As the year draws to a close, I find myself remembering the various activities I took part in this year. And one of the most fun events this year for me was definitely Chicks with Sticks.
You can form a team in Sophomore, Junior, or Senior year. It’s basically an indoor hockey-esque tournament in which girls compete against each other to be crowned winner of Chicks with Sticks. You also get to name your team and design your own shirts (a.k.a. the best part of participating).
First of all, Chicks with Sticks is an athletic competition. For those who know me, they know that I don’t do the whole…”sports” thing. I dance, yes (and dance is just as hard as a sport. I don’t care what anyone says), but the whole running and crouching and ball-handling? Not my usual.
So, I was understandably a bit nervous when we started getting ready for the start of the tournament. All around me were people who actually knew how to use a hockey stick, while I stayed in my sweatpants and took dumb selfies. When we finally did go up to play, it was (of course) against the extremely intense patriotic Senior team.
However, I would like to note that neither team scored any goals; we, the underclassmen, were able to prevent the Seniors from scoring any goals. That’s pretty impressive considering half our team either played soccer or didn’t play sports at all.
We did eventually get sent to the loser bracket because they needed to break the 0-0 tie game. So, at the end of the match, three members of each team had three separate chances to hit the ball into the net from the halfway mark of the court. Unfortunately, they won.
We were still able to play, though. We played two more games until we were finally knocked out of the running. To be honest, I was shocked we made it that far.
It was definitely a really, really fun day. I got to run around like a weirdo and yell for the ball. I got a sense of what being on an actual sports team is like – I think I’ll absolutely want to try something like that in college (maybe one of those intermural sports teams?). It was a great bonding experience with all my friends, and I would totally recommend it to any upcoming Sophomore, Junior, or Senior. You don’t have to know anything about hockey (see myself as Exhibit A of knowing nothing about sports), and you can still do relatively well and have a fantastic time.
- Victoria Schneller ‘16