Tuesday 1st September
The squad were reunited at the airport on Monday afternoon, with several of the girls travelling from Belfast, Kilkenny and even Canada (welcome back Joanne). Needless to say we were proud to be sporting the recently distributed team kit (complete with Team Ireland Jacket!), and happy to tell anyone who asked about the upcoming tournament. Having arrived safe and sound in Norrkoping later that night and settled into our ‘chalets’, we were eager to get on the ice first thing on Tuesday morning.
The sun shone to greet us and we had a beautiful sunny day to kick off our week in Sweden. The morning session began with a light jog and some sprints and stretches to warm up. On the ice, Sean put us through our paces, with a great variety of skating, shooting and pick-up using a Lacrosse ball! The Lacrosse style hockey was a big hit with us all and gave us plenty of laughs and a chance to adjust to the hard ice, before moving on to more serious stuff.
After morning ice, Team Sunbathing and Team Nap-time were on the agenda, before returning to the rink for an afternoon of tactics and positional play. Later in the evening Elaine took some of the junior members …allegedly to the shop….but somehow it turned into talent-spotting the local underage boy’s team! The girls were suitably impressed, with Clara even offering to hold the door to the rink open for the boys as the session came to an end. After Elaine eventually managed to persuade our juniors that it was time to go, the girls took the opportunity to check out the local soccer team who were training in the fields next to the rink!!!
Back at base, Starpucks had set up shop and was in full operation at chalet number 4, manned by Kate, Beatty, Amie and Cherise serving hot coffee and tea complete with biscuits and tunes…. but no Broadband (Sort it out girls!!!).