So far this year has turned out to be way more than I had could have ever dreamed. To sum up this year in a few paragraphs would be impossible so I will try to hit the key points. As of August 24th I became a member of the 2009-2010 National Team. That morning he called us all together into a room. You could hear a pin drop...40 girls all waiting to hear whether they were going back to their normal life or going on to be a part of something new and amazing. He gave a little speech then started off with the goalies. I knew I had a great try-out but I was the new kid maybe they would stay with what they were comfortable with and stick with their other goalies they used in the past. "Vetter.....Shaus......McLaughlin" I don't remember any other name read off that sheet of paper. It was a feeling of relief and excitement at the same time. I sent off a text to my parents, brother, and a few close friends. In a matter of minutes I got messages back from everyone I've ever met in my life. This is my first year on the national team so I didn't know what to expect going into it. All I knew was that it was going to be the experience of a lifetime and I was going to try to make the most of it. The team was right away very supportive and accepted me to the new clan.
The season started off full force before I could even get a grasp on what had actually happened. We started with a trip to Vancouver for the Canada Cup; eight thousand crazy Canadians filled almost the whole lower bowl of the Canucks Arena. Far more fans than I had ever seen at a women's hockey game (later broken by close to a 17,000 fan showing in Ottawa). We ended up winning gold for my first gold medal. After Vancouver we got a chance to go home and relax for a week and see our family. I flew back to Moon first to celebrate with another close family, my old team here at Robert Morris. Once I got back to Minnesota we got a chance to settle in and start training! Training with these girls was pretty different ha. Their speed, passing, and shooting were unbelievable. Sometimes I found myself just watching in awe at the things they could do. Then we headed to the weight room and it continued. I was testing in bench press at a max 1 rep and the trainer thought I was warming up ha. Unfortunately, that's all I could put up. Then I looked over at some of the older girls and they were benching the same weight I was squatting. So basically that means my legs could function as their arms.(I've got a lot of work to do to catch up!)
Anyway, in November we got a chance to travel to Finland. I had never been out of the country (besides Canada but that doesn't count). It was cool to be somewhere new but it wasn't very different than it is here. The next few months were kind of a blur. We traveled around made some appearances and autograph signings. They named the final team on December 16th and took us to the Mall of America to do the official release of the Olympic roster. That was neat. The camera crew was the guys who had filmed shows like: The Deadliest Catch, Little People Big World, Deal or No Deal, and stuff like that, so we got to ask them all about that. After Christmas break it was back to MN to prepare for Vancouver. We played a couple boys teams to get used to the faster speed we were going to face against Canada. We came out to 60 kids holding a huge flag that took up the whole neutral zone the one game and everyone chanting "USA!!! USA!!!" I LOVE that. That's been one of my favorite feelings of this whole experience. After the games we do some autograph signings. It's so cute to see the little kids come up to the table.
The last week in MN we had a challenge week and the team was split into three teams (red, white, and blue obviously). The first day we had to get in a full sweat suit and do relays in the pool. Not easy swimming in sweats! My team ended up sweeping the day with 200 points. By the end of the week we ran through snow carrying heavy objects jumping and weaving through obstacles, pulled 160 lbs all over a parking lot 12 times, flipped a 250 lb tire back and forth 50 yards 12 times, and pushed an F250 truck around a parking lot. We ended up winning and got a surprise once we got to CO.
I've been living with my MN family since September which actually ended up being my mom's cousin and her family, so I lucked out finding somewhere to live out there. But I had to move all my things out the last day which was pretty sad but I will see them when I'm done here. I got to go home for my final visit before Vancouver. The first night I went to the girls game at the island and dropped the puck for them against Sacred Heart (whom they smoked.). It was nice to see everyone again, and meet a bunch of new people! The support from everyone has been unbelievable, from hockey to the nursing program and the entire community. The next day I made my way back to Ohio to see my family. The local bar my parents and their friends go to put on a send off fundraiser for me and my family to raise money to help cover the cost of everyone coming to support me in Vancouver. I got a chance to see a ton of people I haven't seen in years. A lot of old hockey parents and schoolmates were there too. My coaches from RMU and Hamer also made the trip from Moon, which was really nice.
From there I came straight to CO to the Olympic Training Center. I'd never been here so I was excited to see the facility I've heard so much about. It's amazing here and the food is awesome! This week has been the most fun. I don't even know why. Everyone is in such a good mood, probably just excited to go to Vancouver. We've gone to some guys college games, played Finland, went out to dinner a few times, who knows what else, I'm blanking...it's gone by so fast. Our game last night was on the NHL network and we won 5-1, we played great! We leave on Sunday for the village and go through registration right away where we get 100 articles of clothing or something crazy like that. So I'm really looking forward to my new wardrobe ha. I'll fill everyone in again once I get to the village and maybe include some pictures. Maybe of me and Sid the Kid on a date ;) just kidding ...he's Canadian!
