A two-hour bus ride to LAX airport, two-hours at the airport, fourteen-hours on Qantas flight E7, a three-hour breakfast BBQ at Lee’s brother’s house and finally another two-hour bus ride north to Mooloolaba where we could finally take a shower and unpack our bags.
Ohhhhhh, at last this group of eighteen women is happy and smiling once again!
Our trip down under has just begun. We are embarking on a twenty-four day tour that encompasses twelve games. In the International hockey world that schedule is a challenge against any side. But, when the calendar reads such talented oppositions as Australia and New Zealand, it makes the challenge even greater. It might be a physical test but it is one that ignites great enthusiasm and optimism in our preparation to London.
After arriving to our “home” away-from-home, it was impossible to be anything but excited.
Here in Queensland, we are residing on the beautiful sunshine coast at Grand Mercure Apartments, Twin Waters.
As the bus pulled up to the resort, you could not help but notice the smell of fresh flowers and overwhelming wildlife. The gravel pathway that led us to our private villas (shared by teammates) was plush with beautiful trees and the sound of chirping birds.
At lunchtime, we walked around the resort lake, which illustrated beautiful views of sailboats and fresh blue waters. Once into the main house, you could smell the fresh coffee at the café, the herbs permeating from the restaurants and see the true beauty of the building that was sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the resort’s man-made lake.
Sounds like paradise? It is!
But, it’s time to snap back to reality. This is not vacation. In fact, my family is back in the states and I am here with my friends, my teammates. We have a mission and the beauty that surrounds us will help to keep everyone smiling, but will not allow us to forget what we are here to accomplish.
Stay tuned for more updates from the Sunshine Coast of Australia!
Keli
written by: Sarah Kwak, Sports Illustrated
Heart and mind racing, palms sweating, Keli Smith took a deep breath and looked down at the little plastic stick in her hand. Just back to the U.S. after ringing in 2011 in Venezuela with her in-laws, she waited for confirmation in the bathroom of the Baltimore hotel room where she and her family were staying. Positive, the test read. Indeed, Smith was pregnant once again.
The rush of joy and delight over welcoming a second child into her family was overwhelming, but she didn’t burst out screaming the news. She didn’t even tell her husband until late that night, her excitement perhaps tempered only by the knowledge that this was probably it. After playing nine years as a striker for the U.S. National Field Hockey Team, the 31-year-old native of Selinsgrove, Penn., figured this might just be nature’s way of telling her it was time to retire.
“In our sport we hadn’t had anybody have a child and keep playing — let alone two,” Smith says.
It seemed like the obvious choice, and fully ready to walk away and close this chapter of her life, she told her husband her decision. He, however, was not so sure. A former member of the Venezuelan national field hockey team — and now head coach at Miami (Ohio) — Iñako Puzo understands the demands of the sport as well as his wife does.
“Not so fast,” he told her. “Let’s wait and see. Maybe it’s still attainable. Let’s not close the door on it quite yet.”
They sat down together and gave the situation a great deal of thought. Their baby was due in August 2011, about a year before the London Games. It wouldn’t be easy to get back into shape, to be ready for top competition so soon after giving birth, they both agreed, but it wasn’t impossible either. “I came to the conclusion that we’d see how it goes,” she says. “Give it a try or else maybe I’ll always wonder if I stopped too soon.”
Scheduled to fly out to California later that month for a training camp in advance of the Four Nations tournament in Argentina, which was held in February 2011, Smith joined her team with a secret literally growing in the pit of her stomach. It was too early in the pregnancy to tell anyone, but after the first week of training, she felt she had to clue in coach Lee Bodimeade. “I wanted to make sure he could still prepare for the future knowing that I wasn’t going to be there,” Smith says.
She was, however, adamant about keeping her news from her teammates until after the tournament in Argentina. She didn’t want it to be an issue or a distraction to her team — even if that meant darting back to her room under the guise of “forgetting something,” when bouts of morning sickness struck or excusing herself to another room when she wanted to change her shirt, afraid someone might notice her belly beginning to grow.
“It was,” she pauses, “interesting.”
But after the tournament in Argentina, in which she helped the U.S. to a second-place finish and played in her 150th career game, she finally shared the news with her team: she was nearly three months pregnant. It was a relief to end the weeks of secrecy, and yet in some ways, Smith knew that this was just the beginning of her road to London.
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The Smith-Puzos welcomed baby Ian on August 31, 2011.
About six weeks later, after taking a brief hiatus from the team, working out as much as her body would allow — “There is a point where you just can’t anymore,” she says — Smith returned to the gym and started training again. In December, she flew out to California and rejoined her team for training. “It’s different to be on a treadmill in a gym or lifting compared to actually being here and on the turf,” she says. “Even though it might seem quick, I needed to get the cobwebs out.”
