Yesterday we brought you this fantastic hockey goal from the University of Richmond. The goal was scored by Rebecca Barry who orignally hails from Limerick and is a student athlete who plays for the Richmond Spiders. We got in touch with Rebecca to talk about the goal, being on ESPN and 3D skills.
On the GAA factor growing up.
My family have always been big into the GAA and we live in the parish of Ballybricken Bohermore so from when I could walk, I had a hurley or a gaelic football in my hands. I have three brothers, two of whom who are sports mad, so they really toughened me up! I played for the local club with the boys teams from when I was about 5 or 6 until I was about 13 in both hurling and football. Whenever we had free time at home, my brothers and I would always be out in the back garden puckin around for the want of a more culchie term!
They would have me out in the garden hitting balls until the sun went down, it was always full throttle even though I could never hit the ball as hard as they could! My hand-eye coordination was forced to be good because it was a case of block/catch the sliotar or you'll be getting hit on the body with the ball time after time! I honestly believe that this has helped me. When the ball is lifted from the ground in hockey, it's called 3D skills. My natural instinct is to use 3D skills, I can't help but want to get it off the ground. Sometimes this is a great thing, other times it can be a bad thing.
On being on ESPN and the reaction overall.
The reaction to the goal has been absolutely incredible. I can't believe it. When the goal went in on Sunday I never for once second thought that all this would come of it. Only in America! Our team's media guy, Mark Kwolek, is hugely talented at what he does and puts so much effort into our videos always so the fact that this video has gotten more airtime than I think any of us could have ever expected truly is testament to his constant hard work. My phone has been blowing up since Sunday night between Twitter, Facebook, e-mails and texts. It is fantastic and it's great publicity for our team and athletic department but my feet are firmly on the ground. I'm determined not to let one goal define our season. We have absolutely no silverware to show for this season as it stands, in the coming weeks we will have the opportunity to attain some so all eyes are focused directly towards this.
I was tweeted this morning about it being on ESPN and I have to admit, as ignorant as it sounds, I wasn't really sure what that meant. I had to be told that like it's a pretty big deal... typical Irish person I suppose! I was getting texts and calls left, right and centre. I ran to Ryan's office to go watch it and it was so surreal seeing it up there. The weirdest thing was that Lebron James and Lionel Messi featured in this top 10 plays... my mind was blown! To everyone who has asked me about it, I have the same reply. I am just the luckiest girl in the world. Dad always tells me that you make your own luck and I agree, but there is a certain element that can be on your side in a certain moment. This was one of those moments.
On playing with the club again.
I had to choose to play just hockey when it started getting more serious when I was about 13 or 14 so this meant that hurling and football fell by the wayside. However, last summer I got back to playing football with my club, St.Ailbes LGFC based in Ballybricken too. I trained with them and played a couple of matches but had to come to America so missed them winning the county title and going onto make it to the Munster semi final. When I'm home for good, I plan on playing with them again.
Rebecca keeps a blog of her American dream here. We are now committed Richmond Spider fans.
