SOPHIA AGOSTINELLI: AN AMERiCAN ORIGINAL
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"Lacrosse has always been a mental game for me, I often had to face guard the best player on the other team by getting in their face and following them around. I brought that pest behavior into hockey sneaking behind people to pickpocket them right as theyâre taking a shot and so on. Rugby has taught me that the best way around something is through it. I just kinda push through my obstacles no matter how big. Iâll run with people hanging on to me, I skate like that tooâ. Sophia Agostinelli, The Swiss Army Knife
We had last spoken with our amazing former #10 Sophia Agostinelli at the Whale double header game February.in Bridgeport. She had brought her Mid Fairfeild Stars U12 team to watch the Whale vs Pride, Â before heading off to their own game. It seemed the thing to do then, was to start off asking how they had fared. Sophia thought and replied
 âI think we actually did pretty well, but I canât remember if we won or lost. But I guess it really doesnât matter because the girls were pretty amped up:) And Iâm pretty sure if memory serves me correctly, that we played a boys team that day. And the girls get really excited about that because they love to hit the boys! They think that checking is allowed, but itâs not, so the two lined up together and was probably a pretty crazy game.â That was before the pandemic obviously, and that prompted us to ask how Sophia, who lives in Connecticut, has dealt with the Covid situation, especially, since she is also a scientist. She replied
âIâm sure across the board, every situation is tough. But when youâre a coach or an athlete, it is just extra tough. I feel like thereâs very little chance to get to the gym or play with your teammates. For me, Iâve been coaching remotely for the lacrosse season. Elena (#14 Elena Orlando) actually helps me out In filming lacrosse lessons for my girls. Because I felt really bad for them, as they totally missed out the on season. The video coaching was tough for me, because I couldnât get any feedback, whether they were understanding things or enjoying themselves. Which are things you look for to kind of plan your practices. This is for youth lacrosse, and also for the high school. I double dipped there, originally it was about the high school, but I just ended up sending these videos to both teams. itâs really challenging because you want to teach all these concepts, but you really canât do it, when you are just one person.âÂ
âThere really isnât an off season for hockey. I was supposed to have tryouts in March for my Fairfeild Stars team, but they got pushed back and we just recently had them (mid-July) Three months late. I guess itâs safe enough now. We have a small group of people and we make sure not to get too close to.the kids. But itâs crazy! How do you make sure that everyone is safe? Everyone has their own opinion, and each rink is different. But thatâs the challenge.â
 And as we found out moments after she told us that, she is ready for most any challenge. At this point in our conversation, Sophia got a call from one of her rugby friends who had crashed her bike and was injured,. So it was Sophia to the rescue, literally, When she called back she said
 âWhew, I brought her to the ER so⌠I think sheâs probably OK, but itâs tough because her feet were clipped in and she took a really hard fall. Luckily I was home so I was able to pick her upâ Challenge met, no surprise. So, picking up where we left off, we wondered if she had done any of those videos for her hockey squad as well as her lacrosse team.
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"No, just based on where we were in the season when things shut down. But I think that would have also been kind of challenging. I really donât have access to a rink, but there is plenty of stuff you can do off ice. But I did need a break from the hockey girls, because I did just spend six months with them. Which is like a long time with kids. So I took a break from that but I know some other people, Elena for example, Is doing a weekly session which one of the girls on my team. She does some outdoor training, which I think is helpful for some of the girls trying to stay active.â
Cetacean Nation has posted about the baby shower for our former #4 Anya Packer & Madison Packer (#14 of the Rivs), that Sophia and several current and former Whale has attended recently. We thought that first time parenting, can be a little like coaching when you are first getting started in  both. Sophia laughed and said
âDonât get me started! Thatâs like you look around the room and think: Whereâs the adult? Something goes wrong and you say: Uh, whoâs in charge of this? And then you realize itâs you! itâs awful! But actually the Packers decided not to do a gender reveal themed party it was just a baby shower. But it was very boy colored:) But there was no like, crazy guns shooting out colors or fires burning down houses in the right color. There wasnât any of that. But Anya and Packer always have great parties. And so they do a lot of games and stuff which is really fun. Do you know Apples To Apples? (We did not) Itâs this game where you are given a deck of cards to hold, and you get to see whatâs on them. And there will be like funny sayings, and youâll flip over card and it will be some type of story like: My favorite thing to do in the evening is (blank) And you put in whatâs super funny or makes the most sense. But this one was baby themed. So it was mostly just funny parenting type things that you donât really think about. Some of the words I didnât know, but I think if youâre expecting youâre supposed to do the research. There were people there from all different teams, the Riveters, the Pride. Kaleigh Fratkin has played for three of the Founding Fout teams so sheâs the avatar I think. Kaleigh definitely has some interesting stories, having traveled all over the league.â
