In 2008, the Jills once again held their annual Golf Tournament at Fox Valley Country Club in Lancaster, NY. With a 48-girl squad, there was no shortage of girls to handle all the duties that were needed. As was typical with these tournaments, family members were a big part of the group attending, including, but not limited to, Lisa's father. It was only the 1st time I met Lisa's dad, who is a true gentleman. After that, I saw him at other golf tournaments, some games, and even sat next to him and his wife in Toronto in 2010 after I got a ticket in the Jills section.
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| Lisa and her dad |
I always looked forward to the Golf Tourney and even took vacation days for it once I knew the date because it was the 1st public event where the entire squad (or the majority of it at least) was together after having gotten to bond over months of practices. The way it was set up, I was able to talk to a lot of the girls that I wouldn't at games.
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| rookies Ashley (now a captain with the TopCats) and Dana |
A staple of the golf tournaments has been the auctioning off of some of the Jills as caddies and filling that role in 2008 was a quartet of Ambassadors, Amanda F, Katherine, Danielle, and Laura.
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| Amanda F, Katherine, Danielle, and Laura |
Before the tournament started, golfers grabbed lunch, signed up for different games, and posed for photos with some of the Jills, who also were more than happy to grab photos with squadmates they bonded with over the summer.
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| rookies Alecia and Kristin M |
One pairing of Jills was particularly significant. 2nd year vet Angelina was the shortest girl on the squad at 5' tall and was especially excited when rookie dancer Amelina joined the squad at 4'11". The two bonded over their lack of height and proved that great things can come in small packages as what they lacked in height, they more than made up for in energy while performing.
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| Angelina and Amelina |
Before long, it was time to hit the links and my 1st stop was to visit with Lisa and Rita. Lisa and I always got along great, and she proved how much she valued me later in the season. But that day, she decided to have a little fun with me when I visited them and gave me a nickname of her own because she didn't like the one I had.
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| Lynn, Rita, and Lisa just as they were heading out to the course |
As I got started leaving for another hole, one of the club's staff came by and dropped off a spare golf cart for me to use. I wasn't against walking the course but the cart was a big help! It gave me the ability to make more visits, which translated to more photos and allowed me to help the girls get back to the clubhouse at the end of their shifts if need be. I made a few visits with different pairings over the next few hours with some memorable conversations, like the one I had with Amelina and Stephanie Br about social media. Lynn had an early shift that day and after she finished up her shift at the one hole with Murissa, she decided to hang with me for a little bit as well as visit with a few friends who were on the course.
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| Stephanie Br, Amelina, and Lynn |
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| Lynn with her pals |
With the caddy auctions that happened every year, sometimes the girls ended up with a friend or family member. In 2008, Amanda F and Danielle went to the same foursome, with two of the golfers being people they knew pretty well.
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| Holly and Kristin B pose for a photo with Danielle, Amanda F, and their group. |
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| Laura giving golf a shot |
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| Sarah teeing off |
Over the years, we were generally pretty lucky in regards to weather. We had warm and sunny weather without it being unbearably hot each year. Towards the end of the day in 2008 however, we had a small cloudburst. It certainly wasn't as bad as any of the rainfall that Western NY has experienced over the summer of 2014 but it did startle us a bit. At the time, I was visiting with rookies Kristin B and Holly and when it started, Holly immediately jumped into my golf cart while Kristin and I were under the shade of some trees. It only lasted a few minutes and it wasn't long until the tourney wrapped up afterwards.
Upon completion of the tournament itself, Holly and Kristin rode back to the clubhouse with me where more of the girls were waiting to cover the dinner shift. I hadn't seen a lot of these ladies since the Congratulatory Party so they were more than happy to pose for lots of pictures while the golfers arrived back to the clubhouse to sit down for dinner.
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| Jenica and Val |
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| Sarah, Alecia, Jenica, Dr Amanda, and Holly |
During dinner, the Jills put on a 3-part dance performance that kept the golfers' eyes glued to the dance floor. Luckily, it was early in the meal so the food didn't get cold! Unfortunately, with the big bay windows behind the dancers, lighting didn't work out as well for the video as I would've liked.
The photo taking extended into dinner as I hung back with the girls to grab photos of them handing out raffle prizes.
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| Jill R and Jenica |
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| Christina and Jennifer |
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| Val, Alecia, and Jenica |
You can see all the pics at
https://buffaloprocheerbuffalojills.shutterfly.com/pictures/7502
From the Bandettes comes a photo taken in the 2nd quarter of the 2nd home game against the Toronto Rock. Shown dancing up a storm are Amanda and Kelsey. 3rd year vet Amanda started her Bandettes career as an ambassador while Kelsey, who just finished her 2nd year, spent the 2014 season in the running for NLL Girl of The Year!
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| Amanda and Kelsey |
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