Masami Iwasawa - Junior Review

[CrazyCaityCat 65]

Masami was waiting for the rain to stop. She couldn’t perform in her usual spot out in front of the 21’st stadium when it was raining. She was bored. She really wanted to play. Either her guitar, or out on the ice. She began to reminisce on her time in hockey while she waited. She had started playing ice hockey as soon as she could, there was a league for kids in her hometown of Hokkaido. It wasn’t a super popular sport in the rest of Japan, but there was a certain following in the northern part of the country. She found immediately that she was quite a bit…larger than the rest of the girls on the team. She was only 12 years old but she was already about an inch taller than most of the other girls and a bit bulkier. At first they tried to put her in as a goalie but it turned out that she just wasn’t very good at it. She was used at all the other positions as well but when she got the chance to be a defensemen she really found her stride.

 

When she was in high school there she was able to join the high school team and compete in regional events. It turned out that she was actually quite good at playing defense. Her poke check became legendary. She could strip the puck from anyone. She also showed quite a bit of potential on offense, putting up a team record 50 assists when she was in her first year. The next season she was seen as a team leader and had some kouhai’s that really looked up to her. She was made a team captain as only a second year. She felt that it was her responsibility to lead her team into the future and really leave a grand legacy. Instead, she got injured. In only the 3^rd game of the season Masami was blindsided by an opposing player and the check knocked her out cold. She woke up some time later in hospital. She did not know much about concussions but the doctors tried to explain it to her. It was all just so hard to think though, that she largely forgot everything they said. Masami’s parents insisted that she quit hockey and do something more appropriate for a girl her age. Masami flat out refused. She was a very strong willed girl, she wasn’t going to let anyone stop her from doing the things she cared about. The problem was, the doctor wouldn’t tell her school that she had permission to play. It seemed that some of her symptoms had lingered and would not stop. The waves of dizziness and nausea, the momentary loss of balance from time to time, all of it was so minor. She couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t let her play.

It wasn’t until the season was nearly over that she was medically cleared to play again. By that point the team had been thoroughly beaten by most of the other teams in the region without their star player. When she became a third year Masami was determined that she’d do something to make her graduating senpais proud of her, so that her time with the team was not a waste, so that they could know they left the team in good hands. She was spectacular in her final season with the team. She led the team in every major offensive category and she retained that legendary poke check that had made her so good at offense. There were rumors that she was going to be scouted by a professional team that year but no one on the team put much stock in that. Girls from Japan didn’t really make professional hockey teams.

When the season had finished Masami’s team was indisputably the best team in Hokkaido, and some said the best team in Japan. She felt a huge amount of pride. She had accomplished her goal. When a few of the senpais came to visit the team just before graduation they praised them all for their hard work and said that they were very proud. Masami felt like she could have died just then and would have been perfectly fulfilled. When she graduated she was very sad that she was no longer going to be playing hockey, she had been accepted to a university in southern Japan which did not have a hockey team, but she was very happy with her kouhais determination to continue the legacy that she had left them.

 

Two days after graduation she received a few letters in the mail. She had not expected any mail so she was quite surprised. Then she was absolutely shocked when she opened them to find that they were invites to join teams in the VHLM! She had a bunch of offers actually, and she didn’t know what to do. She was supposed to pack her things and go to university in a few days and now, all of a sudden, she had the opportunity to change the trajectory of her entire life. She knew what her parents would say. They were so happy that she had finished her hockey career. She thought about it all that night, and all the next day wondering what to do. Finally, she decided that university would always be there, an offer to join the VHLM would not be. She informed her parents, who took it…poorly. At the end of the argument her father said he’d disown her if she played hockey again. Masami was not one to be deterred though. She stood straight and tall, and looked at her father and told him she was going to play hockey.

 

She didn’t know why she chose Halifax, maybe it was because it was such an exotic place to her. She’d never even heard of it before. She was very glad, looking back, that she did choose it though. Just then, Masami realized that the rain had stopped, and she could go and play her guitar for a little while. She refocused on the here and now, and stepped out from the awning she’d been standing under with her guitar. She was going to play today!

 

1038 Words