State Cup-Highland, CA

We couldn't have asked for much more out of our Hawks girls this season. They have proven to be winners over and over and we had something to prove as a 1st year team at this year's State Cup. We entered with a lot of confidence, but also with a fear of the unknown. 59 teams would battle in San Bernadino for a chance at the title.
We were up and out of the house at 5:00am for our drive to Highland and our 8:00am game against San Luis Obispo. Within minutes, we could see this was the toughest competition we had faced all season...great passing, 1st touch on the ball and movement on the field. By the end of the game, we were just playing for a tie and we finished 0-0...hoping we could pull out wins in the next 2 games.We had a picnic lunch at the field and the girls did what they love best, hanging out and just being friends. Taylor and Madison have become great friends this year! The girls created "Hawks Island", their own patch of grass to hang out on. The parents relaxing and enjoying the beautiful Saturday weather.
Game #2 proved to be just as tough as #1. We played Madrid Premier and although I thought we had more chances for a victory, we finished in a 2-2 tie. The girls just weren't 1st to the ball and we had some chances we just didn't capitalize on. Going into this morning, we knew we needed a win to advance.

It was another early 8:00 game against Huntington Beach (South Coast Bayern). They won both games yesterday so we expected tough competition. The parents' stomachs were all in knots, but we loved how calm the girls were. They were giggly and more focused on perfecting their cheer than stressing the game...I guess that's how it should be!Coach Charlie and I decided we had done all the coaching we could do at practice so we sat through games #2 and #3 and I actually liked it. The girls battled hard, playing the toughest we had seen all weekend. Their white jerseys were full of mud stains by the end of the game. The opposition scored first, but Maylie answered with a nice goal playing forward. Taylor hugged May after her goal and they both walked back to position crying...too sweet! The momentum was going our way, but with just a few minutes left Bayern scored and they finished with a 2-1 victory. We learned so much from this experience and will take a lot away from it. Our memorable season has officially come to an end, but I am so proud to have been part of this team. Coach Charlie did an amazing job with this group of girls, our parents were nothing but supportive and the girls finish with great memories and wonderful friendships. We will enjoy this little break and get ready for tryouts in a few weeks and more great soccer to come...

AllStars at Yogurt Island

Amanda, Allison and Elizabeth

Matt and Dan got the team together for one last time at Yogurt Island. They all wore the jerseys for the girls and coaches to sign and they had fun looking at their pictures on the collages. I made one for each girl as a momento of their very fun, but short season.

We hope the girls will get a chance to play together again on another team or at least see each other out on the field!

Big Bear Skiing

For one reason or another, every attempt to get up to Big Bear this season has failed. We finally found an open day with no work meetings, no big tests at school and wonderful weather to head up the mountain. We were on the slopes at 8:30 and we seemed to be the only ones for a while.

We did 2 or 3 trips down the bunny hill to get comfortable again.

They were blowing snow on Summit Run and Miracle Mile which provided great powdery skiing and no crowds!

Then we headed up the bigger lifts to Summit Run, Miracle Mile and the Family Fun Park. As long as we stay on these runs, I'm OK, but I think the girls will soon be ready to take off with Matt on to tougher spots.

Taylor is usually our leader. She has nice turns, loves the speed and has fun going off of the jumps at the Family Fun Park.

Allison chooses to go the whole way in the "pizza" stance and doesn't use poles, but she has improved so much and loves the speed too. She took a few good tumbles, but it never slowed her down.

Matt has had so much fun watching the girls improve on the slopes and can't wait for our trip to Mammoth next month. We hope to get one or two more local ski days in before so we are all really comfortable.

We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was sunny and clear from the moment we arrived, but it stayed in the 40's so it felt like a nice winter day.

Gorgeous Big Bear Lake

President's Cup in Yucaipa

Allison's U10 All-Star team has been practicing for about 6 weeks now in preparation for this weekend's President's Cup in Yucaipa. All-Star teams from all over San Bernadino and Riverside counties compete for a chance to play in the Tournament of Champions in Palm Desert at the end of the month. We were up and out of the house by 6:00am yesterday for our 8:00 game against Empire Soccer Club. Our girls came out very aggressive, taking an early lead and were up 4-0 until the last minutes of the game. We finished with a 4-1 victory! Allison played goalie for 2 quarters, only allowing 1 goal to get by.
In between games, we set up a picnic area for the players and parents. We ate an early lunch and the girls had fun playing games and hanging out.

Grandpa Al spent hours trying to master the Moron Test on Allison's Itouch!

Allison, Sierra, Hannah, Amanda and Olivia
We faced off against Rialto in our second game of the day. It was probably the most aggressive game I have ever witnessed...lots of shirt pulling, tripping from behind and kicking our girls when they were down (without a single yellow card handed out!). A mom from the other team even got kicked out for foul language! Unfortunately, Rialto scored in the 2nd quarter and we were never able to put one in the net, so we finished with a 1-0 loss.
We knew it would take a miracle to have a chance to advance to Palm Desert, but we came back ready to fight hard in our 11:00 game against Hesperia today. Maddie scored in the 2nd quarter after we had about 15 shots on goal, but we played a lot of bunch ball and the girls just couldn't stay in their positions. The game ended in a disappointing 2-2 tie and took away any chance to advance. The girls were all in good spirits after the game, but the parents and girls were sad that the season had come to an end. We look forward to a fun team party and hope to see many of the girls back out on the field through Hawks training sessions and the upcoming Spring Season.
Matt and Dan provided a great learning environment for the girls and this experience really sparked Matt's interest in coaching. I am hoping he and Dan can continue coaching together and helping our girls grow. For now, we will enjoy a little break and gear up for Taylor's upcoming Hawks tournaments that will fill the rest of January.

