It's finally sinking in

it's over.

It's been a great run, and if I could go back and redo the past three years of being a part of this team I don't think I would change one damn thing.

I won't lie I gave up touches, I blew bouts I could have won, I wasn't perfect. but I always came through in the end.

I caught up with everyone else. Tim, Kevin, Austin, they all had a years head start on me and they all got lessons outside of practice. not me. I wish I could have, maybe I could have, but my brother always had something going on for lacrosse or there was something long term that would get in the way. but despite their head start I caught up and I held my own. I proved myself time and time again, I caught up maybe even surpassed some of them.

if i could change something I would have started freshman year.

other than that though i have no regrets. I worked my way up from nothing but potential to the point where I was the one who kept us in state teams until the very end. did I mention that? at the start of my 2nd and 3rd bouts we were down by one win, and my victory in those bouts tied us up with NFA both times.

I was the only one to get two wins against NFA.

Kevin was so close but at the end with a 4 1 lead two sayings collided, "pride cometh before the fall" and "it ain't over till the fat lady sings". when the score reached 4 4 it was already over for us.

it's an unfortunate habit of Kevin's I recently picked up on, if something fails he will try it over and over again until it works even if it costs him the bout. I noticed it first when I got past his flicks the other day, when I beet him for the first time. then I saw it again at the start of states when he was warming up he did the same thing with Tim. then in that last bout he just kept doing the same thing over and over. but like Albert Einstein said "insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results" or something like that anyway. well he was right. the results were the same each time Kevin tried his infighting move the difference in the score's got smaller.

so we lost, the rides over, I've had my fun and now I've got to move on.

I don't want to move on, these people, this team, they have been such a huge part of my life that I hate to think that after this we will all be going our own ways, that I might never see some of them again after this year. I hate it!

this isn't some massive group with 20 or 30 people plus as many over for jv and novice. it's 16 fencers and 3 coaches 4 if you count Bronwin's Dad. I don't want to say goodbye to any of them!

they made me who I am today, especially coach Floyd and coach Lindenberger. but also Austin, Kevin, Tim, Patrick, Sarah, Colin, Bronwin, Ben, Kyle, "armorer" Ashly, Elizabeth, Dave, Paty, Addy, Andrew, Rob, Sarah W, Timmy, Conway, Erin, hell even the insanely annoying Dru and the downright insane Zack, have played a part in making me who I am today.