Hawaii

Well, aside from the fact that the team completely laid an egg in Hawaii (we lost 3-1...didn't really show up to play and Hawaii played like they were fighting for their lives), it wasn't a bad trip. I bought a ukulele! I am trying to learn how to play it....it is really hard! Heather and Josh bought me a shirt at the swap meet that says "come to the dark side, we have cookies." I am always eating cookies or some sort of dessert! On Saturday we were able to spend some time in Waikiki on the beach and did a little shopping. Hawaii is a hard road trip because somehow you have to keep 18 girls focused on the real reason we were over there! But at the same time you can't really lock them in the hotel! :) This weekend is our last two home games and then, if we qualify for the conference tourney, we are off to Boise next week! GO AGGIES!




P.S. If you haven't heard, I have committed to stay on at Utah State next year as a grad assistant again! :) I am loving this so far and feel so blessed that this door has opened up to me!

Busy Couple of Weeks!

The last couple weeks have been really busy. We traveled to Reno, where we lost 1-0, then we traveled to Idaho where we went 2-0 on the road! It was freezing....Moscow, Idaho hit record lows....record as is in since 1929...it was 11 degrees when we woke up on Sunday morning!!! Sunday night I was able to visit my cousin Paul and his family in Spokane. They have the cutest little girl! It was good to see them, I haven't seen them since my cousin, Sheena got married four years ago! On Wednesday, I made the trek down to Salt Lake for the Real Salt Lake game! As my friend was walking to the gate to meet me, a lady walked up and handed him two front row tickets! So we enjoyed the game there, then I went to see my friend, C.C., who is in town from Hawaii! We went to Denny's because it was so late, and I told our coaching staff that we went to Denny's because that is the "late night bar for Mormons." :) This past weekend, we played at home for the first time in 5 weekends....it was nice to be home. We beat Fresno State and we tied San Jose State. My mom was in town this weekend and on Friday, she drove up with Kevin and his family to watch the game! I stayed with my mom at the Holiday Inn Express (amazing cinnamon rolls!), Saturday we went shopping and Sunday we made dinner for the coaching staff. So it was a pretty fun weekend. Next weekend we travel to Hawaii to play University of Hawaii! Sigh...such a bummer! :)

Is this part of my job description???

Today was awesome. Heather and Josh came up with a great idea for the girls to send them a positive message before conference starts Sunday. We presented it...in character! It was cool.

Pics from the Weekend!

Here are some pics from Rio Tinto and from the bee farm! (on the pics from the bee farm, I look all tense because I was either standing next to bunches of bees, or the bees flying around me kept bumping off of me....it was a little scary!)

A little Update

I will soon be posting lots and lots of pictures! This past weekend has been awesome so far! On Thursday night, Utah State played Utah at Rio Tinto stadium and we won in overtime!!! The score was 2-1. I also saw a lot of friends and former players who came to support the Aggies! One little twist in the night....I forgot to grab our equipment out of the back of my car, so we went to warm up and had no balls, pennies and cones...yeah..not good. Heather and Josh were really good about it, they could've responded much more negatively, but they just rolled with it. Luckily, the Rio Tinto staff was able to get us the Real Salt Lake warm up balls....which was actually kinda cool..but let me just say there will be no more forgetting equipment from here on out! Last night was so much fun...the team had dinner at one of our player's family's house....and they run a bee farm! So we toured the bee farm, had home cooked meal, and the girls learned how to line dance! It was great! Pics are coming soon!

SEATTLE!

This weekend was bitter-sweet. Bitter because Utah State lost both games. Friday night, we played No. 25 Washington and lost 2-0, and Sunday we lost to Seattle University 3-1. It was a bummer...I hate to lose, but it's also important to keep things in perspective and figure out what we can learn from it, then improve each game. We did stay in a really cool hotel! It is called the Hotel Deca near UW and it is decorated like no other hotel I've ever seen..and I've seen quite a few!







On Saturday, most of the girls went off with their families to tour Seattle, and we (the coaches) took the rest of the girls down to the Space Needle to walk around (we went on the bumper cars, which was a ton of fun, and the girls rode the little kiddie rides!), then we went over to Pikes Place Market. I've never been there before but heard a ton about it. It was actually really cool! On Saturday night, my aunt and uncle drove up from Gig Harbor, picked me up and took me to see my cousin, Donya, and her family! It was so fun to see them in their new home! Donya made homemade bread and apple pie (and Aunt Lynn and Uncle Richard said I need to come more often!). It was a great evening, a great break from the routine, and it was so nice to see family.

