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My Visit with the Fighting Irish

Two weeks ago I went to Notre Dame, the home of the Fighting Irish, my first time visiting a college. The campus was wonderful, filled with so many great attractions. When I entered the first thing I saw was Notre Dame Stadium, the home of Notre Dame’s football team.

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Notre Dame Stadium was huge, surrounded by big parking lots just for football games! As my mom, my dad, and I walked to the front of the athletic complex, we met Notre Dame’s dietician, Kayla . She took us into the “Gug” (pronounced Goog), to give us a tour of the 96,000-square foot complex. When we walked in the main hallway we saw all of Notre Dame’s Heisman Trophies. In the center of the hallway we saw the BCS Trophy and a bronze sculpture of the four horsemen. All of their trophies, titles and awards were beautiful.

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The first room we went into was their main training facility. There were weights, treadmills, and many other machines. Right next to the machines there was one big astroturf field. Next to it they had big coolers of chocolate milk for players to use as recovery drinks. It was so cool. In the hallway we saw dozens of college students from other schools waiting to compete in a track and field meet. We went past all of the kids into the track and field facility. The track was amazing. We saw one machine that looked like a giant egg. It measured the athletes’ body mass.

After we had a tour of the track and field facility we finally got to go inside the football facility. It was so amazing. They had life-sized graphics of the Notre Dame football players on their walls. We got to see their wide receiver classroom and their linebacker classroom. The classrooms had plays for each position written on a piece of paper at their desks. It was awesome. We met two players while we were walking around; the punter and the long snapper.

After looking at the football facility we went to the Notre Dame men’s hockey facility. We got to see their newly renovated hockey arena. The first thing we saw was their hockey meeting hall. The meeting area was huge. There was a big screen behind the podium where the coaches could explain plays. Then we went to see their off-ice, state-of-the-art machines. My favorite machine measured the speed of your shot. It was on synthetic ice with a net. Players take a shot on net and the machine tells them the speed of their shot in miles per hour. We were not allowed to try it, but they did let me on the Notre Dame bench. It was really high. After sitting on the bench for a while they let me go on the ice. The ice was so smooth and shiny. The people giving us a tour, Nick and Bill, saved the best for last. They showed us the Fighting Irish locker room. It was magnificent, blue and gold (Notre Dame’s colors). I got to see their newly painted gold helmets in their lockers for their game against Bowling Green.

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That night I went to my first college hockey game, Notre Dame versus Bowling Green. Notre Dame ended up winning a very close game 4-3. Notre Dame men’s and women’s athletics are so amazing that they are ranked in the top 25 nationally in almost every sport they play. Going to Notre was such a great experience. It was so magnificent that I would take a plane from New York City over to South Bend, Indiana any day of the week. Some day I hope to play for the Fighting Irish.