We woke up bright and early Saturday morning to get to the field to warm up for Savannah's 9:30 game. Unfortunately, of the three games that Northern Elite was guaranteed to play, only one fell on Saturday; the other two would be on Sunday. So basically we had traveled all the way to Florida for this tournament for Savannah to play in one game, maybe two if they made it to the championship game Monday morning. But we were already having a ton of fun and were just so happy to be there! Since this was her only game of the tournament, this post is gonna have a lot of pictures!!
The games were held at the ESPN Wild World of Sports Complex.
This is what we came for!
Starting the day off with a little dabbing.
My cute Disney soccer girl.
Savannah's awesome team.
Getting their "tough" on.
Lookin' tough and super cute - Savannah and Cassidy. Claire's mom had made the whole team the Disney headbands.
Time to warm up.
Meeting with the refs...
and Coach Shawn.
I'm basking in the delightful warmth, grateful to be in sunny Florida rather than the arctic conditions of Maryland.
The fields were gorgeous and the other team was incredibly talented. Like talented in a way that ranks a team on a national level. Talented in a way that they had no place playing in the B division of the tournament. But as one of the moms of the opposing team told one of our dads: "We just wanted to come down to Florida and have a good time." That good time included playing down so they could kick everyone's butt and win the tournament. Definitely annoying. Our girls hung in there, though, which made all of us proud. We kept it to 2 goals in the first half which was amazing in itself because neither of the goalies from the Wilcatz or the Lightning came to the tournament and we had a girl who hadn't played goalie since she was much younger in goal.
I sure love watching my girl play!
Fighting for that ball!
For the second half we had another girl with a little more recent experience play in goal. She was playing awesome and was keeping the other team scoreless. And then she and another girl collided. Although she got back up and started playing, a few minutes later she was shaking her head so the ref called time and made her come off for a concussion check. During the three minutes she was on the sideline being checked out, our first half goalie went back in and was scored on twice. Poor thing. Turns out Morgan, the second goalie, did NOT have a concussion and once she came back in we held them the rest of the half.
Final score: 4-0. I felt so terrible for my girl because Savannah was super bummed considering it was the only game she would get to play. She had really wanted to get the win. Coach Shawn pulled me aside after the game to express how bad he felt for her that this always seems to happen to her in tournaments - the team loses in the Saturday games and then wins on Sunday. Yes, this seems to happen frequently to her and my first reaction was to mention that I wish Heavenly Father would just throw her a bone since she's keeping one of his commandments by choosing not to play Sundays. But in the overall scheme of things, the winning and losing isn't what's important. The true blessing is that Savannah has been given the opportunity to play on a wonderful team with a coach that respects her decision and even played her more in this Saturday game than any of the other girls because he knew this was it for her. I know a lot of other coaches who would punish a player rather than be so accommodating. When I look at it that way, her whole soccer experience with Northern Elite has been such a blessing from her Father in Heaven and I know she will continue to be blessed for her obedience. It clearly won't take the form of wins versus losses; it will be of a more eternal nature and for that I am most grateful.
The disappointment didn't last too long...the girls found a few friends to put smiles on their faces.
Of course we had to take a team picture in front of the ball.
The good thing about our early morning game was that we had the rest of the day to enjoy. We all hurried back to the hotel, changed, and headed off to Hollywood Studios!
The girls broke into groups and headed one way, the adults did the same. I spent my afternoon with Shawn, Michelle, and Diane, Lauren's mom. We ate some lunch during which I expressed my gratitude to Shawn and Michelle for being so great about the Sunday thing. I let them know that although we might not say it often, not a day goes by that we don't have appreciation for their understanding because I know plenty of Mormons who have not had the same experience as we have. I loved Shawn's response: "Anyone who would give someone a hard time about that is an idiot." Can I just say again how grateful I am?
We eventually met back up with the girls to enjoy a Beauty and the Beast show and then some snacks. It's sideways but I loved their Mickey pretzels...
Savannah preferred the churros.
Churro girls!
Heading to the Tower of Terror!!! It ended up being Savannah's favorite ride and she went on it like 4 or 5 times.
The first time the girls rode it Diane and I were the only moms brave enough to go on.
We then headed over to the Rock'n'Roll coaster which turned out to be my favorite. That roller coaster takes off so fast, it was awesome!! The girls posing outside the ride...
and right after. They were definitely showing their inner rock star! Emily, Claire, Lauren, and Savannah.
Our last Fast Track ride of the day was Star Tours. The girls...
and the moms. Such groovy 3-D glasses!
While I was standing in the long, LONG line to ride The Tower of Terror again with some of the moms, I heard a familiar voice and turned just in time to see Meng and Tianna (a friend from preschool) round a corner in the Fast Track line. Rather than embarrass him by yelling out his name, I quickly pulled out my phone and texted him. We were able to meet up with them a little later in the park and enjoy an hour long reunion. I would say it's a small world but honestly he and Tianna practically live at the Disney parks so our chances were good on running into them.
Hollywood Studios closes at 8:30 which seemed pretty early to me but by 8:00, as we watched the fireworks, I was pretty glad we were going to be heading to the hotel right after. I was beat! But what a way to end our fun day - the fireworks were absolutely amazing!!!
Back at the hotel we all met in the cafeteria-style restaurant to celebrate Adria's birthday.
We thoroughly embarrassed her by singing Happy Birthday really loud. The cool thing was everyone else in the restaurant joined in and then, once we were done with singing that song, a table full of soccer girls from another country started singing one of their country's Happy Birthday songs in their language (not quite sure which) to her. It was quite the celebration!
When Savannah and I finally made it back to our room, we were both so tired that we just crashed into bed. What a super fun day!
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