AWAY GAMES

In grade seven, you are elligable, to participate, in the schools athletic program. This is a big deal, the first year, you can compete, in away game athletic competitions, hosted at other state blind schools, over the weekend. Track meets, were held in the fall, cheerleading competitions, were held in the winter. For track and cheerleading, I stayed at school, for six weeks. The Tennessee School for the Blind, was a seven hour bus ride. The Illinious School for the Blind, was a five hour bus ride. The Kentucky School for the blind, was a three hour bus ride. The track meet championship, was held in Tennessee. The cheerleading championship, was held at the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind, a sixteen hour bus ride.

The highlight of the track and cheerleading seasons, was to be selected to compete in away game competitions, hosted at other state blind schools, over the weekend. The day before the team left for the competition, the coaches would decide, which athletes would represent the school at the competition. All day I hoped that my name would be called to represent the school. After practice, the coaches announced who would be competing over the weekend. When my name was called, I was so surprised and excited, that I started running back towards the school to tell my friends. That night, I called home to tell my mom that I had made the away game team, would not be coming home that weekend.

The Friday that the athletic team left for the away game, started out like any other day at school. My alarm clock woke me up, I got dressed and made my bed. I walked down to breakfast in the dining room. After breakfast, I returned to the dorm to get my books for school. At 8 am I went to school, I attended Home room, Social Studies and Math class, part way through math class, my teacher told me to head to the gym. When I went to the gym, the coaches did a roll call to make sure everyone was there. We took our lugage out to the bus, the coaches made sure our names were on our bags, the bus driver loaded our bags in the bend under the bus. When we got on the bus, I got seats with my friend Jessica, roll call was taken once again, the bus finally started moving, left the parking lot at school. The bus was real neat, we had reclining seats, a foot rest, a reading light over the seat, there was even a bathroom at the back of the bus. I slept on the bus, then talked to Jessica on the way to the school. The bus stopped at a McDonald's for lunch. The bus stopped, we went inside and stood around for a while waiting to order our burgers and fries. There were so many of us that it took FOREVER to get any food. For lunch, I ordered an Extra Value meal with a Coke. Jessica and I found a table, talked for a while in the restraunt. After we were through eating, we got back on the bus, to continue traveling to the school.

The campus, looked different from my campus. The buildings were not all connected by tunnels. Every building was seperate, you went to the different buildings for different reasons. When we first arrived at the school, the coaches told the girls to get off the bus, we grabbed our lugage from under the bus, the female staff did roll call, lead us into the dormitory. We were lead upstairs to a long corridor, filled with girls from all over the midwest, every one was carrying lugage and being shown to a door. The staff kept telling us to stay together and to keep moving down the corridor. The staff finally stopped, towards the end of the corridor, at a section labeled Indiana, there were twelve doors in our section of the corridor. The staff told a high school girl and I to enter the fourth door on the left. The room I entered was a cheerful looking bedroom, the room had two beds, dressers, closets, benches, night stands and a desk in the corner of the room. There were two sliding doors that connected the bathroom to each bedroom. The first time I went to use the bathroom, I almost forgot to shut the second bedrooms sliding door. The bathroom had double sinks, a long counter, a bathtub and tiolet. At this school four girls shared the same bathroom. After I looked around the bedroom and bathroom, I started to unpack my bag, the locker was locked, so all of my clothes went in the dresser drawers. I barely had time to unpack, when the staff started knocking on doors, telling us it was time to head to dinner. We were towards the end of the corridor, we had to wait for everyone else to leave, before we were able to start moving down the corridor and downstairs, to our waiting bus outside. When we made it outside, roll call was taken once again, then we boarded the bus to dinner.

When we arrived at the caffeteria building, we went inside, were seated at a group of tables labeled Indiana. We had to wait for our school to be called, before we were able to get any food. For meals at this school, you took a tray, went though the food service line, our staff showed us our tables, where we could eat our dinner. The cooks at my school served us our meals at our tables. When we were done eating, we had to take our trays to the tray return window, where someone was waiting to take and clean the dirty trays.