Sophia remains one of our most popular Whale. If you googled âfan favoriteâ weâre pretty sure her name and photo would show up. And in fact, she is a former winner of the NWHL Fan's Three Stars Award. And she has stayed in touch with what's going on with the Pod. So we asked Sophia for her thoughts on both the Whale and the NWHL. She told us
âThe Whale are on an upward trend, I do keep up with that. Elena is my roommate and Iâm friends with lots of them. It seems like theyâve scored some pretty good people to bolster the defense and the scoring. I think the biggest thing was the scoring. Thatâs pretty tough. I think last year they had pretty solid defense with the Whale, and I think thatâs usually the case. They usually have defense but they donât have anybody that scores that much. But just like to meet one of the players that they signed who looks like she will be a force. I donât really know her that well, but she also coaches for the stars: Melissa Samoskevich. I got to skate with her for one practice and her shots were scary! Sheâs going to shoot through me and I was about to duck, I didnât want to get hit. It just looked like a laser! Actually, Iâve met Abbie Ives too, because sheâs also coaching with the Stars. See how small the hockey world is! I like her because itâs nice to be able to look someone in the eyes (Iverson is 5â11â). I was supposed to be taller. Hereâs a random fact: I have scoliosis and I lost an Inchon height. But you should still put me in at 5â11â:)
We mentioned that for one reason or other, the subject of height had come up quite a bit in chats with players this off season. We noted that former #13 Cassie Dunne had told us just the opposite, and claimed she grown an inch. Sophia laughed and replied emphatically â No, she didnât! I just saw her:)Â
We also asked Sophia about our belief that there are a lot more good hockey players than there are roster spots. She agreed and offered
"I think that is just kind of the way things go. And I think it makes people cherish their spot and know that they have to work hard to maintain it. Because no one should ever be complacent in their role, and thatâs just how it is in professional hockey. Without that it would not be as competitive of a league. So, I think itâs a great thing. Unfortunately that means that some people donât make it. But maybe it doesnât mean that they canât come back. So overall I think itâs a positive thing. Maybe there are some people Iwho canât find a team, that just need to put in the work. Youâve got to make your spot.âÂ
âToronto is a good move, i'm happy theyâre able to make it into Canada. I know that was tough because of the competition between the two leagues. And Iâm happy that my old friend Babs (Kelly Babstock) has a hometown team now. Although she still lives around here, technically sheâll be closer to her family when she goes to games. It makes sense several former Whale are up in Toronto, they are from there and or played there. They originally came to the Whale because they had been at Quinnipiac nearby. But when it comes to womenâs professional sports, you kind of have to do whatâs right for your life. Itâs tough to have to make hockey decisions not just based on hockey. But at the end of the day you have to make the one that is viable. It kind of sucks, and some people do make the unviable choice. Which sometimes is a 6 hour drive for games or every practice. That is just not always viable for everyone, so you just pick the team thatâs closer. Even if itâs not your favorite team youâre going to, you figure it out. It could happen in the future that there will be teams nearby certain players where thatâs just not the case today.â
Sophia also thought that  âit does seem fair that the Whale will win (the Isobel Cup) this yearâ And since the race to the NHLâs Stanley Cup is getting under way with play starting up soon we asked Sophia her thoughts on that too. She pondered
âI don't really know. Iâm anticipating it, Iâm excited for things to go back to normal. And I am cautiously optimistic, which I think everyone should be. You donât want to be fatalistic, where you're just going to say: No, no, nothings going to go forward. I think youâre trying to get back to work, something likea a new normal, which I commend. Just as long as they go about it safely. I think that it sounds like the NHL are trying to take the best steps towards that. It seems if things go wrong, then they will shut things down, they wonât play through it. But itâs tough because Iâm sure there are some places that are safer than others. Like where I live, Connecticut is great. But if youâre going someplace else in the US to play hockey I donât now what the conditions are. I donât know if I want to play the Lightning right now, if theyâre living in Florida.â
Sophia continued âMaybe the NHL will get a different crowd of fans too. Iâm getting off on a tangent a little bit, but I was just reading that for people living in the city, they arenât able to access these NHL hockey games. If you're an inner-city person theyâre not accessible. Which I think is interesting. What if there is an opportunity here in that different fans can come in. Maybe there are changes that could be made that would benefit people that didnât have a chance before to attend the game eventually. For example, they are probably going to want to draw fans in and to get them back. So maybe offer some opportunities that werenât available before.âÂ
