'Team' is one word that strives to sum up the spider web of relationships that bind together a group of players in their effort to win. And though we may throw together a couple kids, give them hats, gloves and bats, and call them a team, the requisite mutual understanding and respect that makes a team shine won't be there. For that, it takes a lot of work and time.
The challenge of becoming a team has been a difficult one for the regional girl's softball team. They're headed to the B.C. Games this summer, though and need those relationships to shine.
Their area, zone 8, covers cities as far south as Williams Lake, north as far as Fort Nelson, west as far as Vanderhoof and east to the Alberta border. To gather all those girls together for any useful amount of time takes a lot of planning and travelling.
Christina and Amanda Lawrence are two girls who know the meaning of team work. Not only are the two girls sisters, they're twins that play together, Christina as the back catcher and Amanda as a pitcher.
Now, however, they've been thrown together, with two other girls from Quesnel, in a team with girls they've never played with or against.
"In the beginning, it was awkward because we didn't know them well," Amanda said.
But the one thing that could bring them together as a real team they had a hard time making happen.
"We don't get much practice together," Christina said.
The team started practicing together in November and while the early beginning was a good idea, the northern winter and the long distances made getting together very difficult.
At first, this meant the girls had to be a little more careful with the words that came out of their mouths during games; they had to be polite with their team mates. This could be difficult, Amanda said, when girls make mistakes. Whereas they might yell at girls they know, relying on the relationship to cushion the blow of any words said in the heat of the game, they didn't have that luxury playing with girls they had just met.
Now though, after a little bit more time, they are making progress as a team and as friends, Aiyan Basi, one of the pitchers, said.
"We've bonded pretty well."
The differences and distances do have their positives, though, Ashley Patterson, one of the youngest girls on the team at age 12, pointed out.
Most of these girls have been playing with the same people, the same coaches and the same tactics for most of their lives. This newly merged team gives them the chance to play with people who have their own ways of doing things and to learn new tricks.
"I get to learn how to do something different and that makes me stronger," Patterson said.
But all the difficulties, the travel and the practices can't dim the light at the end of the tunnel. The girls are going to the B.C. Games and they are excited.
"I had friends that went and they said they had the time of their lives," said Basi.
So, come July, they will be competing as a team and that, in and of itself, will be a victory.