In a special edition Rams 'Round the World Suffolk women's hockey head coach Taylor Wasylk will take Ram Nation along with her as she goes to Madrid to train the Spanish National Team.
Below is the second installment featuring Wasylk's week in Spain.
My week in Spain was everything I expected it to be and more. I stayed in an amazing city, learned a ton about Spanish history and cultural traditions, ate some great food and got to work with some incredible athletes and people.
The first half of our week was with the u18 national team, comprised of high school age players, who were trying to earn a spot on the roster ahead of their upcoming international competition. In 2020 this group won their division’s world championship in Mexico City, Mexico, but their 2021 tournament was cancelled so they have not yet had the chance to defend their title. I am not exaggerating when I say this group was one of the most fun teams I have ever had the chance to work with. They were beyond eager to learn from us and they had the most positive attitudes and work ethics that I have ever seen in a group of high school students. We coaches had so much fun getting on the ice with them each day and it was amazing to see them improve with every session that we had, and even throughout the course of a single drill.
The senior level national team was equally rewarding to work with as they were the ones trying to earn a roster spot ahead of October's Olympic Qualifiers in Italy. Being older, this group was a bit more talented than the u18s, but they possessed the same eagerness to learn and motivation to improve with every day on the ice. We worked with them for only 4-5 days, but by the end the improvement in their skills was tremendous, and I left with a sense of accomplishment that you don’t usually experience when working summer camps. It was beyond rewarding to get the opportunity to coach all of these players, and to see them take their game to the next level after just a few short days was beyond impressive for me.
Of course with the language barrier, there were certainly challenges conveying the drills and skills that we wanted to teach them. I never took Spanish in school and the only Spanish words I know come from the La Hacienda menu, so besides counting the kids off 1 to 10, I was pretty useless at breaking things down for the kids who did not fully understand English. This was made a bit more difficult when the goalies thought it would be funny to tell me the wrong words when I asked them how to say “goalies” “faceoff” and “shootout” in Spanish, but their giggles gave them away every time! Humorous and challenging as it was to try to communicate sometimes, I also think it made me a better instructor, as I really had to think things through when explaining them to the teams. At Suffolk we don’t spend much time at the board drawing drills and discussing things as we usually have so much to accomplish each practice that everything is very fast-paced, but in Spain I was forced to slow down, explain each drill piece-by-piece, sometimes demonstrate, and then give the girls a moment to talk amongst themselves to ensure each individual fully understood before we could begin. It was a very different experience, but certainly a beneficial one too as I had to completely change my coaching style for our ice sessions.
Now that I am back in the US and have had a few days to reflect on my trip, I am so happy that I decided to take it. It is not often than a collegiate coach gets to work with another country's national team, so I consider it a huge honor to have been invited. The next few events that the teams have are in the fall so I will not be able to attend as our Suffolk season will be starting up, but a handful of the u18 players will be with me in Budapest, Hungary next weekend when I travel there to work another camp. I am already very excited to see the girls again and get back on the ice with them for a few more weeks of development and preparing them for their upcoming season!
Fans, families, alumni and friends can check in with what Isaak and Phelan are up to over sees by following their adventures on GoSuffolkRams.com or over social media by using the hashtag #RAMsinterNATIONal.