âI just want to be clear that my statements above were about the NHL. I think the NWHL does a much better job including all different types of people. I feel there is way less discrimination when it comes to womenâs hockey. Thatâs just what Iâve noticed. I am impressed with what the NWHL has been doing so far. I feel that anyone who joins the league seems to be on a mission to spread hockey, and grow the game. I think everyone does their part. I know for a fact. People I go out with, like from the Riveters and the Whale will be at an establishment and theyâll be asking people: Hey, have you heard of this league, the NWHL? They are getting the word out there every chance they get. And then some of those people wind up showing up at a game, which I think is really cool. Word of mouth is often what gets the people to come out. I do think itâs great to do the doubleheaders and have that support from the guys teams.I know that itâs been really helpful to have Colton Orr to be able to do the doubleheaders with the Hat Trickâs. And in the Bridgeport game, I went to the menâs game afterwards, just talking to people who stayed for both. They didnât even know about womenâs hockey at all. They had no idea about the professional league they had no knowledge of it at all. I thought it was really cool that they were willing to go to both games and see what was like and learn a little bit sbout it.â
Cetacean Nation certainly agrees, and as weâve said quite often, all you have to do is get someone in a seat that first game. Like the old Layâs Potato Chip ads used to say: Bet you canât eat just one! The NWHL, especially the Whale, is like that. Come out to one game, and youâll be back for more. Another subject that has come up a few times this off season was perhaps involving some of the NWHL alumni back with the league. We asked Sophia if an alumni players association existed, or if she thought some type of an alumni game or event would be feasible. She explained
 âThereâs is not an official alumni association. But what Iâve noticed is that everyone stays pretty close and in touch. And if thereâs any free ice or pick up games, youâre bound to get invited to it. It will usually be current and former players and once in a while will be just somebody whoâs in college. We all seem to be at similar levels and we all just want to play people that can compete. So thatâs usually why we get the call. I always make sure to invite all the girls to the menâs league too so we can school some old men. So it seems that there would be enough people so that we could form two teams for an alumni game I was always wondering how crazy would it be if we had a fans and players game, kind of like scrimmage together. Because I know Julie Chu and her wife run an adult camp, and Iâve been thinking about that. Just because I feel like I know quite a few adults who just never played hockey and theyâre intimidated by it but they are very interested in it.âÂ
âWhen I played in Germany there was a menâs team that was equivalent tothe womenâs team. They had enough fans that they had their own fans team! They were all first year skaters, but they were having a blast. I think that would be cool if we could do something for the fans like that or we can get them on the ice with them, and you know, do something fun. There are plenty of games we could do. I am all about people doing sports, just getting out there. And speaking of alumni the first time I met Laura Brennan was at a Quinnipiac alumni game. Because I always make sure to go to any hockey opportunities that there are and I usually get the invite to go there, since my sister Olivia went there. Laura Brennan is basically my boss. I work with her at FIA, and she runs the rink. I think she really cares, and sheâs devoted a lot of time and energy. Itâs tough to devote your whole time to it, but I think she puts a lot into the Whale program and sheâs.a natural. She enjoys coaching, that's her life. âÂ
We call Sophia our Swiss Army Knife, both because of the number of sports sheâs involved in, and the number of of tools she can utilize in each one. So we asked Sophia what the future might hold for her as an athlete: She replied
"I was planning to continue playing rugby at a high level. I have been training for it, but unfortunately our season got canceled and thatâs both for the spring and the fall. So I donât know exactly when that will start back up. Itâs so weird to not have any sports, for sure. I wish I could play lacrosse, but thereâs hardly any leagues after you graduate college. You have to go to Europe if you want to play. (Which Sophia has done) itâs not as easy to find a league, but it should be easier. You donât need to rent ice, you can kind of find a field and probably do that for cheap. I mean they do exist, but I donât know if I can find a nice competitive one. The last league I was in was a range of high school through post collegiate. And every once in a while I would be on this 14-year-old girl. I am a defender, so Iâd be just like barking at her. And then I start thinking: I canât do this, this is a 14-year-old child! I donât want to scare her and she drops the ball, and I feel awful. It happens also in hockey too. There was a Connecticut Womenâs Hockey League and the womenâs is not a strong W in there. It could be girls, too. Sometimes you do go up against what are literally children which can be entertaining, but it can be tough to. Because with men, you donât usually get that because thereâs usually enough men to play, where you donât have to invite your little brother:) It can be pretty interesting that way for girls sports. But thatâs kind of a goal actually. How cool would it be to play with your own kid, especially as a Mom. I donât know that many older women playing hockey. I was just talking about that with some of my friends. At my Holy Cross alumni game, we had a 60-year-old woman come out to play with us. And I was like shocke! And I thought I could be 60 and still play! I have hope, I have seen some 70 year old man on skates, so itâs definitely doable.âÂ
As we mentioned earlier, Sophia is a scientist, and she just earned her degree this May graduating as a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering. She also was honored at graduation for her project Cloud Prophecy and Pandemic Prediction. In her last interview Sophia had talked about some of the career paths that her field of study could lead to. So we asked if she was leaning in a particular direction, and that led to a fascinating disclosure.
