So going to work for the NHL was a dream come true for many people. It meant that everyone went to hockey games. As such, it attracted a lot of people who went on to play for the AHL and NHL. There weren’t a lot of schools in Pennsylvania that could claim to have an ice rink. Back when I was in school, hockey was my high school’s sport. If I had to be honest, I was excited to familiarize myself with the NHL again. Not, however, so disappointed that I planned to turn down the massive pay rise the Pumas promised me. I was sad to leave Washington DC for Salt Lake and to leave the NFL for the NHL. The Pumas headhunted me! To be headhunted as a nutritionist was a huge deal. Their diets are so specific, every player their own challenge.Īnd yet, the day I was approached by the Salt Lake Pumas felt just as exciting as the Washington Bears had. Working with professional athletes was so different than just working with so-called normal people. It was the toughest job I’d ever had but I loved every minute of it. How could it? Being asked to become the official nutritionist to an NFL team was career-changing! Life-changing, even!Īnd it had been, too. I was certain back then that absolutely nothing would ever beat that thrill. The day I got the call from the Washington Bears was one of the most exciting days in my life. Subscribe to Camellia Tate’s Newsletter for updates and subscriber-only content! Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Yet, as we travelled, I began to wonder if I was partly to blame for the tension that boiled between us.© 2020 Camellia Tate.

He was the richest, most stuck-up player on the team and his old-fashioned ideas of chivalry drove me up the wall. Between matches, I could tour each new city to my heart’s content. Jumping from Berlin and Amsterdam gave me the taste of travel that I’d always wanted.

It would have been fine, had I not come to depend on her…īeing promoted right before the European Cup playoffs was a dream come true. She saw only what she wanted to see: a fortunate player standing in the way of her independence. Was it any wonder that I occasionally misplaced important equipment?Īccording to Neve, our unforgiving equipment manager, it was all my fault. Add in the constant travel and a different bed every other night and you’d have me, overtired and underperforming. The competition was heating up, and insomnia was my own private nightmare - not a good match.

Best Shot by Camellia Tate