Today was finally the day that the group has been waiting for all week, tournament day! The Friendship Four is the only NCAA Division I hockey tournament outside of the United States. The teams competing are from the ECAC and Hockey East conferences.

Myself and the three other Athletic Training students got to the arena early to meet with the athletic trainers we would be working with during the tournament so we could introduce ourselves to them and their teams. It turns out our professors connected with the Athletic Trainers of each of the teams competing and they agreed to allow us6 to shadow them during the games...it was so exciting!

After introductions we met back up with the group and attended a panel discussion where Mayor Marty Walsh from Boston was the keynote speaker. It was such an amazing opportunity to see him in person and understand the impact he's made with cities all around the world. If it weren't for him and the city of Belfast, this tournament would not exist, and the 12 of us would not be able to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Afterwards, the AT students split up from the rest of the group again to do our individual jobs for game time. Myself and Renee were assigned to work with Northeastern who played at 3PM vs. UNH. Abby and Kaylee were assigned to Princeton and Colgate who played at 7PM. Northeastern won 4-0 and is headed to the championship tomorrow vs. Colgate who won 3-1! Meanwhile the rest of the students sat in a luxury suite taking game statistics for the sports information directors of the teams completing for the media. Everyone was involved with the tournament in some capacity! We even has an opportunity to provide the entertainment during intermission as participants in a bubble hockey match. It was so fun!

Getting to work with the ATs was super cool cause we got to be down on the ice with the team, see the intensity of Division I hockey, and Renee and I were even able to see an ultrasound and other orthopedic evaluations. Day 1 of the tournament was such a success and we're all excited for tomorrow, the championship game!