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Val's WPS Foot-notes: Take A Seat
Philadelphia Independence keeper Val Henderson gives a behind-the-scenes take of everyday life with the WPS expansion club. In the latest installment, Val talks about the adventures of boarding a plane.
Aug 14, 2010 3:38:00 PM
By Val Henderson
As a team the Philadelphia Independence is pretty professional. We know that everywhere we go, we’re representing our club, and we act accordingly. Mature, friendly, professional.
But when we were boarding our plane on the way home from beating Chicago this week, I’m not sure that maturity or professionalism would’ve been the first words used to describe our team as we boarded the airplane.
You may be familiar with Southwest’s brilliant boarding process. You can check in 24 hours in advance and those who check in earliest are rewarded with the first selection of seats. The first to check in gets A1, second A2, up to A60, then B1 and so on. So if you’re on top of it, you go online the night before your flight and get yourself an A spot.
Group check-in is not quite so simple. As a team we’re not able to check in before, so whenever we show up at the airport we keep our fingers crossed that the other people on our flight didn’t think ahead or beat us to the airport. If we get in the early B’s we still get good seats.
Karina LeBlanc (KK) is the team travel liaison. Having been a coach herself, she is experienced with handling any problems that occur en route. She’s the first to go in the airport and get us quickly checked in - once even telling an un-cooperating airline that they were our sponsors and how could they not check us in as a team?
On our first trip to Chicago a mishap had us arriving at the checkout counter after the 30-minute ticket lockout, and we faced with having to stay another night away from home, but KK came to the rescue. Thanks to our sweet-talking player/travel liaison, the lockout was overridden and the plane waited for us. We still all had to hustle through security and sprint to our gate, but when we finally found our seats, we were all thinking: “Thank goodness for KK.”
But with KK’s services come a price. KK feels a perk of her help is that she can cut in front of our team come boarding time. Last trip we let her through. The whole team was in the early B’s and no one was really in danger of getting squashed between two unlikable passengers anyway. Everyone was going to get a window or aisle seat regardless of whether or not KK went first.
However this time around, holding onto C tickets, players were not so gung-ho on mixing up the order. If you were C 5, you were not planning on giving way to C12 for example. That could mean life or death. That could be the difference of a middle or window. These are high stakes, people.
KK’s attempt to go out of turn put us all in the mood for advancement, so when C was called, we were all prepared to fight to be first. Like fifth graders, we struggled to step in front of each other and hand our boarding passes to the gate agent. Under the arm, over the arm, waving the ticket in her face. Take mine, please take mine first! We were careful to only push each other and not the agent, but that was about the only control we showed.
Once through the door and onto the jet-way we may as well have changed from a professional soccer team to a pro wrestling team as we banged back and forth, struggling to stay in front. Box out techniques, pushing and shoving, an intense game of jell-o.
I slammed Tina into Danesha to advance two spots while Mittsy athletically spun around them to stay with me. Frida and Buzz sandwiched Lianne who actually fell on the ground right at the entrance to the plane, and we attempted to step through the doorway pretending we weren’t being ridiculous. The flight crew stood greeting the oncoming passengers and watched us with amusement. In good humor the captain said: “If you girls don’t cut it out, I will pull this plane over!” We found seats, still giggling and frazzled, but all in one piece.
So maybe we can’t act like adults all the time, but at least we always pull it together when actually necessary. No one on the plane was disturbed, and if anything people were excited to know who we were. Your Philadelphia Independence of course: professional on and off the field, but always very, very competitive. (I got an aisle seat, by the way).
See us compete some more - this time on the same side - Sunday at home against Atlanta. Beat the Beat!
For more on Women's Professional Soccer, visit Goal.com's WPS page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page!
But when we were boarding our plane on the way home from beating Chicago this week, I’m not sure that maturity or professionalism would’ve been the first words used to describe our team as we boarded the airplane.
You may be familiar with Southwest’s brilliant boarding process. You can check in 24 hours in advance and those who check in earliest are rewarded with the first selection of seats. The first to check in gets A1, second A2, up to A60, then B1 and so on. So if you’re on top of it, you go online the night before your flight and get yourself an A spot.
Group check-in is not quite so simple. As a team we’re not able to check in before, so whenever we show up at the airport we keep our fingers crossed that the other people on our flight didn’t think ahead or beat us to the airport. If we get in the early B’s we still get good seats.
Karina LeBlanc (KK) is the team travel liaison. Having been a coach herself, she is experienced with handling any problems that occur en route. She’s the first to go in the airport and get us quickly checked in - once even telling an un-cooperating airline that they were our sponsors and how could they not check us in as a team?
On our first trip to Chicago a mishap had us arriving at the checkout counter after the 30-minute ticket lockout, and we faced with having to stay another night away from home, but KK came to the rescue. Thanks to our sweet-talking player/travel liaison, the lockout was overridden and the plane waited for us. We still all had to hustle through security and sprint to our gate, but when we finally found our seats, we were all thinking: “Thank goodness for KK.”
But with KK’s services come a price. KK feels a perk of her help is that she can cut in front of our team come boarding time. Last trip we let her through. The whole team was in the early B’s and no one was really in danger of getting squashed between two unlikable passengers anyway. Everyone was going to get a window or aisle seat regardless of whether or not KK went first.
However this time around, holding onto C tickets, players were not so gung-ho on mixing up the order. If you were C 5, you were not planning on giving way to C12 for example. That could mean life or death. That could be the difference of a middle or window. These are high stakes, people.
KK’s attempt to go out of turn put us all in the mood for advancement, so when C was called, we were all prepared to fight to be first. Like fifth graders, we struggled to step in front of each other and hand our boarding passes to the gate agent. Under the arm, over the arm, waving the ticket in her face. Take mine, please take mine first! We were careful to only push each other and not the agent, but that was about the only control we showed.
Once through the door and onto the jet-way we may as well have changed from a professional soccer team to a pro wrestling team as we banged back and forth, struggling to stay in front. Box out techniques, pushing and shoving, an intense game of jell-o.
I slammed Tina into Danesha to advance two spots while Mittsy athletically spun around them to stay with me. Frida and Buzz sandwiched Lianne who actually fell on the ground right at the entrance to the plane, and we attempted to step through the doorway pretending we weren’t being ridiculous. The flight crew stood greeting the oncoming passengers and watched us with amusement. In good humor the captain said: “If you girls don’t cut it out, I will pull this plane over!” We found seats, still giggling and frazzled, but all in one piece.
So maybe we can’t act like adults all the time, but at least we always pull it together when actually necessary. No one on the plane was disturbed, and if anything people were excited to know who we were. Your Philadelphia Independence of course: professional on and off the field, but always very, very competitive. (I got an aisle seat, by the way).
See us compete some more - this time on the same side - Sunday at home against Atlanta. Beat the Beat!
For more on Women's Professional Soccer, visit Goal.com's WPS page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page!
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