I have wanted to take my team to the Disney tournament for years,
it is THE soccer college showcase for high school age teams.
Known as the "Proving Ground", teams have to be at a very high caliber to
be able to compete at Disney... and compete we did!
The tournament was played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex,
which is in the heart of the Disney property,
and it is like no other sports complex I've ever seen.
complete with Mickey ears painted in the grass.
And a full size Spring Training Baseball field - home of the Atlanta Braves.
And of course, a Clubhouse Shop for tshirts and other fun gear.
Here is my team, getting ready to take the field before our first game.
This ended up being one of the biggest games I will probably ever coach...
We played the Virginia State Champs, and won the game 2-0 which helped
us get to the tournament finals later that week. During our pre-game warm-ups
I started to notice a few college coaches beginning to arrive and set up camp around
our sidelines, one of whom was the Mizzou head coach who is recruiting one of my girls.
I was excited about that, and starting to get used to the idea of all these collegiate
coaches at our games. We had been getting a good amount of attention so far at the
college showcases that we had attended throughout the year,
but this was way more than I ever could have expected...
By the time the game was over, there were a total of 21 (yes, TWENTY ONE)
Division 1 coaches at the game and another 5-10 D2, D3, and NAIA schools there too,
all looking at these players, recruiting for their programs.
But the biggest moment of the day happened when the Godfather of College Soccer,
Anson Dorrance from the University of North Carolina came over and watched our game.
The man has 22 NCAA D1 National Championships (including 2012),
he is the winningest coach of all time, in all of athletics -
and there he was, at OUR game!!!
I later found out that there was a girl on the other team whose mother was a former player
of his, so he was there talking to her, but I don't even care, the man is a living LEGEND.
...and he was at OUR game!
Taking the field before the final match.
Night Game!
The parents on my team love playing with Maeryn and Johnny!
There are quite a few siblings on the sidelines for them to play with too
so (I think) Maeryn really likes to go to my soccer games too.
Here a a couple pictures taken by the soccer moms during our games.
A few of the girls were lucky enough to meet another soccer legend
while we were down there: Mia Hamm!
She was staying in the team hotel and I think my girls stalked her until
she agreed to get in a picture with them.
I admit, I'm WAY jealous.
Everything about this tournament was first class.
After the finals, they had a whole awards ceremony for the finalists and champions.
They put us up on a stage, gave us our medals and trophies, announced all our names,
and gave all the parents a great photo opp.
Standing up on the stage there were a lot of different thoughts and emotions
hitting me, but all of the sudden I looked up and saw Maeryn, standing in the middle
of the pack of paparazi parents clicking away with their cameras and phones,
she was beaming up at me and giving me a thumbs up!!!!!
I can still picture her little face, either really proud of her Mama, or totally pumped
about adding a new trophy to our collection in the basement -
pretty sure it was the latter, she LOVES it when we win trophies!
After the whole stage ceremony thing, they ushered us in to this secret room right around
the corner, and none of the parents were allowed to come in with us... very mysterious.
They told us there was another photo opp. with some kind of a celebrity...
We should have known who that would be!
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!
I don't know if we will go back next year,
but definitely someday!
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