It was quite and honor to compete for Team USA once again!  I truly enjoyed having my name on the back of my jersey and my country on the front.  It is an accomplishment that I am very proud of and something I never thought I would do again.  I competed 8 years for USA bobsled and realized that I never had my name on my uniform, so this experience was very special. 

 

 

Hydration is Key!

I have grown accustomed to carrying around a water bottle with me at all times.  It is very important as an athlete to be sure that you are always hydrated and prepared for the next training session.  It is just as important to improve health to maintain hydration daily.  The Boys and Girls Club recently installed a new water cooler, which allows the kids to have highly purified water directly from a tap!  It is quite and upgrade to the typical water fountain.  The only catch is that the kids are required to provide their own water bottle to drink the water.  Many families are unable to provide a water bottle or do not understand the importance of hydration. 

ITA and L.L. Bean asked what could be done to benefit my program at the Boys and Girls Club and of course the first thing I thought of was providing the kids with water bottles!  I was so excited that just a week after asking for L.L Bean water bottles they all came in the mail.  It seems like such a small thing, but it was really special to me that with the help of L.L. Bean I was able to provide the kids with water bottles.  The kids were so excited to receive their new bottles and immediately put their names on it and went and filled them up.  Thank you to ITA and L.L. Bean for keeping the kids at the Boys and Girls Club healthy and hydrated!

 



Irene and I after the tournament

Recently my teammate Irene Gardner presented me with my first USA Rugby Jersey! What an amazing honor and thrill represent the United States once again and even more incredible to hear Irene's presentation.   

 

Em, I know this is a long awaited opportunity. We talk about being resilient and determined and you are a true representation of such qualities. I have not met someone so dedicated to sport as you. You have trained at the highest level in 2 sports. You have transferred your knowledge and passion to rugby, and have been utterly determined to understand the game and adapt to the physical and mental demands of the sport. 

I am proud of you in all you have worked for, your patience, and your selfless efforts to make your teammates and this team stronger. 

I am honored to present you with your jersey for your debut for USA rugby. 

Be proud and believe. And know I do. Let your passion drive your play. 

 

 

 

Welcome my new niece Avery Marie Chisam!  I was so lucky to have already been in the area when she was born, so able to meet her.

2010 Olympian Bree Schaaf Announces Retirement

By: Emily Azevedo

Bree Schaaf can always be spotted by her infectious laugh and her witty sense of humor. Her teammates know her for her unconventional dorm room cooking and her passion and love for sliding.  When she was not sliding, she had an unorthodox way of exploring her musical and culinary side, traveling with her key board and harmonica.  After spending over a decade sliding down the ice, Schaaf is moving forward and taking on more of life’s challenges. 

Schaaf began her career after attending her first skeleton camp in December 2002, leaving her family on Christmas day to pursue a new dream.  Her older brother, Tim, was involved in skeleton and convinced Schaaf a standout volley player at Portland State University to give it a try.  She spent the next five seasons competing National and International on the skeleton circuit and had her break out season on the World Cup tour in 2006-2007.

Schaaf a self-proclaimed “head dragger” was tired of scarping her head along the ice and was determined to convince the bobsled coaching staff she had the skill and physique to transition into Bobsled.  In 2007, Schaaf attended her first bobsled driving school and immediately fell in love with the sport. 

“Sliding was all about extremes for me, exploring personal boundaries in all directions. Hysterical laughter, hysterical crying; strength and speed numbers I never thought possible, resilience I never knew existed” Schaaf Said.  Schaaf is extrememly grateful for “the opportunity to travel the world, learn languages, and play amongst my favorite international band of crazies.”

Winning the 2009 Bobsled National Championships proved to be a major turning point for Schaaf.  It gave Schaaf the opportunity to compete and gain valuable experience on the Olympic Track in Whistler where she and teammate Emily Azevedo surprised the world with a 6^th place finish. 

Earning her Olympic berth was still going to prove to be a challenge for Schaaf.  Throughout the 2009-2010 season Schaaf not only had to learn to drive European tracks, she was also required to beat out other nations to earn a spot as the Americans third sled.  This was a challenge that Schaaf and Azevedo were up for.  “Bree and I believed in eachother and that is how we earned our spot in Vancouver” Azevedo said.  “We had many challenges along the way, but we always had a deep rooted belief that we could accomplish our goal”

In January of 2010 Schaaf and Azevedo were named to the Vancouver Olympic team where the pair placed an impressive 5^th place.  After Vancouver Schaaf was determined to change the sport of bobsled becoming the first female to pilot a four women’s sled down the Lake Placid bobsled track.  She became a pioneer for the sport and paved the way for future female bobsledders. 

Now days Schaaf can often be heard calling Luge races or coaching Paralympic skeleton athletes.  Her goals have shifted from winning medals to merely appreciating the little things in life.

“For the future I hope to let go of the need to push things too far, and relax into the beauty that is everyday life,” Schaaf said.  “I want to have goals, but have satisfaction separate from them. I hope to explore my curiosities and do what I want to do, irrelevant to what I should do or what will bring prestige and attention.”

There is one thing that can be said, Schaaf had a huge impact on the sport of bobsled and on the many friends she has made all over the world.   

Rio Rugby Dream

Written by: The Rugby Republic
Olympian Seeking The Olympics. Sounds like a classified. 

