Entry #2 - My journey - Sport - Split SeaWolves - 1st Season Ever

Hello fellow Steemians, in my first entry I talked how I met my new love, Split SeaWolves! If you want to know more about it and FEEL this entry MORE, check it here
https://steemit.com/blog/@whack.science/entry-1-my-journey-sport-split-seawolves

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It was September 2013, and we were practicing hard, studying our Playbook as never before. We even had meetings prior to our journey to Sarajevo. Even though nobody, but literally nobody ever played football we were so hyped! I don't know if this was the mixture of love, passion and hard work that made us feel that way, but we thought we can come home with a win.

We were ALL IN BABY!

We had this BIG luck that earlier before preseason we contacted HiS Print Ministries (http://www.hisprint.org/). They are lovely people who helped us by donating football equipment. And they've been doing this today also. Couldn't thank them enough. Even though we were ready to go, some of the players didn't have their leg pads, so we needed to improvise a little. My friend and I bought some solid sponges and cut them and used them for protection. LOL what a protection that was :)

So, we were ready. Were we? Well, we thought we were

It was the morning and my alarm clock went on. Like I was sleeping at all. Pumped up, hyped up, hungry for that WIN. My feelings were all over me, I was shaking like crazy. It was time to take off and head for Sarajevo. I took my pads and my helmet, my two shields but at the same time my two weapons. It was the first time I tried a contact sport, and I'm really not an aggressive person, but it really felt I was going to WAR.

We took on a journey we will never forget

We drove nearly 5 hours, crossed the border and came to Sarajevo. First I was astonished by its beauty and the feel you get when you're there. But, I didn't want to distract myself and make myself weak. It was like a Wartime for me, I was all into it. I knew if my mind is focused I will be a better teammate.

Veni, Vidi, Vici?

Finally! I said to myself, while in the dressing room hour and a half before the game. This is the moment I've been waiting for. The time, when I can give my all for my brothers, has come. You must know that in football if you're not prepared to die for your teammates, you may as well not play. This is the rule #1 for me. And I was willing, oh boy I was willing. You know when you're in love you will do anything. Well, I felt that way, I was willing to die for love.

The strenght of the wolf is the pack, the strenght of the pack is the wolf

After warming up, we had a motivational speech by our captain and we started the game. After few downs ( in football you have 4 downs (times) to win 10 yards ) guess what happened? Their quarterback threw an interception, and not even that, it was PICK SIX!!! ( pick six is when you intercept a ball from opponents and you score a Touchdown or 6 points )

We were all over the place, we thought that's that, we're winning this

But, after some plays, Sarajevo Spartans put us in our place. They scored 2 TDs and even though we had one more interception we were struggling before halftime. I was playing both ways ( offense/defense ) and it really affected my condition. It was really hard but I needed to give all for my team. As game come to an end we were relieved somehow. We lost by one TD or 6 points, but we were happy we're alive and well. Just after the game, we realized how tough and rough this sport can be. We were not prepared as we thought we were but we made it!

If you ask me would I do it again, my answer, in a blink of a second, is YES! ALL THE WAY!

Did you think we only play one game per day? xD... Nope, we played the game after. It was against Brčko District Giants. You know, we wanted them not to be giants, but we were wrong. They were BIG boys :D! We also struggled a lot with them, but they were not good as Sarajevo Spartans, so we managed to WIN our first game ever. We were so happy! Some of us injured, some full of blood, some with broken fingers, we were ONE in this and we celebrated it like crazy.

We came back to our hometown Split like winners. We were full of emotions and love for one another, we were on TOP of the WORLD! We couldn't wait to go back to Sarajevo and play 2nd tournament and see who will play in the finals. We experienced two games, and that gave us some additional courage. We didn't win against Sarajevo but nothing could stop us now to think that we can make it to the Finals. We thought we deserved it and we knew we're gonna need to fight much more.

The 2nd tournament was to be played for 2 weeks, but it didn't happen

Fortunately for us, Brčko District Giants left tournament because of the money issues. Money was a problem and still is, for football clubs in this area. I was kinda sad but I knew we're in Finals and we're gonna play in front of our fans, in my hometown, so it got me motivated more. The game was in 3 weeks and we had more preparations to do than ever. We changed our playbook a bit, and we started to really push hard on practice. Every drill and every move was done 100%, no IFs or WHATs, we were practicing as it was the end of the days :)

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I will stop here and continue in my Entry #3. I will talk about the Finals and who won it. If you liked my story, feel free to follow me for more! Until then...

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Sources:
http://www.udaljenosti.com/udaljenost_split_sarajevo/
Photos by Andrea Rušinović ( these photos are mine )

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Thanks for reading, good day or good evening! Oh, and don't forget to spread LOVE! ;)

Cheers, Luka.