Just to let everyone know, I have started writing with a different website, so if you came here looking for my latest writing, you need to go to this link. I am now writing for the Bleacher Report which is very exciting!

Final Preparation

Well, tonight was our final preparation before we head down to Durham next weekend to take on the PowerCats again. However, today was a little bit different because we had a new athlete show up, Kyle. It is so exciting to have new players show up. To put it in perspective for all of you, in July, our team had at most five athletes. Now, we were missing a few people tonight, and we still had nine players. It is so exciting to see this type of growth for our team. With more players, you have more talent which leads to more competition which leads to more fun for me. I love competition, and everyone on our team seems to be improving. In a similar manner, it forces me to improve as well. I am ambitious, and I most definitely want to improve to a higher level. I will leave that higher level undefined for right now, but what I will say is that I appreciate my teammates who come out to play every week and play much harder. I know that this team has potential, so let's continue to try to improve as a team and challenge each other every week.

Charger Challenge

Wow, I can't believe that the first annual Charger Challenge is complete. A little bit of surprising news kicked off our tournament as unfortunately the MHS Chariots were sidelined by a bus breakdown. I have not heard that many details about what exactly happened, but I hope that everything is all right now and everyone is safe. Nevertheless, we had some intense competition with the Northeast Passage PowerCats of Durham, New Hampshire. Because of the last-minute cancellation, the schedule was not quite the way it had been drawn up, but it was still awesome. The basic layout involved two games where both teams played whomever they wanted, but a third game was played in the middle for players who are newer to power soccer. All of that being said, the Chargers swept the three-game series with scores of 6-2, 8-4, and 7-0. What impressed me the most by our team was that we rotated between two main lines and both looked incredibly solid. I think that we showed our depth very well, and that says a lot for Sandy, our coach, in that he has helped all of us developed well. In the end, I was pretty excited because I also won the MVP for scoring five goals and tallying one assist. On April 23, we head down to Durham to do it again, so I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Photo by Ashley Anne Tucker

Media Blitz

Again, I'm so sorry that I do not write more regularly. However, I finally have a few minutes of free time tonight as I'm sitting here watching Remember the Titans which is the best movie of all time. I have decided that since my power soccer team is playing on Saturday, I needed to watch some inspirational sports movies to get into the mood. Last night was Miracle which is probably my second favorite sports movie of all time, but it definitely is not as good as Remember the Titans. I will have to do my power soccer film session later in the week by watching some footage courtesy of xAble.com. My favorite game is still the 2008 Championship between the Circle City Rollers and RHI Sudden Impact. If you look at the ability level in that game, there were six future 2011 Team USA players (Michael Archer, Case Calvert, Matt Griffin (although he has since withdrawn from the team), JC Russo, Katie Dickey, and Jordan Dickey), and they went into overtime on top of all that talent. That will probably be my last minute inspiration to show me how to play the game before we take on the Northeast Passage PowerCats and the MHS Chariots.

Less than One Week

Sorry, I haven't written for a long time. I got my fill of writing last week because of a group project in my organizational behavior class. However, now I'm back. First of all, how about those Phillies?! Looking pretty good so far. Secondly, this Saturday will be awesome. We are less than a week away from our power soccer tournament in Essex which will be pretty amazing. My teammates and I are very excited, and I'm sure that our opponents are too. For the PowerCats and our team, it will be our first official competition. The Chariots went to Arizona earlier this spring to play in the Powerblast, so they do have more experience. However, I think it will be a great time for all of us. I'm not going to lie though, it is not just about playing; I think that everything will be out there to win which is the way it should be. Everybody remember to be on top of your game so that we have the highest level of competition that our teams are capable of bringing. I can't really give you a scouting report on the other teams, but what I can say is that I am pretty excited and have been waiting for this for a long time!

Double Time

As always, here are my goals for playing power soccer today. However, these goals also extend until tomorrow as a few of my teammates and I are traveling to Littleton to visit the newly named North Country Storm. So, I think that it will be pretty a pretty awesome weekend. Four hours of power soccer never gets old.

·         First, I need to remember that I need to speed test at some point. I think that my speed should be all right now, but it is definitely hard to judge just by feel.

·         Also, I need to remember to utilize my spin kick. It seems a lot better now that I've turned up my turn speed some, so while I know that it has a long way to go, it feels better, and I actually can use it a little bit better in games.

·         Finally, I need to think about winning in a one-on-one situation. I need to be able to think about spinning the ball back to my teammate in order to actually be able to advance from these situations. It's hard to win in a one-on-one situation without passing out of it because often times the chairs are so evenly matched that you cannot beat them one-on-one. Therefore, I hope I will be able to hit to my teammates well.