We All Have Some Territories In Us
Today is a big day for the Territories. After losing last night, they won this morning to go 5-5 at the Brier. One more win could get them into a tiebreaker Friday.
It's tough for me to comprehend how big an achievement this would be. To have to travel thousands of miles to play top-notch competition requires a lot of time, money and dedication. It's amazing anyone would go through the commitment needed to compete at the national level facing those long distances.
What's more amazing is mentally overcoming such a handicap. In prior Briers it was considered a fluke if the Territories won a game. Having that mental obstacle of history to overcome is quite a burden, maybe even harder than the travel. Now they are a win away from possibly playing past the round-robin. What an accomplishment!
In some ways, our curling team has done the same thing. We have played in a gender-neutral league for 6 years now. There are 36 teams in it. At the end of the round-robin, which is also tonight, the top 9 teams will go into A division playoffs, the next 9 into B, the next 9 to C and the bottom 9 to D.
In the past we've always been a D team. Each week as I was leaving the house I would tell my wife we had a tough game ahead of us. When she'd ask who we were playing, I'd always reply, "I don't know". It didn't matter because we'd always finish 2nd in our game. We had people coming off their deathbeds to play us ("Just one more win!" they'd say).
Last year in the playoffs we lost to the team that lost to the team that won D. We were lower than a January overnight temperature. We tried to console ourselves. One of my teammates asked who had more fun playing than our team. After a moment of thought I replied "our opponents".
After last year's performance I concluded we were missing two things - an identity and talent, and not necessarily in that order. We got a new team name we felt proud to wear (Hands of Stone) and matching jackets and caps, self-sponsored.
We also had a player move away. We managed to have a fun girl named Sue replace him. And the rest is history. Going into tonight's game, we were in 9th place, as in A round of the playoffs. A win tonight should secure our place in A, unless someone just behind us has a win-all-8-ends game. Even it we lose, the worst we'll be is in B.
To say this has been a tremendous turnaround is an understatement. I had so many one-liners for being on a loser that I can't use anymore. I don't know if it's sunk in yet that we are so much better this year.
I guess we can all do what the Territories are doing, no matter how great the odds.
Regards,
Steve
It's tough for me to comprehend how big an achievement this would be. To have to travel thousands of miles to play top-notch competition requires a lot of time, money and dedication. It's amazing anyone would go through the commitment needed to compete at the national level facing those long distances.
What's more amazing is mentally overcoming such a handicap. In prior Briers it was considered a fluke if the Territories won a game. Having that mental obstacle of history to overcome is quite a burden, maybe even harder than the travel. Now they are a win away from possibly playing past the round-robin. What an accomplishment!
In some ways, our curling team has done the same thing. We have played in a gender-neutral league for 6 years now. There are 36 teams in it. At the end of the round-robin, which is also tonight, the top 9 teams will go into A division playoffs, the next 9 into B, the next 9 to C and the bottom 9 to D.
In the past we've always been a D team. Each week as I was leaving the house I would tell my wife we had a tough game ahead of us. When she'd ask who we were playing, I'd always reply, "I don't know". It didn't matter because we'd always finish 2nd in our game. We had people coming off their deathbeds to play us ("Just one more win!" they'd say).
Last year in the playoffs we lost to the team that lost to the team that won D. We were lower than a January overnight temperature. We tried to console ourselves. One of my teammates asked who had more fun playing than our team. After a moment of thought I replied "our opponents".
After last year's performance I concluded we were missing two things - an identity and talent, and not necessarily in that order. We got a new team name we felt proud to wear (Hands of Stone) and matching jackets and caps, self-sponsored.
We also had a player move away. We managed to have a fun girl named Sue replace him. And the rest is history. Going into tonight's game, we were in 9th place, as in A round of the playoffs. A win tonight should secure our place in A, unless someone just behind us has a win-all-8-ends game. Even it we lose, the worst we'll be is in B.
To say this has been a tremendous turnaround is an understatement. I had so many one-liners for being on a loser that I can't use anymore. I don't know if it's sunk in yet that we are so much better this year.
I guess we can all do what the Territories are doing, no matter how great the odds.
Regards,
Steve
posted by Irrelevant at 12:17 PM
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