Soccer Tournament 2016: First Time First Place/Back to Blogging/Favorite Spring Memory

I haven't blogged in 2 months! This morning I awoke at 5AM, feeling like getting up at 5 was preferable to going back into a deep sleep from 5-6 (anybody agree?), so I brewed some coffee with the call to prayer as my audio backdrop. And then I thought I'd blog. And I found 4 precious (non-spam) notes telling me someone was praying for me, telling me my blog was missed. And it made my day. I'd like to catch up. The end of school, our campus move, summer was a blur. It was a wonderful mind-dazzling blur, but I just couldn't stop to blog. Now I'm back. I don't want to give this up. My main reasons for blogging are to keep a family record and to give myself an outlet to write and take photos. If you've stayed with me, thank you. I'm back.

Let's get back to my favorite memory of Spring:

Our girls practiced and trained hard for several months leading up to our soccer tournament in April. The back story is that we don't have our own field. So, for years now, they hike through the neighborhood and practice on an abandoned half-sized field. This year, even that field was in the process of being demolished. It involved crawling through a hole in a fence to get inside. We play against teams with their own available regulation-sized fields with lush green grass and all the sponsors and boosters clubs backing them. So, sometimes we feel like we are going up against Goliath. Still, we are grateful to get to play after all the practice.

By a miracle, the Friday games for the girls were scheduled during blocks when I was not teaching. I sat as the lone soccer mom, coffee in hand, screaming my head off. All of my 3 girls got to start the game. There was no place I'd rather be!

After a few games in the two days, we had miraculously worked our way up to the spot to play for 1st or 2nd place.

As we went into the final game, we all stated that, though it seemed a win would elude us, we were so very proud of them for making it this far. The team we were to play against was undefeated. In fact, no one had scored on them the entire tournament. Our game began, and at the half, they were up 2-0.

We comforted ourselves that the girls had worked hard and 2nd place was guaranteed. But then shortly after the 2nd half began, Twinkle kicked a ball that rolled right up to the goal. The opposing goalie had not been scored on the entire tournament. A sweet but fiesty teammate ran right up and tapped the ball in. We had scored. We roared!

Here's the awesome goalie. Here's my girl giving her a run for her money! And then the unthinkable happened. Twinkle kicked a ball to the top right corner of the goal. Just minutes before the end, we had tied it up. The opposing team was mad. The goalie was flustered. We were ecstatic.

The refs put us in a shoot out. Each team got 5 kicks. CC went over to the girls and gave this advice, "We are proud of you no matter what. She may catch it; she may not. Don't try anything fancy. Just kick it between the poles." Our girls lined up. They lined up. One by one we kicked. We got to the end, and I realized Firstborn would be our last kicker. How could the coach do this to me? She plays defense! And then my little baby, who I held for the first time in 1999, who somehow grew up in what seems like a matter of days, kicked that ball right in the goal. And we all froze. Then the boys jumped out of the bleachers and stormed the field.

I realized I was the only one who could click a picture, so I started snapping. We had won the soccer tournament for the first time in our school's 12 year history!

I wish I could say everyone was a good sport after that, but in reality, the other team were very sore losers. They fell on the ground. The parents grew angry and demanded yet another penalty shoot out kick. They initially refused to receive the 2nd place trophy. They said they were the true winners because they were undefeated until this game. It went on and on. Meanwhile, we hugged, cried, and cheered our brave girls.

I'll be telling this story to my grandchildren. It was my favorite memory of the year!

I'm a proud mama!