They Say Practice Makes Perfect

 

That's what they say...but this season was the 2nd year in a row that this team didn't have a place to practice. They all were riding on their own in their other disciplines, but no polo practice. One of them was a beginner and sadly, their best player (one of my daughters) aged out last year. However, we still have a team & they decided to play games for fun, even if they weren't competitive.  That's a bit of a challenge for these competitive girls and to be honest, it's not fair, but this is their lot. It didn't used to be this way, we had a very vibrant polo club with a great coach & growing youth program. But, the college we were out of shut everything down for "the plague" and still hasn't opened the community programs back up.

They are very blessed to have a great coach who stepped up. She's never coached before & she's a full time veterinarian with a very busy life, but she loves these kids & polo. She has volunteered her time, her polo gear & aspects of her life and resources that are immeasurable. Against all odds, this young team (without any practice whatsoever, remember) won the preliminary tournament! This was quite a shock; completely unexpected! However, at regionals, they got clobbered and we fully expected it lol. My daughter, Alyssa, was recovered from the flu, also, so she was pretty tired & a little weak & wasn't really up to playing her best with her usual hustle. She played 4 seven minute chukkers in a row on horses she didn't know & let me tell you, I'm so stinkin proud of her. At prelims, she won one of the 4 All-Star awards and she won the coveted Horsemanship Award also. That was a first for her & I'm so happy for her. Proud of the whole team because they took the hand they had been dealt and were just thankful to be able to play a game they love & had exemplary sportsmanship and horsemanship. 

The cool thing is one of the polo clubs invited us back this summer. Their coach admired our team's attitude, work ethic & spirit and would like to give our kids the opportunity to come play there.  Also, Alyssa got invited to play against the local college team with her coach & another adult last night. This is the college that no longer lets us practice there anymore. It was great to see Alyssa play there again, see the polo ponies that we know and love and our team beat the college girls!