I have to share a few individual stories from this weekend, especially concerning the junior tournament...

1) One of our returners from last year's champions was Linet. She is small in stature but big in heart and she is like the energizer bunny on the field. She is a student at CGA and I have taught her for the last 5 years so we know each other well. She can be moody at times and it rubs off on her teammates. And sometimes she thinks she knows everything and doesn't accept correction very well. She displayed both of those bad characteristics in the first game, especially towards my assistant coach. So I substituted her out of the game and had a private talk with her on the sideline letting her know that her attitude better change very quickly if she wanted to play in the upcoming matches. For the rest of the weekend she was such a great leader and dazzled on the pitch. She was the defensive stopper that no one could get past (we only allowed 2 goals in 6 matches). She was encouraging her teammates and helping every chance she could get.

2) Winny was our goalkeeper. She has some good natural ability, but she is a 6 foot tall 13 year old still trying to figure out how to use those long arms and legs (I know many of you are wondering why I am not teaching her basketball). She lacks confidence and experience, but she gained both this weekend playing in five of the six matches and only allowing one goal. My favorite part was the semifinal game on Sunday morning with a goalkeeper box filled with mud from the rains overnight. She doesn't really like getting dirty, but she was diving around in the mud all game to protect the goal. We eventually lost the game on penalty kicks, but I was so proud of her.

3) Our Junior captain was Alicent. She just turned 13 last week and is such an impressive young girl. She had lost both of her parents by the age of 6, but is fighting to make something of her life. On the field she is like a coach during training, constantly talking to the other players, encouraging them and running drills if I am not there. She is tiny, but has the heart of a lion. During our third place game I began breaking out in tears watching her fight to the end. She had been sick the night before and hadn't eaten anything that night or the next morning, but she was still willing to go out on the field and give everything she had for back-to-back games. She could barely walk, but that didn't stop her. Working with teenage girls, sometimes one will show up at the field and unexpectantly start crying because they are sick or scared or because of some other problem going on in their life. I couldn't help but appreciate the effort that she was making on the field that day. The great part is that she makes that same effort in school and in everything that she does.