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Behind the Scenes with Women's Soccer
March 02, 2013 | Women's Soccer
March 1, 2013
Throughout the spring semester, GoCards.com will provide weekly updates on the Louisville women's soccer program in the "Behind the Scenes" blog. For the month of March, Megan Berberich gives a glimpse into the world of the Cardinals.
COLD TO THE BONE...by Megan Berberich
As a team, we try to do as many volunteer activities as our schedules allow, and often they involve helping other physically or mentally disadvantaged athletes. One popular event we like to help out with is wheelchair basketball. Kim Sharo, Zakiya McIntosh, Emily Cardell, Chelsea Hunter, Rachel Melhado, Julie Casselman and Shannon Dennehey, to name a few, have all gone to these events. However, recently several of us did something a little different to help other athletes and give back to the community.
On Saturday, Feb. 23, several members of your one and only UofL women's soccer team participated in the 15th Annual Polar Bear Plunge in Louisville. This event is exactly what it sounds like. It consists of jumping into freezing cold water, but that is not all there is to it. The Polar Bear Plunge is a fundraising opportunity for Special Olympics that occurs in various locations throughout the state. All participants of the plunge fundraise a minimum of 75 dollars that goes directly to the Special Olympics. As athletes, this is a great opportunity for us to give back to another athletic community. We are privileged to get to play the sport we love every day, and this event gave us a way to give other athletes an opportunity to compete and participate in events and games that they enjoy doing as well. It was a fun way to get involved in the community, and was a bit of a personal challenge as well.
Nicole Mitchell, Julie Casselman, Rachel Melhado and myself all made the plunge last Saturday into the 39 degrees F (for any Canadian readers that's about 3.9 degress C) water of the Ohio River (Devyn Ciotti also fundraised and was there but was unable to actually jump). For those of you who have never jumped into water of this temperature, let me fill you in on some of the thoughts and feelings throughout the experience.
Pre-jump: "Look at how tough we are jumping into this cold water."
Mid-jump: Screams, all feelings of toughness eliminated
In the water: There are no thoughts or feelings due to a frozen brain. Instinct kicks in to swim to the ladder as fast as numb arms and legs will let you.
Out of the water: Relief, "That was colder than I thought it would be!" and pride for actually following through, "Get me into warm, dry clothes NOW."
Post-jump: I think all of us can say that we are very glad we didn't chicken out, and we decided to participate again. Hopefully get even more people to join us next year.
Stay tuned in until next week for the next update on your UofL women's soccer team! Until then, GO CARDS!!