Some days are easier than others, she admits, but the support system her family has created makes sure that there are more good days than bad. And though it took a few weeks before she felt like her legs were under her and her touch on the ball began to return, Smith is feeling more and more confident, and her prospects for London are looking better. In her first game back on Jan. 14, she scored two goals to pull the US into a 2-2 tie with Australia, the 7th ranked team in the world. After tipping in a score on a penalty corner in the first half, Smith found a seam between two defenders and broke in on Aussie keeper, Toni Cronk. She faked left before shifting right and swept the ball into the net as she sprawled her body onto the turf.
Seeing the successes of her team while she was out seemed to invigorate her too. In October, she watched as the U.S. captured gold at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, defeating the top-ranked Argentinean team, 4-2, and secure a spot at the 2012 Olympics. Sitting at home on her couch with her two boys, she watched with great pride and perhaps a slight tinge of envy. “Part of me wanted to be with the team for that,” she says. “But then part of me looks at my boys and thinks, Well, life is amazing here, too.”
Still, it’s clear she retains that competitive spirit and the desire to keep playing. In fact, if anything, she has grown to enjoy the game more since having her first child, Xavi, in 2010. “For me, before having children, it was sometimes hard for me to turn [the game mentality] off,” she says. “The game ends, and I wouldn’t be able to turn off what happened. And over time, what ends up happening is that you take everything back onto the field. Instead of starting fresh, and feeling like you’re re-energized, you take some baggage back and it’s sometimes difficult and exhausting. But after [becoming a mother], I felt I was enjoying the sport more because I was able to turn it off when I was off the field.”
Her shift in perspective colors everything a little differently now. “I’m finally at a point in my life, with two kids and a husband at home, where if this all ends tomorrow, I would be fine,” she says. “It’s not like, ‘Oh my, what am I going to do with myself?’
“Going into London, I think I’ll just try and cherish every moment of the ride because for me, it’s over after [that]—and there’s no question about it,” she says. “Knowing there’s an end to this and it’s around the corner for me changes the perspective a little bit. I might as well enjoy it while I can.”
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20120328/keli-smith-womens-field-hockey/#ixzz1qW9dYrkE
Despite the recent scandal that has crept into Happy Valley, I think every sports enthusiast can respect the plain, unnamed uniforms worn by the Penn State football team. If you think the white and navy jerseys are boring, you can, at least, appreciate the reason behind the bare fabric. “It’s not the name on the back that matters, it’s the one on the front!”
This is a slogan that I have lived by during my athletic career. But, after getting married two years ago, I was faced with a decision about what name to put on the back of my shirt. Every time someone would pop the questions, they got my usual answer, “I really don’t care.” For me, I never stepped on the field thinking about what the back of my jersey said or what name appeared in the program. It wasn’t about me!
I watched Joe Paterno’s memorial service on television a week after his death. Some critics thought it was too much for a man that got associated with someone else’s horrific crime. But, for those people that watched that service or attended his funeral, you couldn’t deny the fact that he had an enormously positive impact on so many of his players’ lives. And because of that, it made me think…did he have that same impact on my father?
If you ask my dad, he would not give Joe all the credit for his hard work ethic or his understanding of team before self, but for sure, he would get some. I would guess that he would also give credit to the assistant coaches, his family and other mentors in his life.
If you ask me the same question, the first name that would leave my lips would simply be, my Dad. He is one of the most humbled, hardworking human beings that I have met to date.
In fact, growing up, I would not have known that my dad was a successful football player if it weren’t for the life-sized portrait hanging in our hometown school or the random books that people sent to our house for him to sign.
My Dad lives in the present, not the past. He gets up early, goes to work and stays until his job is finished, even if it means after hours. When he gets home, he has dinner with my Mom and on most nights, they head to a sporting event to support a grandchild or a local team.
He has never wanted the spotlight and never accepted full credit for anything. I did not know him in his football days. But, I predict his athletic mentality simply by knowing him today. I can tell you that he works everyday for his company, not solely to support our family but more importantly because he wants to help the company’s productivity and profitability. He is honest, straightforward, leads by example and only speaks out when he has something important to convey.
Knowing what I know about my father, I can also guesstimate that he would never care what name appears on the back of my jersey.
So, when asked again this year, “what name I want on the back of the uniform,” I hesitated, stuttered and eventually knew that I needed to give an answer. I pondered for a little about my options. I could remain with just ‘Smith’ or keep my maiden name and add the married name. And, my last option would be just a simple P-u-z-o.
The truth is, I could honestly careless. Yet, I still needed to produce an answer. So, like any wife/mother would, I thought of my husband and our children, Xavi Puzo and Ian Puzo. And, in those two things, I found my answer. And, that’s just how my Dad and Mom would want it!
Until Next Time…
Keli Puzo