All of the ladies vying for a spot on the Team USA Rugby 7s team are aiming for their first Olympics, well nearly all. There is one who already has the title of Olympian and that rugger is Emily Azevedo!  Azevedo has a great story on the path she’s taken to bring her to this point!
The former high school track star from Chico, California used those skills to land her at UC Davis, where she was a member of the Aggies track team there running the 100m hurdles. Watching the winter Olympics, Azevedo became intrigued by the bobsled events and the next thing you know (it wasn’t that easy it was years of hard work and training), she made the USA team and competed in the two women bobsled event competition in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. She finished an impressive 5th at the games. Azevedo has medaled a few times in the world championships for Bobsledding.  So how is she now in line for 2016 Summer Games in Rio and for Rugby???

 

Told you this is a good journey. Azevedo only took up rugby a year and a half ago! She has played with the Berkley All Blues and this past summer she played 7s with a successful San Diego Surfers side.

How she came to the game of rugby is not unlike many of us, by chance. Azevedo told us “I was on vacation with some friends in Hungary. A girl approached me at the gym and asked me to come play touch rugby with her and her team. I immediately fell in love with the people I met out there and knew when I moved back to the Bay Area I wanted to find a team to play for”.

When Azevedo retired from bobsledding in 2014 she sought out rugby as just a way to meet some new friends and to just have fun.  She ended up with the All Blues and played with them that summer (2014) and trained with them in the fall before she moved to the OTC in the spring. Once she was in San Diego and training at the OTC she knew she needed to get game experience and so this past summer (2015) she played 7s for the San Diego Surfers.

We asked Azevedo if her experience as an Olympian would be used by the team. Azevedo pointed out that there hasn’t been women’s rugby 7s in the Olympics before so there are a lot of unknowns for the team and for USA Rugby. “Because of the Olympic experience I have had I am able to share with the girls what to expect and to help them all in preparing for Rio” noted Azevedo.

Azevedo comes to the team preparing at the OTC having had professional support in terms of coaching, training facilities, etc as a bobsledder. She is also in the Resident program at the OTC in Chula Vista for rugby and so we asked how much of a boost is that in preparing the team as she has some great perspective from her pervious stints with Team USA.  Azevedo said “Throughout my bobsled career I lived at a training center… for about 8 years. The resources that the OTC is able to provide do help athletes compete at the top level”.  She also pointed out “Although there is still a huge financial sacrifice for the athletes the training center helps to curb the cost of food, sports medicine and training facilities. It allows us to be able to train for rugby fulltime with is valuable for many of the athletes we have that have not grown up playing rugby”.

 

Azevedo points out that without the resources of USA Rugby and the resident program at the OTC most would have a hard time training full time.  “Many athletes are able to be successful without the training center resources, but may have to be more creative with how they are able to train and fund their daily lives” shared Azevedo. She also highlighted that the OTC allows the USA Rugby 7s athletes the opportunity to train fulltime as a team, which should yield a competitive advantage.
Rugby we know provides life longs bonds. Now part of team (at least successful teams) preparation is a form of bonding, but on the same hand and in the case of these athletes like Azevedo they are training together and competing with each other for a limited number of spots. We want to know how that is handled?  Azevedo said, “I think I come from a different perspective because I have gone to the Olympics and had thought that I was done as an athlete.”  Azevedo goes on to say, “I would love to make another Olympic team, but the most important part of this journey for me is the friendships and the bonds. I think that we are able to continue to maintain a team atmosphere and we ALL realize that if we are selected or not we are all a valuable part of the process and the team”!

Azevedo is always working to give back to the kids and she has used her work with the Boys and Girls Club to do that work. While she participates in a variety of activities with the kids at the Boys and Girls Club she also tries to expose them to the game of rugby.  Azevedo said “I bring a rugby ball with me and try to get the kids up and running around and just having some fun. The most important thing to me about rugby is to have fun, so I try and show the kids how fun rugby can be and maybe someday they will want to try and play”.  Now that’s a solid strategy that Azevedo is employing so those of you who work with kids or volunteer, try this! We all can help grow the game.
We have seen the growth of the game in resent years and especially with youth and girls and we asked Azevedo her take on the growth of rugby. “It is exciting to see rugby grow especially for girls in America” shares Azevedo “and I think the Olympics will be a huge platform to expose young women to the sport”. Azevedo continued saying “The thing I love about rugby is it is a very inclusive sport and literally everyone can find a place to fit into. I think many young women will find this attractive about rugby”.

 

As we learned more about Azevedo we realized that she’s spent most her adult life after college training and living at training center which is great for training but as noted not lucrative. We asked Azevedo about that and she explained “I have been an elite athlete for close to ten years now. I began bobsled right out of college in 2006. I graduated from UD Davis with a degree in Exercise Biology. I originally had hoped to be a strength coach, but after being in a weight room for so many years I have recently started applying to law schools and hope to pursue law next fall.

We want to thank the San Diego Surfers and the Berkeley All Blues for connecting to Emily Azevedo, and to Emily for her time.  Azevedo’s story is unique but doesn’t vary from that of most successful ruggers which is finding the game by chance, falling in love with it and then dedicating all your effort to getting better at it. You can follow Emily on Twitter @EmilyAzevedo.  

This week at the Boys and Girls Club we learned about the different food groups on the food pyramid.  It was eye opening to hear what the kids thought was healthy food and what they did not think was healthy. It made me laugh when one of the boys was very confident when he was explaining to me that cereal had its very own food group.  It was very clear to me how important early nutritional education is for children.  Obesity is a huge issue throughout the nation and education for parents and their children plays a huge role in the fight against childhood obesity.  I was excited to teach the kids how to make choices when they are deciding on what to eat and how their plates should look with their meals on them.  Each of the kids was given a paper and they had to decide what foods were in the proper food group and how many servings of each they needed per day.  I was happy to see that by the end of the course most of the children understood the importance of eating healthy and how to make it happen.