USA Field Hockey has a smurf Blue astroturfed practice facility on the Campus of North Carolina – Charlotte. Its located 2 hours and 8 minutes away from something that most people will never have to live through.

Head Coach Emily Dinsmore and her Staff recruited this roster from around the World 🌎 on the promise that coming to Boone, North Carolina would be live changing. Nobody could have possibly foreseen the recent events that not only flooded downtown Boone but absolutely leveled neighboring towns.

Central Michigan University and Appalachian State University are getting ready to play a MAC conference game here at 1pm. That’s assuming that everyone can get here safely. Charlotte isn’t the issue, getting here is but I think that escaping the harsh reality of the situation for the next 90 minutes could be just what the Doctor ordered!

Here’s hoping 🙏 for a break from the current situation 🙏…

The path for Central Michigan University to get to Charlotte. Flight ✈️ to Charlottesville ahead of a match at James Madison University. Then it was back to Hooville where the team spent the night 🌙.

The University of Virginia opened their facilities so that the Chippewas could hold a Saturday practice while the dust settled in regards to the flooding in Boone.

Next up, CMU chartered a Bus 🚌 and traveled to High Point, North Carolina. Second Hotel 🏨 of the trip then finish the drive down to the campus of UNCC. After the match the team climbed back on the Bus 🚌 for the short ride over to CLT and then a flight ✈️ back to Michigan.

Next up, the officials. Bob Bowden and Craig Kalbfleisch live in Louisville, Kentucky. The left their home town after being green lighted by ASU, got within shouting distance of Boone before be turned back. They then circled back to try a second option but once again were turned back and this time returned to the Bluegrass state.

The next time they left it was on a Jet Airliner ( Steve Miller Band).

Mentioning Louisville, the opponent for our Friday match was Bellamine, the second most famous school in Louisville. Their team was already in Boone at a Hotel 🏨 on Thursday night as they were slated to play Friday in Boone and then Sunday at Davidson College.

Stuck in a Hotel 🏨 with no power and no food, Bellamine (pronounced Bell-ah-men) hung out and did the best the could. While we were busy playing Central Michigan University today they were 21 miles to the north at Davidson. The homesteading Wildcats held on for a 2-1 victory, the identical score as our victory over CMU.

The Bellamine website now lists Davidson campus as the host site for tomorrow’s make up match. That was a possibility because the field at UNCC wasn’t in a position to be watered, which is a major part of playing Field Hockey on astroturf.

Exit Davidson (the team, but not the School) and Central Michigan University from the equation. Now its time for Bellamine – App State tomorrow at Noon, location to be determined shortly.

Next up we need to explain why there’s a facility for Field Hockey 🏑 on a college campus that doesn’t field a team ?

It’s the Training center for the USA National 🇺🇸 team. The facility is designed for practice and drills but not necessarily for matches. There are no Bleachers or concessions and as we noticed, no Flag pole. But the folks there were Top Shelf in making the field available to us on very little notice. Incredibly Gracious folks for sure.

Bellamine has to be worn out and ready to go back to Kentucky. App State doesn’t have much of a Home to go to right now and that’s why getting to play a game had to help our mindset or as I said earlier, therapeutic.

When our Coach was visiting our players in their homes back before they committed to App State, I feel there wasn’t a page in the brochure mentioning Mud Slides or flooding included.

Coach Dinsmore and her staff were very present today for a group of College Student Athletes that have had their Worlds 🌎 turned upside down this week and I am pretty sure that they are better for it.

Tune in tomorrow for the next page in the journey !