

  Road trips can get a little tedious and boring sometimes, but you're always excited for the first one. And thankfully, our first one wasn't of the marathon variety (apparently we have a few road games that will take 14-15 hours to get to). You can imagine those are going to be awesome!

  If you are wondering, a charter bus will be the mode of transportation for all away games this season. It's not the most-preferable, but you do what you gotta do. Depending on your team's budget, location of the city, and I'm sure a few other factors, a team can either fly, take a train or a bus to away games. You can imagine my preference would be flying (much faster and more-convenient), but it doesn't always work out how you want it.

  Last season in Sweden, we flew everywhere (with the exception of one or two games), and travel was a breeze! Not to mention, I racked up quite a few frequent flier miles too.

My view for most of the bus ride.

  But back to Saturday...We arrived at the gym with a few hours to spare. You're usually on the court ready to warm up an hour before tip-off. I've developed a pre-game routine that's worked pretty well for me over the years, so I like to get a really good warm up in before the game. I've found that's the only way I'm ready to play right from the start.

  I got taped, put my ankle braces on (need a little extra support for my gimpy ankle), and headed out to the court. I could tell from the second I started running, my ankle wasn't in the mood to be playing basketball that day.

  I was hoping adrenaline would kick in, or it would loosen up, but no such luck. I felt like I couldn't move. As you can imagine, no mobility is a bad thing! I just wanted to be able to contribute to the team. And by playing, I felt like I would have hurt us.

  I finished the warm up period, and my coach asked me how I felt. It killed me to say it, but I told him, 'terrible'. He just said, 'okay', and that was it.

  As the game started, I still wasn't sure if our coach would ask me to play. Unfortunately, our team didn't get off to a very good start. And immediately, I wanted to get in there and help. But as I realized the pace and the speed of the game, I knew I shouldn't be out there playing.

  I couldn't put myself out there and become a liability to my teammates. If you lack the confidence in your body, there is no way you should be playing at a high level. You have to be able to react, not think. So I threw myself into cheering for my teammates, and tried to be as supportive as I could. But it's a difficult feeling not being able to physically help them out on the floor.

  As we got further and further into the game with my team still losing, you can imagine the thoughts going through my head on the bench: What if I could have played, and helped? Did I do the right thing?

  At this point, it doesn't really matter. My team ended up losing by a couple points to a very good group of young players. I regret that I couldn't play, but know I made the right decision. It's a long season, and what if I re-injured the ankle? There are always two sides to the 'what-if' game.

The old gym at INSEP, where we played on Saturday.

  So we're 0-1, and we have a lot of work to do. But we have another game this coming Saturday, and another 20+ after that. I'm just looking forward to getting on the court and being healthy! Hopefully that comes sooner, rather than later!

  On a side note, you might think, oh cool, they got to go to Paris! Yes, our game was IN Paris. But I'm sad to say that we didn't even catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower (not even off in the distance). Now you see why I make post-season trips, that's when I do my sight-seeing!

  I hope everyone had a great weekend! Shout out to the Buffs for beating CSU, and getting their
first win of the season (thank goodness, cause that made my Saturday manageable)!