Crush White Rules!!

I am FINALLY at a point where I can write about something other than work, so I will! :)

This past weekend we traveled to Charlotte, NC to take Kennedy to her soccer tournament and visit Jill and Bobby Roeder, who moved there in December from Holly Springs. This was Passover weekend, and usually we spend the Jewish holidays with our adoptive Jewish family here in Holly Springs. But, this year, Passover was the same weekend as the Annual Julian Brown soccer tournament, and we couldn't be in two places at once.

It turns out that Jill and Bobby's house was only 15 minutes from the soccer fields, so we were able to enjoy soccer AND Passover! :) Mark took a half day on Friday and we were able to get to the Roeder's before dark. We spent the evening eating burgers and hot dogs and catching up with everything Roeder. Bobby's parents were also there for the weekend--they are wonderful people, too!

Saturday morning was spent visiting and gearing up for soccer. Kennedy's first game was at noon, and the girls played really hard, but lost 3-2. The low number of goals was indicative of how hard both teams played. Our 4:30 game was a bit different, tho! Our girls won 6-1, and Kennedy scored 3 goals!! The wide goal margin put our team in first place going into the semi-finals on Sunday morning. After dinner with the White squad, the kids all went back to the hotel and had an ice cream party. Kennedy spent the night in the hotel with her teammates while Mark and I went back to Jill and Bobby's to share Passover with them.

Sunday morning's semi-final game was a heartbreaker. Down 3-0 halfway through the second period, Kennedy's team rallied and ended up tying the score before the game ended. After TWO overtime periods, the other team scored (the ref gave them 5 penalty shots in the last 15 minutes of the game). Our girls were exhausted from playing 3 games in 2 days with only 1 sub, while the other teams had 3-4 subs each. The girls were very upset that they lost, but several of us took our kids out for ice cream before we headed home and their spirits were much improved after that! I think they realize that they kicked some soccer butt against some very aggressive teams and have nothing to be ashamed of.

Kennedy is upset because some of her teammates don't seem to want to work very hard, but that's a hard lesson in life and part of being a leader is encouraging your peers to play with the same determination that you have! Kennedy's response to her disappointment is that she intends to try out for U11 in May so she can move up and play with girls who really WANT to play!

Hopefully the trend of replacing personal disappointment with new personal goals instead of wanting to give up will continue! :)