"OK, thatâs a loaded question, but I think Iâm ready to answer it. I have recently talked to many different professionals in the field to try to get a feel for it. And luckily I met the president of a biomedical company at the rink! He was a ref, and he actually reached out to me. I was in the referees room putting on my skates, and he saw my Whale helmet and started talking to me about that. I told him I was no longer a Whale, and he asked what I was up to. So we got to talking about that, and he ended up sharing with me all these contacts, so that I could see what direction I might go in. So that was really super random, but great,and fortuitous. So I am really lucky right now that I have a job straight out of graduating. The person I worked on my thesis with, is also the owner of a small business. And my thesis paper, which his company actually funded, turned out to be super relevant right now. I was working on a pathogen detection technique which would aid in making a rapid identification of pathogens using visible characteristics. Somyou wouldnât have to necessarily send out something to a lab and wait for results. It would be able to give you kind of a quick assessment of what you have. Itâs a concept piece but it seems to be very relevant, so we are working a little bit more on that in the lab. If you need to write your thesis paper and youâre going to be stuck indoors working on that paper and you have zero excuses to go out, is that not the perfect situation to write a thesis paper? I literally had no choice but to sit down and write it. âÂ
Cetacean Nation thought that it was great that Sophia was able to make the best of this annus horribilis to complete her thesis. And we wondered how many others may have whiled away their time sitting on their coach, binge watching Netflix.  Sophia laughed and said â Iâm going to let you know, you can do both! â A typically Sophia remark,, and so given the opening, we wanted to know what it is sheâs watching.
 âWell, thatâs funny. I really go through things fast. Let me look, I need to see what the most recent thing is. Iâve recently been doing some podcast things because my work commute is like 45 minutes. Itâs not that bad. Actually the current thing Iâm watching and itâs not anything crazy, and I donât think you would want to binge watch this, but itâs called Lenox Hill. Itâs a medical show about a medical practice starting up and the guy focuses on neurosurgery, thereâs also a woman who is in obstetrics and OB/GYN. Just kind of stories which are really like case studies. I just really enjoy hearing the stories of what people go through. They may have had a brain tumor and how the doctors get together to discuss how to give the best chance for survival. I think itâs interesting. Our bodies are so interesting, like how you can lose a sizable chunk of your brain, and it is still functioning and stuff like that I think thatâs so cool. âđł
As Sophia has indicated, coaching is a big part of her athletic career. And we wondered about what style she has developed and who influenced that. She explained.
