Tuesday 27 May 2014

Let me introduce 'Juice' and 'Bubbles'!

Hi there, it’s Hayley again. I hope you missed me.

If you read my first post, you would know I have no football background.
But I do know that football is a very tough sport.

How do I know? Well, whenever I watched football games, players just crashed, crashed and crashed. So, I thought trainers with football teams would be very busy because whenever players bump into each other, trainers have to care their booboos.

With Football BC, there are trainers that take responsibility for players’ injuries as well.
At the BC Tough camp last weekend, I met Darren and Sunny who volunteer as trainers with Football BC. They are always with Team BC, but people don’t really know who they are. So I’d like to let you know them briefly.

Darren, who is big muscleman that people call ‘Juice’, is a SFU student.

Here are our conversations. Let’s read his story.


Juice and I. Why am I grinning silly like that?
How long have you been with 
Football BC?
- I have been with Football BC for little bit more than year. I started volunteering from May camp last year. Since then, being with Football BC, I have traveled to Winnipeg, San Antonio, and joined couple of camps like today.

Do you like doing it?
- Yes, I like it. That’s why I keep coming back to help. I like working with kids in here, and I’m having good experience. I think this is preparation for whatever I do in the future.



What is the best part being with Football BC?
- As I mentioned, I get experience related to my future, and also I can learn a lot of things dealing with injuries.

How did you get your nickname, Juice?
- When I participated in the camp for the first time, Coach Glen (Cook) saw me and just started call me ‘Juice’, because I was… big. Since then people don’t really know my name and just call me ‘Juice’ now.

What is your favourite juice, by the way?
- Orange juice is my favourite. But not steroids… That is not my favourite juice. I have never tried that type of juice!


Sunny, has bright smile like her name, comes from UBC.

Let’s know more about her.


Bubbles and I. We both posed :)
How long have you volunteered at 
Football BC?
- I have volunteered at Football BC for more than 2 years. This coming September will be my third year working with the team.

Do you like doing it?
- Yes, I like it a lot. I can learn a lot working here and it’s interesting.






Which part is the most interesting for you?
- I like the treatment aspect of it. We get to come in and watch the guys get treatment, and learn the mechanism of injury and see them go through rehab. We had one of players get knee surgery back in October and just seeing him up until now just rehabbing in the pool and stuff he’s made a lot of progress. That’s always interesting so that’s my favourite part of it.

What do you do outside of football?
- Just have student life. Go to class, hang out with friends.

Do you have any hobbies? Or do you like playing sports?
- I used to play sports. I’m not playing on teams anymore but I work out on my own. I like to go for runs, but I don’t know if that is a hobby though…

Do you have a nickname as well?
- I don’t think they gave me a nickname yet. We have to come up with one.

(While she was saying it, Philip, who is the events manager with Football BC, suggested ‘No fun sun’, because Sunny decided not to join the trainers last week in Richmond for a social event. One of the things she missed was experiencing bubble tea culture in Richmond. After that, Daniel at Football BC decided she should be called ‘Bubbles’ so she never forgets what she missed. I think this is great fit for her because she is a bubbly girl actually.)



Unfortunately (or fortunately), I had a chance to see their work. When the camp began, one of players suffered from a leg injury. Thereupon, Juice and Bubbles went onto the field and checked the kid’s condition, called to 911 and made him relax. I watched them to deal with injured kid and understood what they do. For sure, action speaks louder than words.

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Welcome to Kim's Kickoff

Hello, everyone!

My name is Hayley Kim and I’m an international student from Korea.
I’m really excited and lucky to join in Football BC as a practicum student from now to August.

So now, you are definitely curious who Hayley Kim is.

I’m a girl who is very interested in sports. Sounds weird, doesn’t it?
Generally, girls aren’t interested in sports much (at least I don’t think they are). 

But why am I? 
Well, it’s because of my father who is very sporty.

My father really wanted to share his interests with his kids, and I was the only child until I was 11 years old. So he took me stadiums and let me watch sports matches with him since I was young.

In particular, he always watched baseball games on TV so when it was baseball time, I couldn’t watch other TV programs. So I was exposed to baseball naturally.

Luckily or unluckily I loved it, and I grew up as a girl who is crazy about baseball.

When I was 11 years old, my father got a son but, unfortunately, my brother is not a sporty boy (yet). So until now I’m the best sports mate for my dad.

I’m also a girl who wants to be a sports journalist. 
I couldn’t be satisfied with just being a big fan of sports. Watching sports games, I wanted to feel the atmosphere on the field and meet players in person. 

But I didn’t want to be a sports player, and I knew I was not an athletic person. So I thought about what I could be to achieve my goal, and I found the key.
It was ‘sports journalist’ because I liked writing since my early years and I wanted to be a person who writes. So I connected my talents with my interests.

So now I’m looking forward to having a really great experience to achieve my goal and running this blog will help me to get closer to my dream as well.

But as I mentioned, I’m a big fan of baseball. There is no better place to me than to be in a baseball stadium. If I could, I would get married with a baseball player. Every time my favourite player hit a home run, out of habit I would say I want to marry him.

So you might be curious again why I am with Football BC.

That is because I’m in Canada now.

I’ve noticed that there are many football and hockey teams but only one baseball team in Canada. I thought there were no more interesting sports than baseball before. But people in here are crazy about football and hockey as much as I am about baseball.

So I am wondering why people are fascinated by these sports and I want to know more. Also, I think this is a great chance to widen my knowledge about diverse sports.

In Korea, football is not popular so it’s hard to be interested in it. But we actually have national university football matches every year and 35 universities have their own football teams.

Nevertheless, many people don’t even know we have football matches, and honestly, neither did I.

But I know that Korea got an opportunity to participate in 2015 Sweden Football World Cup. So I expect football will be popular in Korea as well, and I want to know and learn more about football being here.

I don’t have any knowledge about football yet. I just ‘kicked off’. But I want to build my knowledge running this blog to ‘touch down’, and I want to share my journey with you.

I hope you can learn and enjoy with me through this blog as well.

If you have any comments or ideas, please email me anytime.
Also, if you know any hot baseball players, please share with me. I want to expand my view to all over the world!