How I spent my spring break: Day 1

I'm in my fourth year here at OU and you'd think that by now, I've seen it all. In all honesty, this has been a year of firsts for me. It's the first time I've been actively involved with something on campus (writing for the Post), the first time I’ve broken out of that typical commuter role (drive all the way out to school, go to classes and go directly home) and the first time I've ventured out into the world of journalism. Now, I can add another first to that list – the first time I've traveled with the OU hockey team. And oh what a first it's been!

Let me first start off by saying that I absolutely love these boys. For most of the season, I primarily dealt with coach Sean Hogan and his staff, but over the past few weeks I've gotten to know the team while we were working on the "Who's your Grizzly?" section for the paper. Afterwards, I sent Hogan an e-mail saying what a great group of guys he had and all that good stuff (which I hope he relayed to his team). Now I got to see the other side of his team. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Being the only girl on a bus full of guys has been – well, interesting, to say the least. I basically sit there in my seat and shake my head at all the funny/cheesy things they say. But like JP told me: on the bus, the guys can get away with saying anything because it's the only place where people won’t judge them. I'm still working on the not judging part.

I'm quickly learning what the "norm" is on hockey trips. When the hotel put me in a room with some of the guys, I was told it was the norm that the rooms get messed up. And when our bus driver backed into a tree in a parking lot while turning around, I found out that it's also the norm that something goes wrong with the bus.

I'm trying to break out of my habit of being freakishly early for everything. When I showed up downstairs for the bus yesterday 15 minutes before we were supposed to be down there and half the guys were still sleeping, I figured that it's okay to show up exactly on time. That seriously kills me. I’d rather be half an hour early than five minutes late, but I'm working on it.

Other than that, the trip's been fantastic. We got down here roughly five minutes before practice started and despite they looked like they had just gotten off the bus (which they did), I think they'll be okay today. The rink itself is kind of a joke, I'll try to get a few pictures before the game to post. The internet was down at the hotel, which was kind of a bummer, but it's up and running now. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't go down again. Oh yeah, and Corey from WXOU and I got kicked out of the coaches' meeting last night. The ACHA doesn't mess around. Thanks a lot Hogan (just kidding!).

Now we're just waiting to head out to the rink for Day 1 of the ACHA National Tournament. OU's first opponent is Lindenwood University, which is located near St. Louis. They watched our practice yesterday and will hopefully think it will be an easy win so we can catch them off guard. Here's what Hogan had to say about Lindenwood, which is considered a varsity sport (i.e. their school pays for everything. They even had their own skate sharpener at practice yesterday.)

"They will be big, fast and very disciplined in their systems. They practice every day, so they will be a very good team. That's the one disadvantage we have going into this tournament, we skate twice a week due to our budget and these teams will be on the ice every day preparing. We need to make the most out of our time on the ice and work hard. I think we have a very real shot at doing some big things in this tournament, we just have to have the right mind set. The talent is certainly here, we just need to make it work together. I’m excited about our chances (this) week."