All-Star Ultimate Tour Blog | Revived

In partnership with the Tour, Skyd is pleased to present articles from the Tour Blog.

By Hayley Wahlroos

This team is saving my sanity and rebooting my love for this beautiful sport. It’s the first time in a long while in which there is nothing to lose. I’ve found it’s an interesting space to move through in a situation as unique as this opportunity. It comes down to what the end goal is, I think. If you came to me two months ago and asked what I’d hope to get out of my college season, I’d tell you it was to win a National title. With that goal comes an outstanding amount of pressure, right? High stakes, high reward, little room to work with. I’ve been reminded recently that winning is only one aspect of the game that should be focused on. It’s been a liberating experience to get to run out on the field and not have to worry about the outcome. If you came to me, today, with the same question of what I hope to get out of this tour, I’d tell you with full honesty that my goal is what has been ingrained in our mission statement- to showcase the best women in ultimate.

It’s an absolute privilege being able to play along side these women. It’s rare to come into a team atmosphere that has such a high level of trust and respect for each other right off the bat. I feel that with teams of this sort, the kind in which we have no background of practicing or creating a team identity for months together, feel fake and forced. The All Star team doesn’t feel anything like that. It feels natural to be playing and hanging out with the players on this team. It feels like we’ve been together for a whole season. I think it, again, comes down to sharing a common goal. We’re all willing to step up and be responsible for the incredible history that’s being made.

Around every corner, I’m still surprised with how much people are willing to give to make this Tour go about with ease. Even the people on this tour with us, working behind the scenes to pull this project off, have given so much. Like today, we found ourselves pulling over almost every hour, maybe even less, to let van cool off a bit – our van has an engine that loves the attention from our handy man, Xtehn. It was especially touchy, seeing as it was 100 degrees outside and we needed to go up in elevation to get through Oregon. At the rate we were going, who knows where we would have been by now. The players are now all piled into the trailer-less van, cruising our way through the flat bare lands in the middle of nowhere.  Our crew was nice enough to bite the bullet and get the other van, aka the sauna on wheels, through the hills. The adaptability was on point and the support was even more incredible. It’s a real breath of fresh air witnessing such selflessness through out this experience so far.