Allison made great friends, including fellow goalie Maddie and they look forward to continuing their friendship and training at goalie clinic...
Great job All-Stars!!

Escondido New Year's Kickoff

After several weeks of rainy weather, postponed and cancelled tournaments, the GU10 All-star team finally had a chance to get a practice tournament in before next weekend's President's Cup. They played in the New Year's Kickoff in Escondido.Allison and Amanda (the coaches' daughters and good buddies)

Allison and Amanda are the two young ones on the team and Allison will likely spend most of this season in goal, when Madelyn plays on the field.

Dan and Matt are thrilled to be coaching this talented group of girls and the girls were pumped up for their first game at 10:00 against Scripps Ranch.

Allison and Madelyn were chosen as the first game Captains.

We were tied going into the 2nd half and Allison felt the pressure to not allow any balls to get by.

She had some nice stops, punts and goal kicks!

The game ended in a 0-0 tie after a hard fought battle and we had a 7 hour break before our matchup against Oceanside at 6:00. Most of the families went home for the afternoon, but we stayed to cheer on our U12 girls and our U14 boys and girls.

The girls sporting their fancy All-Star jackets as the weather got cooler into the evening.

By game time, it was down right freezing, but the girls and coaches were excited to play under the lights. Allison played goal again in the 2nd half, allowing Madelyn some time on the field. It was a good thing because she scored the goal to give us a 1-0 victory over Oceanside. This team has a lot of talented girls with great speed and ball control. They all listen well to the coaches and substitute in wherever they are needed.
We were back today for our noon game against Spring Valley. We knew we needed a win or a tie to advance to the championship and our girls delivered a 2-0 win with two great goals by Erica and strong play from everyone.

The girls celebrating the victory before breaking for lunch.

We had two hours between games so the girls ate lunch and played cards to pass the time.

Taylor, Jenna, Lindsey and Emily were supportive fans and siblings!

The 3:20 championship was against Escondido. The coaches gave a great pre game talk and expressed their pride in the team...they had made it to the final game of their first tournament and hadn't allowed a goal yet!

After 50 minutes of play, the game was tied 0-0. Allison played goal the 2nd half again and did her job well. Then we went into 2 five minute overtime periods, but were still tied 0-0, so it was on to penalty kicks. Ugh!

The tension was too great for many of the girls and parents, but Reanna, Kai and Erica all had beautiful shots to give us 3 goals. Unfortunately, we had two girls miss and we lost 4-3 in penalty kicks. It was a tough way to lose, but the girls were such great sports...consoling each other and our fabulous keeper on a great effort!

2011 Escondido New Year's Kickoff Finalists!

Way to go Allison, Matt and all of the All-Stars!!

Off to Yucaipa next weekend...

People's Choice Awards

After about an hour in line in the parking garage, a long walk to the Nokia theater and stress over where we could sit, we finally settled in on seats 10-12 rows back from the stage. It took a little sneaking around to grab the seats, but we figured the worst that could happen was we would have to move back up. Wendy and I are quite the rule followers, but I couldn't let her miss her chance to see her love, Robert Pattinson! OK, I enjoyed it too!
We had no idea we had actually landed in seats with dancers who would be mobbing the stage for the opening number with Queen Latifah. The guys sitting next to us quickly taught us the choreography and we got up right along with them and danced away to Dynamite, only inches from Taylor Swift!

One of the 1st presenters was Jennifer Aniston, she looked amazing!

Elton John presented Taylor Swift her award. So cool!

It was a night full of celebrities...Johnny Depp, Ashton Kutcher, Adam Sandler, Neil Patrick Harris, Katy Perry, Conan O'brien, the Twilight Cast, the Kardashian sisters, Vanessa Williams, Kate Walsh, Taye Diggs, Zac Efron and many more...and we saw them all. We had grins a mile wide and many stories to share. We were never questioned about our seats and had an amazing night! Thank you Wendy for letting me tag along...I sure hope we can do it again next year when we turn 30!!

Joy, Erica, Me, Jenn, Wendy and Vicki
(The best looking seat fillers in the whole show!)

15 Seconds of Fame on EXTRA

I got a special invitation from Wendy to join her and several other friends to be seatfillers at this year's People's Choice Awards. We got "dolled up" on what would have been any other Wednesday, but this was a day like no other! As we arrived in LA, we knew we needed to stop for lunch before going to the awards because once there, there is little opportunity to find food. Jenn suggested heading to The Grove, which would have several options.

While looking for a quick spot to eat (we had less than an hour), we spotted the EXTRA set where Mario Lopez films the weekday show. As we were checking it out, a stage producer asked if we would like to be in the audience while Mario was going to interview Gayle King. So fun! Mario came out in his extremely tight sweater, but no one was complaining!
Gayle joined him on set and they talked for about 20 minutes, then opened questions up to the audience. Our friends, Vicki and Joy both got up to ask questions.

Here is my 15 seconds of fame...I am the last one on the right! Soon after this shot, Jenn and I bolted over to Chipotle to pick up burritos for everyone and we all made it back to the car at the same time to race over to the LA Convention Center parking lot.

Joy drove like a crazy lady to get us there and we were in the last group to check in!