Girls in skirts love to have fun

***While writing my blog about Wacky Friday and my own team-bonding fun, I began talking to other Bellarmine athletes about the fun they enjoyed off the field. You can expect my blogs from this point forward to spotlight different teams and their off-the-field fun and experiences.***

Never mind the fact the Bellarmine field hockey team wears skirts, when they are carrying large sticks and wearing mouth guards, they look pretty intimidating. However, a girl in a skirt is always out to a have a good time. Sometimes that good time includes dominating the playing field, but other times it just includes crashing weddings or playing in the mud—and these times have bonded the girls on a whole new level.

First off, the team has a history of celebrating their season by finding Halloween fun.

“Every year we try to go to as many haunted houses as we possibly can afford,” said senior Michelle Esterle. “One year, we were traveling as a team on Halloween and were so excited about a particular haunted house that we actually stopped there on the way (back to Bellarmine).”

Last fall the team did not hit up the haunted houses as much as in the past, but after missing Bellarmine’s Ball on the Belle event due to a game, the ladies still pulled together their most creative costumes for their own Halloween party.

Haunted houses are not the only thing the team has made time for while out of town on the weekends. The ladies found wedding crashing to be a fun event as well.

After playing on a Friday, the ladies spent Saturday in their hotel resting up before their Sunday game. “A bunch of us were in the study room studying, others were watching TV or just in their rooms,” said sophomore Malory Brake. According to Brake, a wedding reception was set up in the center of the hotel, which was nearby the study room.

“(The reception) was really dead and no one was really dancing,” Brake continued. “All of a sudden, someone, Kim (Roberts), I believe, started talking to the D.J. He said ‘This party sucks. You should bring the field hockey team.’ Kim told him he should play a song for the team.”

Next thing the ladies from the study room knew, they were hearing an announcement from the D.J. about a song for the Bellarmine field hockey team. Brake said the girls could not help but hit the dance floor after that.
“Then the best man—he was the only college-aged person there—asked us to stay,” Brake stated. “It was completely a wedding crash. We didn’t know a single person there.”

A new tradition began this year by the team pretending to already have a tradition.

The freshmen were told that every year the freshmen had to make a music video for the team. While the girls did not share the video, their laughs and comments made it obvious that this too brought for a lot of team bonding.

“They did great. It wasn’t really a tradition before, but it is a tradition from now on,” Brake said.

Practice has brought for goofy memories as well—particularly for this year’s seniors who walked off the practice field for the last time, covered in mud, wearing the most ridiculous attire one could imagine.

“When our coach told us we didn’t have to wear our practice uniforms to our last practice we kind of took it to an extreme,” said Esterle.

“You can wear anything you want,” was the statement made by Coach Don Hubbuch. While the girls knew he was probably referring to whatever t-shirt they preferred as opposed to their typical team practice shirts, they decided to sport their brightest colors and goofiest accessories.

“We were a little nervous about actually going to practice but our coach thought it was funny,” Brake said.

“I’m not sure why, but in our heads it’s kind of like we thought we wouldn’t have real practice, but we did,” said Esterle. “We must have looked crazy to anyone driving by, wearing what we were, while holding a serious practice.”

The practice turned into a mud mess due to the rain that fell throughout the day. “After practice we slid in the mud and were pulling each other down in it. I think everyone was wet and covered (in mud),” said Brake.

It is pretty safe to say that the ladies of the field hockey team have a way of being the life of any party—whether it is their own or a complete stranger’s!

**Photos: first two by Kelli Weddington, third by Rita Dixon**