After dinner, roll call was taken once again, we got back on the bus. I thought we were going back to our rooms for the night. The bus took us to a building, where even before I was off the bus, I could hear loud music playing. The coaches said the host school was having a welcome dance for all of the athletes. We went inside the activity building, the music was so loud that you could hardly hear yourself think. The inside was just a large open room full of people. People were dancing in the center of the room. Tables and chairs were placed around the perimeter of the room, if you wanted to talk or for when you got tired of dancing. A corner of the room had tables piled full of snack foods, cookies, chips, pops and candy bars. I did not feel like dancing, I just wondered around the room looking at everything that was happening around me. I found a corner that had a video game, unfortunately the machine was not pluggeed in. Another corner had pop machines and a water fountain. I got tired of wondering around, decided to get some food, a drink, sit down and listen to the music for a while. The dance was over before I knew what had happened, the music was shut off, the coaches were telling us that we had to head back to our rooms for the night. We went back on the bus, roll call was taken once again. By the time we were back in our section of the dorm, I was getting very tired, I went to my room and went straight to bed.

Early the next morning, someone knocked on our door to tell us that we had to get up, to start getting ready to leave the dorm for breakfast. The night before, after the dance, the staff gave us our track uniform and warm up clothes. The track unniform was a green shirt and shorts that said I.S.B, in white letters, across the the front. The warm-up suit was green with Indiana in white letters down the left leg I put my track uniform on and made my bed, when I went in to brush my teeth, there were two other girls at the counter putting on there make-up, it was really crowded in the bathroom. The staff started knocking on doors, telling us it was time to head to breakfast. When we were on the bus roll call was taken once again, then the bus went to the caffeteria building for breakfast. The routine is the same for all meals at this school, you take a tray, went though the food service line, when you were done eating, you take the tray to the tray return window, where someone was waiting to take and clean the dirty trays. When we were on the bus after breakfast, roll call was taken once again, then the bus went to the gym building.

We went inside the gym building, the coaches lead us in warm-up stretches, then said when our events were scheduled that day. My events were the Four-Forty yard dash, the Sixty yard dash and the Three jump. The coaches had us jog from the gym to the track and field area. When we got to the track, the coaches told us to line up in rows four across behind the Illinious team. There were two highschool students holding up a banner that said Indiana. When the music started playing we were to march once around the track and stop at the start line behind Illinious. I felt so proud marching around the track, representing my school in track and field. Someone spoke of how they hoped all of the athletes had a fun day of competition, everyone cheered and clapped, the track meet had officially started. The Four-Forty yard dash was the first running event of the day. The Four-Forty is a race where you run back and forth four times on the straight track, this is a very long and tiring event, since you have to stop running at each end of the track to turn around, before you can run back to the opposite end of the track. I was very excited and starting to get a little nervous about the race. A staff member took me to the track, where I started to do some warm-up stretches. My name was called, the staff said to go on the track, someone said which lane I would be in, then said to go to the starting line. A runner for Illinious and Ohio were on either side of me. My nerves were no longer bothering me, I was just hoping that I did good in the race. The starting pistol fired and I took off, I was not concerned about how the other runners were doing in the race, I just wanted to turn around as fast as possible at the other end of the track. My legs started to feel real heavy halfway through lap three, I ignored my legs and kept on running, halfway through lap four my side started hurting, I kept thinking all I have to do is make this next turn around then I would be on the home stretch, the finish line was in sight, when I crossed the finish line I felt so excited and proud, I did not even care that I came in last place, I just felt good to have finished the race. A staff member congradulated me on running a good race, then I had a drink of water. I hardly had time to rest, before it was time for me to do the Sixty yard dash. My first thought was I cannot do another race, I can hardly walk after the Four-Forty. I knew that I had to race, so I slowly started walking back to the track. where I started to do some warm up stretches. My name was called, the staff said to go on the track, someone said which lane I would be in, then said to go to the starting line. A runner for Kentucky and Alabama were on either side of me. The finish line did not look very far away from me. I was just hoping that I did good in the race. The starting pistol fired and I took off, I was not concerned about how the other runners were doing in the race, I just wanted to get to the finish line as fast as possible. When I crossed the finish line, I felt so proud, I did not even care that I came in fifth place, I just felt good to have finished the race. My staff congradulated me on running a good race, then I had a drink of water. After my last event, I walked around the field for a I had some time before my last event, I walked around the field for a while, looking at all the different events and teams. My last event was the 440 yard dash. My teacher took me to the track, where I started to do some warm up stretches, I was very excited but no longer nervous about the race, I had already done one event on this track. My name was called, my teacher told me to go on the track, someone told me which lane I would be in, told me to go to the starting line. The finish line did not look very far away from me. I was just hoping that I did good in the race. The starting pistol fired and I took off, I was not concerned about how the other runners were doing in the race, I just wanted to get to the finish line as fast as possible. When I crossed the finish line, I felt so excited and proud, I did not even care that I came in fifth place, I just felt good to have finished the race. My teacher congradulated me on a good race, then I had a drink of water. My staff said that it was almost time for lunch, I went back to the track, where the rest of my team was assembling, the coaches lead us to the bus. When we were on the bus roll call was taken once again, then the bus went to the caffeteria building for lunch. After competing all morning, it felt good to be able to sit down for a while to eat some food, I did not know how tird I was until I was eating my lunch. After eating for a while, I felt rested and ready to compete in my last event. When we were on the bus after lunch, roll call was taken once again, then the bus went to the athletic field. The Tripple jump was the first event of the afternoon, my last event of the day. The triple jump is an event where you hop forward three times on one leg, then you jump into a sand area. A staff member took me to the Tripple Jump, where I stood around for a while whatching people rake the sand clean. This event was easy, I was not nervous. My name was called, my staff said to go to the jump area, someone said to wait until they said it was all right to jump. I hopped three times then jumped into the sand area. My staff congradulated me, then I had a drink of water. After my last event, I walked around the field for a while, looking at all the different events and teams. The High jump was neat to watch, I could not figure out how they were able to jump so high up in the air. The people who did the Shot Put must have been very strong, it looked very heavy. The track and field events were coming to an end, my team assembled on the track. Someone spoke of how all of the athletes should be congradulated for representing there school in a fine day of competition, everyone cheered and clapped, the track meet had officially come to an end. The coaches lead us to the bus. When we were on the bus roll call was taken once again, the coaches said how proud they were of each and everyone of us, we did our very best today, then the bus went to the dorm.