"My biggest thing that I try to do with these girls, is to be a positive influence and really encourage them to challenge themselves. And when you challenge yourself youâre bound to fail, and thereâs nothing wrong with that. So I try to make sure that even when they do not meet these expectations, Iâm not yelling at them. I motivate them which I think is totally different, but I never tear them down. Because you never want to do that to your athletes. Another thing I strive to do as a coach, is to make sure I fully explain what Iâm coaching. We donât ever do things just to do things, everything has a reason. And if the reason is not forthcoming, itâs because you need to really think about it. And sometimes I wonât explain it to them, Iâll have them do it and then Iâll ask them what they got out of it. And it can be kind of funny at the U12 level, to see what their answers are. Because they havenât fully formed their vocabulary and sometimes answers will be: Well, we did this thing... so that we can get better at this...thing. And thereâs literally no placeholders, itâs just like thing :)"
"We were doing a drill and thereâs some passing involved, and I want them to be aware that soft touches makes sense. Because if you didnât what went wrong? You ended up having to do more work! Itâs almost like the experience is your greatest teacher. You can learn for yourself that not doing it the right way youâre going to do more work. Itâs like the best teacher is when you figure it out yourself, with some help right? Like Iâll be telling them that you use your body to box people out. And then maybe Iâll body them a little, teach âem. One of their favorite drills is I get them to line up and do the gauntlet. When I was in guys hockey, we had this drill called the gauntlet Guys would line up on the boards about a foot off and you would have to skate through them. While they check you One of my drills is getting them confident with dealing with contact, and Iâll just push push them push them to the side push them down to see if they can correct and go towards the net. Iâm not killing themâ, he laughed "but they really do ask me to push them hard. So I will literally and figuratively push them hard. In our case I am the gauntlet just me I canât trust them to do the checking because they will put their whole body into it. Iâve been wanting to do this thing that Iâve done with my lacrosse kids. We get pool noodles and slap at them them as they are going to the net. As theyâd going to the net, weâll wiggle it in their face. It doesnât actually hurt, but itâs distracting for sure, very distracting I think people see sticks or bodies in front of them and theyâre hesitant to go forward. But itâs just a stick, you could run right through it ! And peopleâs bodies arenât always really in front of you, they are kind of off to the side a lot of times or slightly off-balance. And if you just go hard, it should never be an issue.â
She added  âI definitely have somebody who influenced my coaching. The funny thing about my coaching is, I kind of just like stumbled into doing it because of that one Coach. That is my high school lacrosse coach and she ended up making our high school team a State Champions multiple times, she really grew the program. Her name is Stacey Freda. She had me come as a senior to do some camps, which at first I thought was a duty of mine.since I was on the team. And then one day after I had been doing it for weeks, she gave me an envelope and there was money in it. And I was like: What is this? You get paid for this? I just thought I had to do it because I played lacrosse. And so then, since I was being paid for it, it was a job. So it was my first real job actually, ever. From there I continued to work camps for her, and I really learned a lot of her coaching style. She was a little bit scarier than me, Im going to be honest, I think Iâm a little more approachable. Sheâs like five foot tall and a hundred pounds soaking wet, but she was just a very intense, intimidating person. But It was because she had these high expectations for you and you just really wanted to deliver. But at the same time, she did a great job of making practices fun.â
âWe always would start with something that was competitive, lacrosse related, and was fun. So we would do stuff like: youâd have a lacrosse ball, and you'd have a pinne, and it would be like pinne tag. At the same time, it wasnât just pinne tag, It was can you stick handle while moving your hips and being aware of where people are? Keeping your head on a swivel. Again, these things are transferable to hockey or rugby. Now, I do these drills with my girls. You do the same thing, you have the pinne tucked into your pants, and you have the puck on your stick. But can you one second take your hand off that stick and grab that pinne and not lose your puck? Because if you lose the puck it doesnât count. Those are the things I try to take, her games, I love that. I still keep in touch with her. Again, small world right? . She loves hockey but unfortunately her parents didnât let her play it growing up. So she lives somewhat vicariously through her daughter who plays in Massachusetts. Iâve played pond hockey with her actually, at the big pond hockey tournament on Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. It was really fun playing with my coach. It was like me, my lacrosse coach and also my hockey coach, who just had a baby. She was out there on the pond too! It was just a great squad! That was actually two winters ago.âÂ
As we wrapped up,our chat with Sophia, we posed a few stand alone questions on topics we hadnât delved into before with her. And if you follow our social media sites, youâve seen that Sophia is a big proponent of supporting those who support the NWHL, like Dunkinâ Donuts. So whatâs Sophiaâs order when she stops at Dunks?
âIn the summertime itâs definitely just plain iced tea. Extra lemons, squeeze âem. Just hydration. Coffee is great, but Iâm pretty sure if you need to get quenched, youâre going to want something with more water content, less caffeine. And an order of hash browns! Youâll never catch me with a donut. I donât know why, but I donât really like sweet stuff, Fun Fact. And donuts are very sweet.â
Considering her multi sport career, we thought it might be interesting to ask about the most memorable venue where she competed.
