"I Can't Do It Alone" (CHICAGO)

By the winter season 2005, I had been captain of 100% Spike Proof (Big City league) for a couple of seasons, but it was also one of the most stressful experiences to date. As a team, we had to adjust to some changes in our roster. With any new addition, the team chemistry is ultimately put to the test. From an external viewpoint, we looked like a content team, yet underneath we were clashing individuals. As a captain, one must remain the emotional center of the team, but the stress from adding new players onto the team who didn't adjust well caused a lot of dissension from the other members. I was fighting with friends, trying to make it work. I realized that maybe I bit off more than I could chew with the captain role because it was hard to try and please everyone about the situation. I find fault in myself in that aspect because I just could not pull the team together during this difficult adjustment. It seems like a simple thing but it blew up more than I ever expected. But like I am with most things in my life, I was hopeful and optimistic that the team would step up and become a more uniformed team with better goals and hopefully a better attitude. Otherwise, it was going to be a long season.

I would always coordinate get-togethers for the team outside of the league games. I don't know why I enjoy doing that but I do. Anyway, about four weeks into our season, I get a vague email saying that the team would meet up at Bowlmor Lanes for a relaxing night of bowling. They just told me to show up at 7:00pm on a Monday night during a week we had no game. I'm not used to just showing up and waiting, at least not knowing the status of when everyone would be arriving. So the team gets there, they escort me into the bowling alley, and won't allow me to pay for anything. I'm thinking that's weird. We start to bowl and having fun, cheering each other on. Everyone got a drink and they wanted to make a toast. I'm like "okay." So we grab our drinks and we make a toast to a great season and great friends. Aspiring and fitting. Then they pull me in the middle and Mark S. starts talking about me being a captain. My eyes start circling the team around me, "what is going on here?" He's saying a speech about me being captain, ME, and I'm totally getting teary-eyed. I'm so shocked, and they say so many things that truly touched me, I'm so honored. But then they pull out a plague and present it to me, and by this time I'm completely bawling in the middle of Bowlmor Lanes. I'm completely surprised by this gift of respect, and the stress of being captain fades away and things start to look up for the team. TEAM had a whole new meaning, it filled my heart. We might not have been the best team in our division but we had a respectable record that season when it was all said and done. Also it represented a time where my optimism, being test and pushed to limits, remained intact.