Once school had ended we turned our attention to the flurry of activity on the soccer field as both Reese and Callie's teams entered the postseason competitions. Reese's team would play in the Village Cup, which is a statewide competition. At their age, the season ends there and there are no regional or national progressions. Over the course of the year Reese's team dominated and had only lost one game, including tournaments. In short, we had high hopes entering the Village Cup.
The girls did not disappoint and played like champions. The first weekend they won 6-0 and 5-1. They headed into the semifinals against the other Lexington-based club team called Commonwealth. Safe to say they wanted the win because the final score there was 9-0. This set up a rematch of last year's final against Javanon out of Louisville. The girls scored two goals early, dominated for much of the match, and held on to win by a final score of 2-1.
This state championship ended an impressive two year run for this team and their coach. They grew as players and as a team and made it clear that they were the team to beat in their age group in Kentucky. Just as, if not more important, they are a group of fun-loving and goofy girls. They are going to miss playing for Coach Tom, Reese especially, but they are looking forward to what comes next.
The immediate future was another pool party. One of the families invited the team and parents over right after the championship to enjoy food, swimming, and even a tractor ride across the farm in Madison County. It was a great opportunity for everyone to relax and soak in the accomplishment.
Reese's age group stops at the state level, but that is not the case for all ages above her. In other words, Callie's U15 team would have the opportunity to move on from state if they won their age group of the President's Cup. Their march to the Cup began with a weekend of pool play in Lexington. They won their first game 3-0 and then tied the second game 1-1 on a rainy and blustery day. Sometimes you need a little luck on your side, and in this case the girls advanced out of their group based on goal differential. That meant that the following weekend we were headed to Bowling Green for a semifinal and hopefully a championship game.
The semifinal brought a rematch against a team they had lost to 1-0 at the beginning of the season. This time was a bit different. After it was 1-1 at halftime, Callie broke the game open with a goal in the second half and the floodgates opened. Callie scored another and the gamed ended 6-1. The finals awaited the next day. But we had a few more things to do before we could even make it to Sunday.
The soccer game had started at 8:00am, which gave us just enough time to hop in the car to drive from Bowling Green to Louisville so that Callie could run for Morton in the state track meet. It was a lot, but Callie really wanted to do it and not let down her team. She ran well and we got to watch some cool pole vaulting, so it was a win-win all around. Once she was done it was back in the car to head back to Bowling Green.
It was a hot summer weekend and after a long day the girls wanted slushies. Sarah was more than happy to be one of the parents to drive the crew to Sonic. Pictured here, the girls were in a state of bliss, unaware of what was about to unfold. When Sarah and her crew drove back to the hotel it was dark and as she turned into a parking spot the headlights illuminated quite a scene. A young couple were showing their passion in public and both of them were topless. Sarah was mortified, they girls were shocked, and this episode was told and retold many times over the next hours, days, and weeks.
Fortunately the girls were able to sleep well that night and the next day delivered a decisive 2-0 victory in the championship game against the Lady Pumas. It was a great win and it meant that not only had they won their state but they also moved on to the Regional playoffs in St. Louis.
Callie loved playing with this team for many reasons, but getting to know and play up top with Una was a big one. The two had a great chemistry and combined for some great goals during the season and in Bowling Green.
The regional playoffs are a pretty big deal and we were going to spend at least four days in St. Louis to play three games and hopefully more. But this was a veteran crew because this was the second year in a row they had made it this far. They fell short in 2021 but were hoping for better things in 2022.
Last year Callie had the opportunity to play in some of the regional games but we weren't able to attend any of them. This time was different and we were excited for the whole experience. As you can see from the picture above, the players and their coach were pretty excited too.
The team moms were very prepared as well, having purchased mostly matching Eye of the Tiger t-shirts for the occasion. You will also notice the fan and misters in the picture. The forecast for St. Louis was scorching heat. There were mandated water breaks during the games because the heat index was in the low 100s.
In their first game out against a team from Kansas the girls fought hard. The heat was a factor but the other team had a lot of fight in them as well. The girls gave up a goal late in the second half and deflated a bit. The final score was 3-0, but they still had two more games to go.
On Friday they played a team from Michigan and this time around the result was positive. Coach Taylor had made sure that the girls were not feeling defeated and they responded well. Callie had a goal in the 2-0 victory and the door was still open for advancing to Nationals. Their third game of pool play was another 2-0 victory over a squad from Ohio. This time, however, the goal differential was not in their favor. Although they finished with two wins, a team from another bracket advanced over them. It wasn't the overall result they wanted but they showed a lot of fight over the three days and we were all proud of them.
They also had a lot of fun on the trip. With only one game each day there was plenty of time to see the sights, including a visit to the famous arch downtown. After making a trip to the top of the arch they struck a handstand pose outside.
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