ESU CAMP!
Wow! I had the best time EVER at camp. I am definetly going back next year! It's just so much fun, and the experiance you get helps you reach your full potential. I mean, I played SENIORS. SENIORS. And we tied them! How cool is that?
Here's a rundown.
DAY 1: Drove to Hawthorn Hall at 12:30. Checked in, and they gave me a free T-shirt, and ball (I needed one). They told me that I had to be back at the Pavillion (by the Hockey Field) at 2:30, with everything that I would need to play. So I went back home, packed everything up, and we were on our way. Grandma dropped me off in the parking lot, and I walked up to the pavillion. As soon as I sat down, it started to rain. HARD. I had only learned a few days ago, that it was supposed to rain all week. Unfortunately, this was a warning storm.
Since it was raining so hard, they took us all into the Rec room, and put us into groups. Then we headed out to our separate fields. I had Kim Creighton and Stieny as my coaches. For 1 1/2 hours we worked on different drills. Control dribble, loose dribble, indian dribble, pulls, circles. You name it, I'm pretty sure we did it. After the first half hour we were already tired, and the heat index was about 97. Kim wasn't being that generous with water breaks either. About 15 minutes after our first water break, it started to pour. It felt so good. Everyone opted to go inside, but the coaches made us stay play in the rain, until, of course, we saw lightning. Everyone went inside. Ashley, Sara, and I put our bags in Saramarie & Jessica's room. Jessica let me borrow one of her shirts, because I didn't know I had to bring a change of clothes.
So we changed and we to the cafeteria. We got these cool little E-card things, that the lunch ladies had to swipe so we could get our food. It was all-you-can-eat, by the way. So Ashley, Jessica, Sara, Saramarie, and I all sat together. We had no idea that there was an all-boys soccer camp going on at the same time. How convenient! It was then that we found: "The Kid". He kept on looking back at our table. It was our little inside joke, for the week. Ate dinner, went back to HH. They cancelled all evening sessions because the rain was so bad. So I called Dad, and went home.
Day 2: Arrived at 8:30. Got ready and checked the listings, for groups and fields. Sara, Saramarie and I had Nicole Kocis at the Fine Arts field. Kocis is an ESU player. I think this year she'll be a Junior. Anyways, at her station, we worked on dribbling, and blah. Next we had Kacy. KACY IS THE BOMB. We worked on driving at her station. Ehh. I was okay. Then we had.. I forget. And then we had Mary, I think her name was. That station SUCKED. We basically jumped over our sticks, and dribbled in and out of cones. Went to lunch. Came back, and played War with Saramarie (I beat her in less than 10 minutes.) We checked the board for our assignments for the afternoon session. I was up at Fine Arts again with Ashley, Sara, and Saramarie. I think this was the first time we met our team. We had Steph Hippton and Kacy Parry as coaches. HIPP IS THE BOMB! Hipp and Kacy are the best coaches. So :P
Our team was basically all from this Catholic School near Philadelphia, called Conwell-Egan. Yeah.. And our Goalie, Sharon, was from Honesdale (she knows my cousin :)) Sharon rocks too. At first all the girls were super-nice to Ashley, because she was obviously the best out of the 4 from Stroudsburg. So we were doing a round of Knock-out, and it started to pour. Someone saw lightning and we went back to the Dorms. By this time, I had major blisters on my heel. Because the afternoon and evening sessions were cancelled, they made us watch a video of the Princeton vs. the National team. It was boring. After the movie, Hipp and Kacy had us sit down and introduce ourselves. They also told us that we had to do something for the talent show, and it was mandatory. The C-E girls had something in mind but couldn't do it with us.. and blah blah. Saramarie got into a fight with Meg (C-E) and we all went home early again.
DAY 3:
We had to come early. Everyone met at Fine Arts field, and we practiced our stroke. Strokes are, in my opinion one of the hardest things in the world to do. I hate doing flicks. Therefore, I hate doing Strokes. But I did pretty good. The C-E girls let me into their world, and started cheering for me. (yay). We practiced corners and other crap. We scrimmaged against the Cornhuskers (we're the lions). It was lunch. "THE KID" sat right behind Ashley. I swear, we both laughed harder than we've ever laughed in our lives. We were both crying.
We started the tournement. Hipp had to wrap my blisters because my band-aids weren't staying on my blisters. We lost. And we tied. Gwen and Meg were really helpful. It rained. We went back in. Played cards, went to dinner. It was there that Ashley and I developed our song-making obsession. We wrote our first song: The Eggroll Song. (Only played on special request) All the commuters went to Physicals. I'm 5'4" apparently. I thought I was taller.
Day 4: Came early again. We were on the Baseball field, and it was horrible. So after a few rounds of 1v1, we all went over to Smith and Fine Arts. Over there we worked on scoring, and ballside/goalside.
It was at Lunch that Ashley and I developed our biggest inside joke. I was blowing around my ice in my cup, and I wanted to tell Ashley to go get some ice, but I told her to go get some ass instead.. so we named that one Preperation H. Yeah..
After Lunch, we went over behind Koelher Fieldhouse to have some competitions. We did the Aerial Dribble competition. I'm normally very good at it, but they made me change my grip on the stick, and it messed me up. Then we had a stroke competition. Amelia came in first, which gave our team points. Since the ESU camp is a USFHCA sanctioned camp they're allowed to reccomend a certain number of students to the futures program. So they had us do the Illinois agility with the ball. I sucked. Really.
Dinner. I invented my "Stroke" of genius. Pink Lemonade with Sierra Mist.. stupid really.. but we were on a suger high.
We did circuts and crap, and I don't want to go into detail. But we ended up with 207.5 points. 3rd place.
Later on, the C-E girls finally came up with an idea. We were going to sing "The Lion Sleep's Tonight". Sharon, the goalie, was going to sing, because she had an awesome voice, and everyone would do back-up. Shana was going to dress up as a lion, because she had the funniest roar. We only practiced once.. and everyone thought our act was hilaious. The end.HIPP AND KACY ROCKED.. too.
Day 5: Our final games. We lost. Hipp and Kacy have Awesome strokes. Another reason why they rock. But yeah. We lost to the Orangemen, who went bizerk all becuase we smashed they're mascot. An orange. We lost to the Flying Dutchmen. My sneakers will never be clean again, because the fields were so freaking muddy.
We went to lunch. And we pissed off Saramarie. It's always fun pissing her off, because she looks so funny when she's pissed off.
After lunch, we went to our last game, against the cornhuskers. We lost. But Hipp said I was really good. I did this awesome block, and I had some of the best passes I've ever done. We went to the awards ceremony and we watched the all-star game. Shana and Lindsay were in it. Cheer. Ashley got the award for most improved. Cheer. Went home. Cheer.
I'll most likely elaborate one some things later.