We had an exciting week here in the county (I know I didn’t think that it was possible either). A bunch of high school kids came up to Fort Kent for five days for what is called the Maine Team Camp, which is an invite only camp for the best junior skiers from Maine. As it turns out this was a younger group this year with ages ranging from 14 to 17. While this made the Time Trial at the end of the week less interesting because there was less good competition it was fun to hang out with some younger kids.
One of the most exciting things that happened this week was the speedball tournament the Maine team kids put on that we were able to be a part of. Speedball for those who don’t know (which I assume is all of you because I think it’s an eastern region game) is a mix of soccer and ultimate Frisbee. One can play the ball like soccer or flip it up to a teammate and throw the ball around but then can’t run. Goals are scored when the ball passes through the goal and is caught by a team member in the air. The teams were four on four and as we soon found out goals were pretty hard to come by. I was one of the six team captains and crafted a great team which was ready for anything made up of Raleigh, Jake, Zoey and myself. The first team we played was a team of all guys and we were just warming up. We did not really figure out exactly the best strategy but still moved out of the first game of pool play with a win 2 to 0. Then in the second game we took on our competitive coach Seth and that’s when things started to heat up. Initially it seemed it was going to be a contest of wills but it ended up not being a contest at all. We put together everything we learned from the first game and came out and scored three quick goals before they even knew what was going on. I would equate it to the first game the US played in the world cup where England came out for the first 15 min and dominated the US except the domination factor was way worse in our game. We ended that game 4 -2 and rolled through the third game 5-1 only giving up our shut out in the last min.
We made it into the final with the only perfect record and faced off against the first team that we played (they only made it into the final by goal differential by taking advantage of the all girls team and beating them 12-0). We knew it was up to us not to let the all boys team win. We started off strong and got 2 goals in the first 5 min (of 15 min games). I also suffered a foot injury and we switched our strategy to a defensive minded scheme. The game ended 2-0 as was the score of our first game which was not the way I wanted to end the tournament but we won the whole thing and can’t really complain. Zoey was awarded MVP for her great defensive skills that kept the other teams in check so that the rest of the team could focus on our attack without worrying about getting scored on.
At the end of the week we had a set of Time Trials with the Maine Team and I competed in one so that the other day I could get another high volume day in. I did the skate 11 Km individual start Time Trial which was fun but I was not quite as strong as I was hoping to be but that is understandable see as this is the third week of training more than 20 hours a week.
I have another volume week to look forward to next week so that should be fun.
Here is a picture of the house that i am staying in until at least September. It is a little small but is great when it is just Raleigh and I.
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