This is a dimension I feel really eluded the Northern Virginia Royals last year. Granted, many of us had played together before, but team never came together as a whole and it hurt us. We are doing better this year, nurturing familiarity. On Saturday we had no choice but to become familiar. We were tied 1-1 against the Reading Rage in Reading when lightning struck about midway through the second half. Inside the visiting locker room we sat for the next three hours waiting for the game to be called.

If you have ever been in a locker room then you know they are not exactly like Disney World. There is only so much entertainment you can conjure up from tile floors and rusty lockers. But entertainment we did conjure, with the aid of some athletic tape and two adjacent benches. Max Greissbach created a soccer tennis net and it was all downhill from there. I would be lying if I told you the time flew by. All of us would agree it was probably some of the longer three hours any of us had lived through. But it did give us time to bond a little bit and find a singular focus for the season.

The PDL isn’t just a means for staying in shape for the college season. This isn’t a way to kill time during the summer. We are playing for our pride and reputations as players. And while it is a historical fact that the Royals have struggled for much of the club’s existence I would like to think every time a player steps onto the field he or she is playing their heart out. With so many games it can be easy to lose focus and I think last Saturday brought everyone back to reality. On the bus ride back from Reading, we joked and laughed and screwed around. Though unspoken, there was one though on everyone’s mind - we have a lot to prove this season.