Soccer Trips

I have had many soccer trips over the years, but I'll write about a few of the more memorable ones. They were to Toronto, Iowa, Dallas, and Memphis.

The trip to Toronto was a last minute plan. I was asked to play only a few days before we were to leave, but I gave up all of my hours at work so that I could go. I rode with Coach Rogers, Emily, Jill, and Maggie (Emily and Maggie are Coach's daughters). It was July and about half way there, the air conditioning breaks. We were definitely hot, but we had a fun trip playing different games. When we were finally nearing Toronto, Jill told Coach that it seemed like there was a short-cut off the high-way. It ended up not being a short cut as you can imagine, with "single" lanes and people driving on the parallel parking as long as there wasn't a car there. The team stayed at a college, the dorms were actually pretty nice, especially since we only had to be there for a weekend. We played well, advancing to the semi-finals, but we couldn't make it to the finals. Although it didn't end up how we wanted, it was a good weekend.

Iowa was probably my favorite place to play. It was the first weekend in August so it would be ridiculously hot, but we always played our best soccer there. It was a college showcase, so tons of coaches from the Midwest would come to watch us play and try to recruit us. We stayed in the same hotel for both years, and the day before our first game, we would take a run along the Mississippi River to loosen our legs from the long drive. For some reason that showcase brought out the best in us.

Another tournament that we went to was in Dallas. It was a college showcase, but still had a champion. Our playing was definitely not the best part of the trip. We had three games, two of which were against the North Texas State Champs and the South Texas State Champs and we lost 0-6 and 0-3. It didn't help not being able to have our coach with us. But my fondest memory of the trip has going to a steakhouse and squaredancing. We also got a picture of all of us on their two story slide.

Our team also went to Memphis for a tournament. It was strange because it was in the first week of December, so all of the grass was dead, but there wasn't any snow. Since we were in Memphis we went to the home of Elvis Presley; it's pretty insane. We also went downtown Memphis and went to a piano bar for dinner. All of the tournaments that we went on ended up being a great experience.