Day 8 – Saturday, 10th July 2010
(Final Day)
We had the choice of a lie in this morning, but we all made the decision to make the most of our trip and get on the ice for some fun games. We got to put our hands on sticks for the 1st time, much to the delight of some including me. We had some obstacle courses and I recall rolling along the ice between the red and blue line. Then a few times with the sticks. We then took our daily game of handball to the extreme… and added sticks!!! It was good fun and everyone enjoyed it. Nobody got seriously hurt by the way!
Back to the classroom again for the 6th day; it was a shorter session as the games were held earlier in the afternoon than usual since the closing ceremony was being held that night. We discussed things which we were not completely certain about: we talked about game winning penalties again as it was causing confusion for some. One thing we learned was that you have to switch the order of taker after the first 3 shots are taken. Now we know for sure, right girls 🙂
We also talked about how if your helmet comes off you cannot put it on and continue play; you must come off even if you do have it on again. We also spoke about throwing the stick and having 2 sticks in your hand, which caused major confusion, but is clear now! You can have 2 sticks, just as long as you don’t take part or try to take part in the play of the game. We were also shown where to find the game officials handbook on the IIHF website (www.iihf.com).
The closing ceremony was then held later on that night. We had a lovely meal and all the teams including ourselves, equipment managers and team leaders all had our little party pieces to show off. It started off with the teams and then to us. We all stood up at the top of the hall with our jerseys on us and our hands behind our backs. Karolin (Sweden) introduced us to the rest of the teams / personnel there and our conductor Jacqui raised her arms, and we all raised our whistles to our lips. The reaction by the audience was amazing, even before we blew our whistles!!! Then we started into our fantastic song. We played ‘Mary had a little lamb’ with our whistles, of course recorded by the teams and can currently be found on YouTube if you fancy it.
All in all, it was a fantastic week had by all and I really enjoyed it. The girls, the instructors, the IIHF staff, everyone was amazing. I can’t wait to meet everyone again and hopefully sooner rather then later.
A week I will never forget and never want to forget.