Sparks Notes: March 18, 2008

“There’s No Place Like Home”

One of my favorite parts of lacrosse season is the fact that we travel all over the country and see different schools and regions. Last year we were able to spend Spring Break in California and check out the beautiful campuses of Stanford, UC Davis and Cal Berkeley, as well the great city of San Francisco. This year, we flew out to the mountains of Colorado for a game against Denver, and we were swept away by the gorgeous scenery. While it may not have been the typical college spring break as seen on MTV, we all enjoyed a little time away from Storrs.

While in Denver, we got a taste of Greek food at the restaurant of Ashley Mitchelides’ uncle, where we also celebrated Katie Devaney’s birthday. The next day, we had the pleasure of venturing into the mountains of Colorado Springs for a fun day at the home of Kati Kasch. On the way, we passed Pike’s Peak, which was barely visible through the clouds in which it stands, as well as the Air Force Academy. We were also lucky enough to stop in the Garden of the Gods, a national monument in Colorado’s mountains in which unique and remarkable natural rock formations exist. As we would have had it no other way, the coaches let us stop the bus and get out for a photo opp. with the scenery in the background. We finally put the cameras away, however, and made it to Kasch’s house to enjoy some good food and hang out. Activities included the second photo shoot of the day, a Chubby Bunny contest and a “Cheer-Off” between Kim and Carly (which, fortunately, was documented for the review of UConn’s cheerleading squad).

At the end of break, we were able to visit another one of our teammate’s homes. We had a team dinner at Laura Eichert’s house in Baltimore, Maryland before our game at Loyola. It’s always fun to spend time at our teammate’s houses, as we get a chance to not only see where they come from, but also to find as many embarrassing pictures as possible. The search was easy at Ike’s house when we uncovered a folder of her senior pictures, which featured a variety of uncharacteristic poses, the most notable of which being a smile. Molly even managed to leave with a couple of them for further embarrassment purposes.

Overall, we enjoyed some warm weather and sun in both Denver and Baltimore and were able to spend some time together, off the lacrosse field. Even though only two people were able to make it to their own homes, the rest of us were still made to feel right at home. Many of our families were able to make it to both Kasch and Ike’s houses, which allowed everyone in the UConn Lacrosse community to spend time getting to know each other a little better. Kim McGinty has assumed the role of “historian,” and is working on getting pictures together from the trip to post and share as memories of our spring break, so look for them to be up soon!