ALISO VIEJO, CA :: We kicked off the FALL/WINTER season of TEAM OC with 8 hours of laxin' and reflectin' and sprintin' in the bright sunshine at Aliso Niguel HS. BOUNCE CEO CRISTA SAMARAS came all the way from NYC to host the day of skills, drills, scrimmaging, fitness and of course, SO BE IT training.
"The point of a SO BE IT day is to get the girls thinking about their own lives; to reflect on who they are and begin to identify what they want based on those discoveries," says Samaras. "There were so many ways I might have benefited making better life decisions had I had someone or some organization to help me stop ... slow down ... and think about the things I really wanted to pursue."
Bounce Entertainment is the parent company of TEAM OC and "BOUNCE" - as it is known in the lacrosse world - is specifically recognized for it's interest and affect on middle school to high school aged girls, encouraging self esteem through writing + refection and working to help girls fill up with good stuff - confidence, independence, knowledge, resource - from the inside out.
The BOUNCE slogan is "You are who you are. So, BE it." B/E stands for BOUNCE ENTERTAINMENT and each member + coach is challenged to come up with their own "BE" word.
"It's a long day on purpose," says Samaras, who designed a national campaign using top names in both the men's and women's game to get this message across in 2007. "Girls need to get physically exhausted before they are willing to open up and share. The program is designed for them to go inside themselves and put their thoughts/feelings on paper."
This was the first ever SO BE IT day for the BOUNCE clubs and according to TEAM OC DIRECTOR SUZETTE SOBOTI, it was a smashing success. "Our girls were better on the field coming out of the classroom with Crista. There was a strong sense of individual responsibility that translated from the essay writing to the field, which was interesting to see happen in real time."
TEAM OC members each wrote and handed in over 6 pages of work, all read only by Crista. "We keep the audience singular so that each person knows that her/his work is contained," explain Samaras, who runs the same programming for the other 3 BOUNCE club teams.
As a part of a great year of lacrosse for TEAM OC members, the SO BE IT day was a great mid-year event to connect all of the training practices, scrimmaging, tournaments, fitness stuff and pot luck tailgates all in one day.