The first thing I wanted to do when I went back to my room was take a shower, unfortunately I had to turn in my track uniform and warm-up suit first. When I went back to my room I was third in line for the shower, so I had to wait for what seemed like FOREVER before I could get my shower. When I got out, it felt so nice to be clean. The staff started knocking on doors, telling us it was time to head to dinner. When we made it outside, roll call was taken once again, then we boarded the bus to dinner. When we arrived at the caffeteria, it felt good to be able to sit down for a while to eat some food, I did not know how tird I was until I was eating my dinner.

After dinner, roll call was taken once again, we got back on the bus. I thought we were going back to our rooms for the night. The bus went to the activity building for another dance. I can not dance, I decided to dance tonight, since it was my last night at this school. I danced, until my legs were so tired, that I was barely able to stand. I went to get some food, a drink, sit down and listen to the music for a while. The dance was over before I knew what had happened, the music was shut off, the coaches were telling us that we had to head back to our rooms for the night. We went back on the bus, roll call was taken once again. By the time we were back in our section of the dorm, I was getting very tired, I went to my room and went straight to bed.

Early the next morning, someone knocked on our door to tell us that we had to get up, to start getting ready to leave the dorm for breakfast. I got dressed and made my bed. The staff started knocking on doors, telling us it was time to head to breakfast. When we were on the bus roll call was taken once again, then the bus went to the caffeteria for breakfast. When we were on the bus after breakfast, roll call was taken once again, then the bus went back to the dorm. When we were in our door section, the staff told us to take the sheets off our bed, put them in the basket at the end of the hallway. We were told to pack our bags, double check our rooms to make sure we did not forget anything. I cleaned out all of my belongings from the dresser I was using for the weekend, placed them in my bag, I went to the bathroom to make sure there was nothing in there that belonged to me. The staff came to our room to make sure we did not forget anything. The staff started knocking on doors, telling us it was time to get our bags and leave this school.

We took our lugage out to the bus, the coaches made sure our names were on our bags, the bus driver loaded our bags in the bend under the bus. When we got on the bus, I got seats with my friend Jessica, roll call was taken once again, the bus finally started moving, left the school. I slept on the bus, then we talked on the way to the school for the blind. The bus stopped at a McDonald's for lunch. The bus stopped, we went inside and stood around for a while waiting to order our burgers and fries. There were so many of us that it took FOREVER to get any food. For lunch, I ordered an Extra Value meal with a Coke. Jessica and I found a table, talked for a while in the restraunt. After we were through eating, we got back on the bus, to continue traveling back to our school. When we arrived back at our school, the bus driver unloaded our bags from under the bus, the coaches sent us back to our dorms.