Scary Moment against UCF

Sorry it has been so long, but it has been a long season and we have all had been tied up with exams before the holidays. Anyways, we kick started our spring semester off with two games this past weekend against Central Florida. Having beating them once in Rockledge back in October, we were hoping to complete a three game sweep, especially since they are ranked one spot ahead of us at #3. We didn't quite get to do that, but we still managed to win the series and hopefully pass them or remain on their tail come fourth rankings.

But the importance of this post is basically to thank our trainer, who will remain anonymous for privacy, who is at every single home game and has even travelled with us on the road on a few occasions. Some games he sits and watches into the wee hours of the morning and finds him self not of use. But this past Saturday, January 10th, he found himself saving a player's life from Central Florida. I will not get into huge details but basically what seemed to be a harmless hit turned into a scary situation that required the UCF forward to have his spleen removed in the OR moments after the completion of our game. It was at the recommendation of Tennessee's trainer that this player should attend to the ER to have it checked out. Later we learned that had he gotten on the bus to return to Orlando, he may not have made it through the night.

So with that said, on behalf of the entire Tennessee Hockey Club I would greatly like to thank the Trainer we have on hand at every game for saving this player's life. It is at moments like these that make you appreciate such individuals for their hard work and long hours spent sacrificing their weekends. I was able to speak to the parents of this player and they were very thankful of how the situation was handled. Which only makes me even prouder to call my self a "Volunteer," because it was a real "Volunteer" who made the difference on Saturday night, and he was not even wearing an Orange and White jersey.

But with that all said, we are looking forward to a strong second half. We stumbled a little slow out of the gate in the fall, and were able to pick it up near the end and finished strong thanks to two hard fought wins vs College of the Canyons. The next month will test our strength and comradery as a team and hopefully we can pass the test and carry our strength out to the end.

Best wishes in 2009 and hope to see you all sporting the Orange and White at all of our games,

Kelsey