Another Weekend, Another Rain Storm, Another Championship

This weekend, like so many of our weekends lately, was about soccer. We loaded up the cars and headed back to Nashville for another soccer tournament. This time it was the Music City Invitational. This is an annual tournament for our soccer club and one of the more prestigious soccer tournaments in the state. So of course, the competition was going to be tougher. The kids and I headed up on Friday after school. LeAnn had a meeting in Nashville on Friday, so she was already there. We usually head to our out of town tournaments on Friday, because we usually have an early Saturday morning game each time. The was a great tournament, because the hotel the entire club stayed at was right across the street from the soccer complex and we didn't have to pay for parking and could walk to the games.

Saturday was a beautiful day with warm temperatures, and clear blue skies. I mention this, because in every tournament we have been in this spring we have had terrible weather. We have played in sleet, rain, thunderstorms (very shortly), below freezing temperatures, and had games called or postponed for hail storms and tornado warnings. So a warm, sunny day was much appreciated. We opened the tournament against the host team, Harpeth Futbol Club. Harpeth always has good teams and pull their teams from a lot of the private schools in Nashville. Much like the soccer club in Jackson is made up of mostly the USJ kids. Our coach felt like this was going to be the toughest game in our pool. The girls played very well and never allowed a strong attack on our goal. We won the game 3-0. We had lost to Harpeth twice in the fall by one goal in each game, so it was nice to get some revenge. One of those losses was in our own tournament. So the girls, were glad to return the favor.

That afternoon, we played the Clarksville, TN Royals. I don't believe we had played them this year. The girls dominated from the very beginning and jumped out to an early lead and won 5-0. The first day was over and we were sitting with a big lead in points in our pool. They used that strange point system in this tournament as well. You get six points for a win, three points for a tie, one point for each point (up to three maximum), and one bonus point for a shut out. So the most you can get in each game is ten points. So we had 20 points at the end of the first day. The first place team from each pool advanced to the championship game.

On Sunday, we awoke to the theme of the spring season...thunderstorms. It was raining hard, and we had a ten o'clock game against a Paris, Kentucky team. Paris is a suburb of Lexington, so they had come a long way to finish last. They were supposed to be our easiest game, but for some reason, their goalie played amazing. She got everything. The entire game was played in front of their goal, and we finally got one in with about three minutes left in the game. They had not scored and had given up thirteen goals, but for some reason they played well against us. We needed a big win, because there was chance that the championship games would be cancelled because of the severe weather. In that case, the team with the most of those points would be declared the winner. The leader in the other pool had 19 points, so we needed to score more than we did. But the other team go upset and didn't make it to the finals.

That afternoon, they decided to play the championships in a down pour. As long as lightening wasn't in the area they would play. We played the Brentwood, TN Select team. We didn't have a great feeling about the game, those girls were big. But once again, our girls just played more aggressively and better defense. The goal opened up for Abby once and I was sure she had it in, but it just went a fraction wide. But our girls pulled off the upset 2-0, for another championship. They did not give up a single goal all weekend, against some of the better teams in the state. We are so proud of them.

This weekend we have another tournament, but this one is here in town and right across the street from our house. So that will be great. Some of our biggest rivals from here in town will be there, the Rush Swoosh team. It is a smaller tournament, not as many teams, and is hosted by the Jackson Area Wide Soccer (JAWS) organization. It should be a lot of fun. I know we will be playing a team from Missouri on Saturday afternoon, so that should be interesting to play a team you know nothing about. Next month is the tryouts for next years team, and then after that it is summer of golf lessons, sports academy, camps, and the Great Western Family Adventure...just 57 days until we leave!