âThatâs tough, because now I have to think about the world really. I can think about a couple of places where I thought : What is this? Am I really in a rink? So I would say that the craziest place I played was in Hanover, Germany. They have a Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt) which is a big thing in Germany. Theyâll have these market that pop up, like full cabins pop up in the middle of the city. They put up pine trees and it almost obscures the buildings around you. Youâre walking around and it seems like youâre in the forest, but youâre in the middle of the city. Hanover is a big train hub in Germany, about two hours from Berlin and below Hamburg, so itâs an intersection of sorts. Thereâs a very big plaza and they made an ice rink, a temporary ice rink, that was in the center of this Christmas Market. And of course our hockey team (Hanover Scorpions) got invited to skate on there, a little practice session. And we got dressed in one of the cabins, and itâs got this rustic cabin feel, with a fireplace. And not only that, but there was a drink shop and a snack shop facing the rink. You could get what is called Gluhwein which is hot mulled wine, and you could get a German donut, They have basically fried dough balls which are like very good. Not as sweet, I would say. They were perfect :) And I could do that,I was about to, but I didnt, because my coach was there:) But itâs definitely a different culture. I think at some of the rinks people were smoking in the stands, some of them are outdoors. The uniforms from my team the Scorpions tried to mimic the Sechsundneunzig, the 96erâs of Hanover, which is a soccer team. Similar color and stripe theme. Football, soccer over there, is the sport. That is what everyone is about. Soccer? Everyone is watching it thatâs whatâs on TV.â
Sophia is a big Boston Bruins fan, so Cetacean Nation was not surprised that they figured into her answer to our question about her favorite moment as a fan. She revealed
âI think I had a great time going to my first Bruins game. I had been a very big fan of them, watching them on TV. I really picked up watching them in 2011, which is when they won the Stanley Cup, that was like random, and luckily they won it all. I was super invested from the start of the season, and so when I went to my first game and saw them as real human beings moving on the ice, I was like shell shocked. I think itâs definitely something else to be at the arena. Iâve gone to many games since, not just the Bruins, but being in a big arena and seeing the people you look up to play on the ice, itâs just something. I feel the same way when I see the NWHL players play, but unfortunately Iâm friends with most of them. I see them outside the arena, so itâs not like theyâre mythical people. But those Bruins players to me, I didnât know if they were real or not, and then there they were. I almost could touch them, it was weird.â Â Cetacean Nation has seen the look that must have been on Sophiaâs face, many times on the faces of our a Little Future Draft Picks watching and interacting with the Pod.
So now, as a player, we asked what was her favorite âSophia nailed itâ moment? Â
"So, your phrasing on that on has changed my opinion on what Iâm going to say. So when I played lacrosse in college at Holy Cross, I had a special role. Everyone finds that role on a team, right? If youâre on offense youâre the scorer, if your the goalie youâre stopping things. But on defense you donât imagine them having a very specific role. But my role in this particular game, we were playing our rival, they were the best team in the Patriot League, this was Navy. They had a player who was, like on the cover of a magazine, she was a big deal. And my job was to facegaurd her, follow her around, facing her, nose to nose. Kind of like Avery, who when he was with the Rangers, skated up to the goalie and shook his stick in his face so he couldnât see. Which is definitely not normal. But in lacrosse you do this faceguarding thing. Itâs a similar mindset, youâre trying to get in peopleâs heads, really not giving them a chance to do their job. This girlâs job was to score, my job was to make sure she didnât touch the ball. So in this game we ultimately ended up,losing, but that girl, she had to go off the field. She got the ball, once, and I was so tight on her she ended up falling as she was taking a shot and she had to leave the field. And when she came back, she was crying. So I knew I had really gotten to her so I was proud of myself " she laughed " I didnât do anything to her physically, but I did get to her. And at the end of the day, it was an accomplishment. Because she did not score a single point. I donât know any other sport where that is allowed, it seems wrong:) I was told to step on her feet, maybe wave my stick in her face, but we literally breathed the same air. Her tears almost fell on my shoes. It ainât right, but I didnât try to hurt her, I just didnât let her get any space physically.
Cetacean Nation once again thanks our amazing #10 Sophia Agostinelli, the player who suggested there be a Cetacean Nation entity in the first place, for once again sharing her wit and wisdom with the fans here. If this is your first meeting with Sophia, while you are here you might want to view her other stories on the site as well, listed just above this one. And further down towards the bottom, in the story âExpanding Horizonsâ. It was the original interview, so fittingly , it has some input from Sophia, a true American Original herself. Fins Up Forever Sophia! .