Katie Ardrey's merica
Letter from America.
After An Autumn term dominAted By competition then A trip home to englAnd for christmAs, kAtie Ardrey is now finding life A little more relAxing At the uniVersity of north cArolinA. But there is still plenty of hockey for the teddington plAyer, And englAnd junior who is At unc on An Athletic scholArship.
A
fter the snow at Heathrow caused a lot of stress in December, my desperation to get home paid off and I spent a great Christmas
break with my relieved family. I’m back on the beautiful campus of UNC-chapel hill and spring semester is well underway. Spring training has begun and with only three practices a week it gives us plenty of time to relax! Due the cold weather (12 °C in January doesn’t seem too bad to me!) we are currently playing a lot of indoor hockey. Competitive indoor is one of the things I miss most about the English hockey circuit so playing indoor on a regular basis for a few weeks is something I am really enjoying. When the weather picks up we will go back outside and will do a lot of game play. We are a completely new team with a bright future, but the spring is a time where we start build the connections that we lost due to the graduation of our seniors. Of all the campuses I have seen
since being in the states, UNC is the prettiest! Obviously I am biased, but to many it is known as the “Southern part of heaven”! The facilities are none like I have never seen before and currently our football stadium is getting a complete renovation of the east side. Along with an addition of 9,000 seats to the current 60,000, us ‘smaller’ sports are getting a new, state of the art strength and conditioning center, fit with weights, cardio equipment and an indoor training track. A new academic center will also be built where we can go at almost any time of the day to get help from tutors or to do work. Sport at Carolina is much bigger than
I could have ever imagined and Tar Heel fans are some of the most loyal in the country. Basketball season started before Christmas and the games are so much fun! Just over 20,000 people fit into the Dean Smith Center to watch our men’s basketball team play throughout the spring and the atmosphere is amazing! It’s a real American experience to watch cheerleaders and the band play our ‘fight song’. The game goes out live to
thousands on ESPN and the crowd goes crazy when ‘jump around’ is blared from the sound system and the team get ready to play. Unfortunately I came one year too late to experience the 2009 team winning the National Championship, when around 60,000 people flocked to the campus and lined the main street—Franklin street. Bonfires broke out and people were sitting on the tops of lamp posts painting the signs Carolina Blue. Since 2009 the team hasn’t been so good but I am still hoping that I will get to experience the celebrations at some point! Spring break is only 5 weeks away
and I will be flying over to San Diago and LA to visit some friends and experience college life on the west coast. After that I will knuckle down in the classroom and enjoy Carolina in the sunshine! It’s an exciting time and I can’t believe I will be in my third year in September. It won’t be long before I’m wearing graduation robes and throwing my hat into the air like in all the American movies! But for now I am just enjoying the whole experience in a great part of the world.
UNC Athletic Communications
The UNC Campus is one of the prettiest in the United States
llllllllllllllllllllll PLANET HOCKEY
llllllllllllllllllllll PUSH PAGE 33
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