Johanna Kytola has a column featured in Innebandymagazinet.se!

Here is what Johanna wrote in English which was later translated to Swedish:

First Impressions – Team Canada
How is it to play our first WFC?

As the debutants in the 2007 Women’s World Floorball Championships, Team Canada came to Frederikshaven not fully knowing what to expect. Regardless of the unknown that awaited us, everyone was thrilled to be given the opportunity to be a part of this historical team!

While the majority of players were able to play together for the first time over Easter weekend at the Canada Cup Floorball
Championships in Toronto (www.thecanadacup.com) many met for the first time just 8 days ago in Lund, Sweden where we played our first exhibition game as Team Canada! However, it was only during the national anthems at our very first WFC game against Germany that it really sunk in that we were representing Canada.

“I was just in awe of being in international competition. To see Canadian flags in the rafters it really hit me that we are representing Canada and for the first time for women” said Mariko Kusano #10 Forward.

“I was impressed by how official everything is and how well it is organized” Sonja Hotke #8 Forward

“I felt very welcomed by everyone on the organizing committee and also that people seemed really excited to see Team Canada and see how we would do. I was honored that so many people followed our progress throughout the WFC” Alison Quinn #5 Defense

During the course of the WFC Team Canada really came together as a team and instilled a spirit of never giving up. This spirit carried us to come back in games against Spain and Australia, which ended scores of 7-7 and 6-6 respectively. Team Canada also experienced some floorball ‘lessons’ as our 8 or 9 penalties attest to in our first game. Regardless of the penalties the team was continually learning and working to improve our play as a collective while loving every minute!

Kati Suomela, Team Canada’s head coach, worked not only to develop the team in a short period of time but also inspired the team to excel despite being at the WFC for the first time.

While this was Team Canada’s first time at the world championships it certainly will not be their last. Team Canada is leaving this tournament with a smile and energized to develop for WFC 2009. As the team would say,

“Hey Canada…Hey What? Hey Canada….Hey What? Show us how to get down… No Way! Show us how to get down….OK! Gooooooo Canada!!!”

Keep up the great work, girls!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 5:19 am and is filed under Women's National Team. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.