Oct. 16, 2012

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LONG BEACH - The Long Beach State women's basketball team spent a weekend in Lake Arrowhead for its annual team retreat, Oct. 5-7. Senior Mary Ochiltree took some time to reflect on the 49ers' weekend adventures.

49er Women's Basketball Team Retreat - Lake Arrowhead
Our team retreat started with the presentation of our new locker room. We had been waiting for the unveiling for a long time and it more than exceeded our expectations. Everyone was excited to take the tour and learn about how everything works, as well as pick out our lockers. After a brief admiration of our new sanctuary we hit the road "jack and don't you come back no more"... oh wait that's a song... "I gotta stop; I gotta come to my senses, I've been out riding fences for so long now"... oops I did it again! The car ride was full of great music, sing-a-longs and laughs. We arrived at Alpine Camp and Conference Center just in time for dinner. After we got settled in to our cabin we got together and shared our personal items of significance that we all brought. This was a great way to start the weekend, allowing us to open up to one another.

The next day we woke up early and had breakfast. After breakfast we met with our camp leader for the day who talked to us about our focus for the day, which was trust. All of our activities were based on building trust with one another. We started with trust falls and a human ladder. Initially, a few of my teammates struggled with having the confidence to embrace the challenge. Eventually, with encouraging words from each other and a little bit of faith, everyone completed the activities.

We moved on to the high ropes challenges including: the Leap of Faith, Tree of Life, Upward Call, Narrow Way, Indiana Jones, and Centurion. Chantel was the first one to take the Leap of Faith, which was climbing up a telephone pole, standing on the top, and diving to catch a trapeze six feet away. Spargo was the first one to climb up the 80-foot Tree of Life and ring the bell to let us all know she had completed the challenge. Dissention arose when three different teams of two climbed the Upward Call competing for the best time. Naturally, Ella and I came out victorious completing the climb in 5:46. :)

Bianka showed off her balance and mental discipline by completing The Narrow Way, which is a log 35 feet off the ground on which you have to walk 40 feet from one end to the other. Coach Jody was hesitant to conquer the Indiana Jones challenge but after support from the team she was able to walk the 40 foot suspended ladder. We were so proud of her! The most thrilling challenge of all was the Centurion - a 100-foot climb to a platform on which you walk to the edge and leap for a trapeze five feet out in front of the platform. The majority of the team proved their courage and completed this challenge.

After revitalizing, we moved on to the exhilarating zipline. By this point everyone showed no fear and had no problem flying 500 feet fastened only by a cable and harness. By the end of our adventure on the ropes course everyone was feeling really confident with themselves and our trust with one another. After dinner, the team headed back to our cabin where we participated in more team building activities. The best part of the night was dividing up into teams and performing skits of different basketball-related scenarios in front of the coaches. No surprise here... My team was victorious once again :)

On our final day at Alpine we developed our mission statement, set goals for the season, and selected team captains. Each of us collected a rock from the mountain in remembrance of our experience and decorated it with motivational words and reminders for ourselves. All in all we had a great weekend and grew closer as a team and everyone is really excited for the season to begin!