The Wait Is Over

Proceed If You Dare

Tuesday morning began with the league delivering a communique to all eight teams' coaches regarding the game schedule for Wednesday, a schedule for Thursday and Friday for both those going to Chicago and those remaining in Orlando, and a re-iteration that players had until midnight to inform the in-house league office if they wish to be on the Red Stars' charter on Thursday morning.

The Boston Breakers are at the Disney Complex at their usual time, 10am, with work being focused on player combinations to use in their match tomorrow evening against Orlando. The Eastern Conference front-runners need a draw to advance to the Hollywood Studios Cup final, but can win the group with a loss provided their +5 goal differential isn't lowered too much by Orlando or surpassed by Atlanta, who plays Philadelphia prior to the Breakers/Pride match. With the primary objective of the day being those outside the first XI, Steph Labbe uses the first portion of practice for a sit-down with Adam.

Steph: Are you in here, Adam?

Adam: Well, if it isn't Steph Labbe, or as Marc and his niece's lacrosse team would say, Steph La Bae.

Steph giggles. "Really?!"

Adam: Yes. You have quite a following up in Milwaukee. In fact, Marc gives you one of the biggest compliments imaginable whenever your name comes up. He's got a fanboy crush on you, even though he knows you're gay. Anyhow, Marc says that you're the best of both worlds: Buff, can bench press a small truck, but is the kind of woman you want your parents to meet.

Steph: That is really sweet, but I don't know about the truck thing. I'm not as strong as I may look. Yoga is more my speed for cross-training, not lifting.

Adam: I'll have to tell him that. I was actually hoping you'd stop in sometime this week.

Steph: Why's that?

Adam: I've been dealing a lot with relationship issues with the players, both start-of and end-of, but not much with mental illness and how to manage it on and off the field. Since you are one of the very few players in the league who has been public about your struggles in this area, I wanted to get some feedback about what techniques work and don't work in the real world of professional sports to keep your symptoms at bay

Steph: Well, you're going to get a bit of both from me today.

Adam: I'm aware that you and Georgia (?) are no longer together. My daughter seems to have the scoop on EVERYTHING coming through the league's gossip mill.

Steph: How old is she?

Adam: 13, so old enough to get on the social media sites but still too young to be able to tell truth from fiction there.

Steph: That piece of gossip is true. We broke up two weeks ago.

Adam: Any specific reason why?

Steph: I think it boiled down to being at different stages of life. She wanted to keep competing, as did I. I wanted to have a child as well, and since I am beyond a reasonable age to do that without intervention, she probably felt put-upon by me to give up her career so we could start a family. Any other reasons she might have had are just speculation on my part.

Adam: This is a good segue for me to ask about your depression and anxiety, since both of those can easily ramp up after a loss such as that.

Steph: Once the initial shock passed and I cried my eyes out over it, I got a little bit bitter, but one of our coaches, who is my age but retired a couple of years ago for off-the-field reasons, reached out to me along with John's wife, Clare, who I've known for about a decade now as a result of my time with the Canadian National Team. Combined, they were able to take a bit of the sting out of the loss and allow me to return my focus to giving the Breakers my utmost effort.