To the future...

I'd like to share with you a thought or two about the KaPow Indoor Field Hockey Experience ... about where we've come from ... where we are today ... and where we hope to be in the future.

First ... a little personal history that helps me put local field hockey into its rightful perspective.

It's 1999 ... the night before our indoor qualifier, and my Mom and I don't get on the road to go to the tournament until about 10 PM because of course, there was a school dance that I just HAD to go to! On the way, we pick up one of my teammates, Katie Grant. For the next two hours in the car, she braids every single strand of my hair, inserting about 50 bobby pins along the way. I'm still not quite sure how it was legal to play with so many weapons in my hair!

We finally arrive at the arena with our boom-box in hand, lime green tie-dye shirts glowing, and braided hair flopping all over the place. It's time to start our special pre-game ritual. One at a time, each of us takes to the court, dancing to our own beat. Gradually, we start getting serious about the warm-up. By the time the game starts, we're ready to kick some booty!

This is how it all began. We all loved field hockey. We didn't even know what indoor hockey was. We just knew that we wanted to play the sport we loved. And looking back, my most vivid memory of NIT's was the time we all dove on the court in perfect synchronism with our goalie to save a ball. I think our team laughed about that play for the entire next year. And to make it all the better, we were pretty darned good. Somehow, the combination of hair-braiding, boom-box dancing, tie-dye shirts and a lot of laughter combined with some decent talent, brought us a lot of success at NIT's. In the years that followed, for better or worse, we and a lot of other talented players succeeded in earning for our area the reputation of being a "Hotbed for Field Hockey."

So wow ... let's fast-forward to the 2009/2010 KaPow Hockey Klub season.

Snazzy KaPow team uniforms have been ordered and screen printed. The warm-ups have been distributed. Talented coaches have been hired. Practices and games have been scheduled in a new facility. Our website calendar has been filled so much, we had to ask our website manager to enlarge it! And our KaPow team selections have all been posted.

Yes, we've completed all the superficial parts of becoming a club. But the question remains, are we really a part of something special yet? Are we all part of something we'll treasure for years to come? Or are we somehow trapped by the notion of being a "Hotbed for Field Hockey."

When KaPow Hockey Klub was formed, we knew it could be something really unique. We love the sport of field hockey because of our experiences and the people we have met through the sport. We love how much fun it was, and can be. We love the experiences we shared off the court, as much as (and sometimes more than) the successes we achieved on it. We love that hockey has helped to define us as the people we are today. We want our players to live and experience the innocence and the purity of our own personal journeys ... journeys we took at a time when we weren't a "Hotbed," but instead, just a bunch of kids playing the sport we loved.

Times change. For better or worse. Now we're the "Hotbed." And yes, we have earned that name, and we should be proud of it. But we didn't get there by over-training, or by always being on the "best" team, or by "sweating the small stuff." We got there by following a path filled with laughter, a deep compassion for the sport, and the unending desire to play ... for fun!

KaPow's mission is to recapture that innocence and fun and playfulness ... to combine it with skilled trainers and hard work ... and to keep our kids on a path that promises wonderful experiences and lifelong memories for them, win or lose. We have all the tools to make it happen ... great coaches, talented players, and committed parents.

We hope you'll help us stay focussed on what really matters. And as much as we might be tempted sometimes to think that it's "being on the best team and making it to NIT's so you can be seen" ... it's not. What really matters is taking one year at a time and making improvements. It's becoming a better player this season. It's meeting girls from other schools and learning their stories and growing from their friendships. It's laughing, and hair braiding, and boom box dancing ... and letting hockey weave it's way naturally into the fabric of our lives in a way that nourishes, enriches, and motivates us to be better people.

The KaPow Hockey Klub has a different perspective. Because we want it that way. We come from a place and a time that had a very different focus ... a focus that taught us some pretty important life lessons. It was a focus that helped make us the "Hotbed of Field Hockey." But our challenge today is to forget that we're a "Hotbed." Our challenge and our mission is to live the incomparable dream of playing a sport you love in an environment that helps you be the best that you can be. We hope you share this vision, and we hope you'll help us keep Kapow on the kind of path that puts a smile on everybody's face, and keeps the pressure of winning where it rightfully belongs.

The results will be ... special.