Houston and San Antonio

This past weekend, the team played UTSA on Friday and Houston Baptist on Sunday. I've always heard about humidity in the south...but this was unreal. 85 degrees with 94% humidity....I walked outside and felt like I had taken a shower. It was crazy. We left Thursday at 5am...I didn't get much sleep the night before, so I was so tired, but got some good sleep on the bus and plane. We arrived in San Antonio and it had been raining there for days. We couldn't get on the field to practice because the field was too soggy, so we went down to the Riverwalk. It was so much fun! I had a blast, and the girls did too. I'm a little bummed that I didn't get a t-shirt from there. :( I got to see the Alamo, which is a lot smaller than I imagined. We also went on a boatride along the riverwalk which was really fun, then we went to dinner at a really nice italian place on the river....if there's one thing I LOVE about Aggie soccer aside from the soccer, its the fact that we eat very well! I'm gaining weight which is a good thing!

Friday....GAME DAY! We had a short practice in the morning, sent the girls back to the hotel for study hall and the coaches went to Target...seriously, they don't have one in Logan, and if that means going to a Target when we are halfway across the country, then so be it! :) Friday, we played UTSA and lost 1-0...it was pretty disappointing, a game we could've easily won...so frustrating! Saturday, we drove down to Houston. We stopped at this place called Joel's BBQ...it was in the middle of nowhere but a really good "hole-in-the-wall." Being in Houston, I felt like I was in L.A., it was kinda nice in a way, but I also really like the small town atmosphere of Logan. When we arrived in Houston, we drove straight to the field for practice, then checked into the hotel, then we went to eat at this place called "Papacitas"..I have no idea if I spelled that right. It was so good, and so much fun! We celebrated one of our players' "birthday" and she was so shocked. The video is hilarious, go on to the Aggie Soccer blog to see it! On Sunday morning, about 12 of us went to church near the hotel, then we had our game against Houston Baptist...we earned the program's 100th win...which is really exciting! I'm having a blast...I really am. I am learning so much about soccer, coaching, myself, etc. I am loving coaching at this level and I am so blessed to be working with such a fantastic coaching staff. Heather and Josh are awesome and I just can't say enough about the experience they are giving me here at Utah State.
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World Cup Qualifier!

WOW! I'm still on this high from the game! It was AMAZING! Great offense, great defense, crappy refs, great crowd.....GREAT SOCCER! And how often is it that all three goals of the game were off headers??? AMAZING! I went down to the World Cup Qualifier with our head coach, Heather. We left Logan around 2:30pm, went to eat at The Pie Pizzeria in Salt Lake, then headed to the game. We got there early enough to buy souveniers (Heather collects scarves for her office, and I just wanted a t-shirt and a hat--the hat is HUGE on my head...so sad). Anyway, we had amazing seats on the east side of the stadium just off center....10 rows up! We sat with the Hair family, I coached all three girls and one of their sons at LPHS, so it was fun to see them. Oh my gosh, I was going nuts. I took 106 pictures...don't worry, only 23 are in the slide show here...more pics=great scrapbook page collages!! USA won 2-1. It was so much fun...and kinda nice to be an observer and not have to worry about coaching! It was a very much needed break for USU's coaching staff. Our assistant coach, Josh, and his wife also went down to the game and had a blast! Sometimes, leaving the Logan bubble is a good thing...just an update on the team. We play Wyoming tomorrow, then we are on the road for the next three weekends, Texas, Seattle and SLC/Provo. On Thursday, September 24, we play at Rio Tinto stadium...where this World Cup Qualifier was held!! Life is still good in Aggie country!

GAME DAY!

I'm exhausted! So game day is interesting. Each game day has been different, depending on if we are on the road or at home. So today, the head coach decided that as a coaching staff, we needed a tiny break, so instead of coming into the office this morning, we went on a hike up Green Canyon! Then we went to get breakfast at Jamba Juice....who has really good oatmeal!!!! Because I had some studying to do, the head coach told me that I didn't even have to come into the office, I could go straight to pre-game...so I did! And I got most of my homework done! We played OK State today...number 20 in the nation...we lost 1-0....but I am exhausted because we were down their throats the entire time! It was such an intense game and we had several chances! We came away with a loss, but the girls played great. As coaches, we looked back and there really was nothing we could do to change the outcome. University of Wyoming is Sunday....tomorrow night I am going to the World Cup qualifier...USA vs. El Salvador!


Heather and Josh

Josh and Heather showed me this cool cave, and Josh was nice enough to climb up there with me.

A tiny view of the Cache Valley behind me.