CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE UNDERWAY THIS WEEKEND GOOD LUCK TO ALL TEAMS IN THEIR RESPECTIVE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS, ESPECIALLY OUR SPONSORED TEAMS UNC (ACC) The Tar Heels face Wake Forrest 10/2 at1pm […]
Festival in the Eyes of the Harrow
FESTIVAL 2012
From the Eyes of Harrow Field Hockey Team
I think I speak for the entire HarrowFH Team when I say say, WOW do we wish we were still in Florida! It was such an amazing week filled with fun, laughter, hard work, and of course (what brought us all together in the first place) FIELD HOCKEY!
The Harrow Team came from Connecticut, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida to come and work the tournament. As hard as it was for us to be in such hard weather conditions; with all of the sun, barely any clouds, and close to perfect weather, we made it through and had one of the most successful Festival’s in Harrow’s history! Our goal for this tournament was to create a fun environment that players and spectators would want to come to not only check out great gear and equipement, but also come to hang out. For those of you that visited the Harrow Tent, thanks for stopping by! We hope you had as much fun as we did this past week.
In fact we had so much fun that we decided to document our week for you avid HarrowFH Followers. ENJOY!
MONDAY
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| Meghan Dawson showing off her stick skills in FLL Airport |
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| PGA Resort |
We all arrived into Florida on Monday mid-day and were more than excited to get the weekend going. Harrow Team member, Meghan Dawson, was the most excited so she decided to fly into Fort Lauderdale early to start the welcome wagon. Needless to say by 3pm, the airport may have gotten the best of her. She greeted the rest of the HarrowFH Team in the baggage claim while showing off her stick skills to the Fort Lauderdale Baggage claim. No Ball? That would never stop Meghan, contact solution is a great substitute. Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it.
Once we had gotten the rest of the group together we all jumped in the giant white “SUPER CLUB WAGON” aka the Harrow-Mobile and drove to West Palm to pick up the rest of the crew and head to our hotel.
TUESDAY
Woke up early morning and headed to the field with the whole gang to set up the tents. For those of you that were at Festival and were able to witness the Taj Mahal of Festival Booths that was the Harrow Booth, you wont be surprised to hear that it was comprised of 6 pallets, 3 tents, a 20 x 15 piece of turf, 64 boxes of apparel, 21 Tables, and took 12 HOURS to set up in entirety. Once the entire site was put together, we closed up tent and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the first day of Festival!
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday we went back to back to tent to finalize all of the apparel and take merchandise to the hotel to sell. Once we got to the Embassy Suites, which was where all of the teams had to register and sign-in for the tournament, we set up our booth and sold some of the official merchandise that we had put together for Festival. We were overwhelmed by the great response to the gear, and were getting more and more excited for Festival to officially begin.
THURSDAY : THANKSGIVING
Those of us in the Field Hockey community are used to spending our Thanksgivings playing Field Hockey on polo fields; but to others, it might be a little strange. Either way, we decided as a team that the best way to celebrate would be to all wear matching outfits to show how thankful we were for Field Hockey, Harrow, and of course TURKEY.
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| Rachel and one of her biggest fans, Gracie |
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| the “FUN ZONE” |
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| Let the madness begin! |
Rachel Dawson’s Thanksgiving Tweet “I’m Thankful for field hockey, family, friends, food, family, and HARROW”
Even though the tent was CRAZY for the entire day, we still had time to think about the many things that we were all thankful for. After a long day, we all gathered together and gave thanks over a great turkey dinner!
FRIDAY
After the first long day, the team headed back to the Polo Fields for the second day of competition. Dani Forword, the assistant brand manager, favorite holiday is Black Friday, so we decided to have a special deal in the tent on all black apparel items. Highlight of day however went to the many fans that came to see Rachel Dawson and get her autograph. None were as cute as little Abby, pictured below. Rachel was able to show her some stick skills in the Harrow Fun Zone.
The Fundamental Field Hockey, which has been put together by USA Field Hockey and Harrow, is a program that has been established to promote the growth of Field Hockey through youth development programs across the country. Harrow has donated equipment for each site, and USA Field Hockey used some of that equipment at Festival for pick-up games for not only siblings of girls playing, but anyone that wanted to pick up a stick and play. It was great to see so much Harrow represented for such a great cause! Not to mention all of the brothers of girls playing that came to show off their skills as well!
SATURDAY
The week had gone by so quickly that it was hard to believe that is was the last day of Festival! It was so great to see old teammates, kids that we had coached previously, and extended hockey-family members. Even the Florida Gators wanted a piece of the Festival-action! On Saturday, we got word that there was a 12-foot gator on the prowl and to watch out. Alli Tanner, Brand manager, and Margie Curran, Harrow employee from Denver, went out searching for the Gator at one point. Festival must have gotten to them just as the baggage claim in the Fort Lauderdale Airport had gotten to Meghan Dawson.
Congrats to all of the champions that were given their awards on Saturday! Our tent was in the perfect location to hear all of the teams being announced.
It was also Erin Hanshue’s , Harrow Sales Consultant from Pennsylvania Birthday! The HarrowFH Team celebrated the end of the crazy week with a birthday celebration, Oreo cake and all.
SUNDAY: PACK UP DAY
Not only were the members of our HarrowFH team working the tent all week, some of them were also playing on Adult teams for the week.
Alli Tanner, Meghan Dawson, and Elizabeth Stephens played on a Women’s Adult team “Second Effort”. Their last game was Saturday morning and ended in a shoot-out. It was a great chance for the girls to get out and play again, but left them with the reality that their days of playing may be in the past and left with more muscle soreness than their worst days in previous preseasons.
Rachel Dawson played on a Co-Ed team, “FH Life” and showed off her skills with her RD8. Still in her prime, it was great to be able to watch Rachel play for fun with and against old and current teammates.
If we thought putting up the tent was long, taking down the tent was just as strenuous, especially figuring out how to transport our giant piece of turf – which got a new name by the end of the day “BURRITO”. It took at least 6 of us to be able to pick up the giant burrito of turf, and may have broken a International Polo Club golf cart, but you didn’t hear it from us.
MONDAY
On Monday we all said our good-byes to the horrible Florida weather and made our way to the airport. To everyone that came by the Harrow tent, THANK YOU. We were overwhelmed by the support that we received this past week and hope to continue to promote and support the sport that all lead us to work at Harrow. We love being able to support the game at all levels and represent USA Field Hockey the way that we do – through you all.
THANKS AND SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR!
signing out: Team HarrowFH
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