Over the summer I was invited to go to the University of Idaho to participate in the 2010 US Soccer Regional Camp. After months of training in the 97’ Girls Cal North State Olympic Development Program they chose the strongest players to attend the camp. At first I had mixed feelings about it, knowing that it would be very competitive and I was going to be gone for a week with non-stop soccer I was scared. At the same time I was ecstatic to know that I was chosen. After an hour on the plane, and another hour on a bus I was finally at the University of Idaho. When I got there I noticed right away the Cal South team glaring at us. Cal South was our rival team which didn’t make sense since were both from the same state. I looked around and I saw each team that represented their state. The girls that attended were from: Hawaii, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Cal South, Cal North, Ohio, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. There was a total of 264 girls fighting for 30 positions. The competition was very tough and to make it onto the regional team would take more than just luck. Each day girls would have packs of ice wrapped around them, some passed out from the workouts. I was lucky enough to not get injured.
Our daily schedule was breakfast at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. depending on what time our morning game was. Tardiness was not acceptable. After the morning game we would go back for lunch and then have our class session. In the class session every team gathered into a room and talked about strategies and techniques of how to be a good soccer player. Once the class was over our team would have to rush back to the dorm to get our bags and go to our workout session. Since I am a goalkeeper I had a different workout from my team. Workouts were then followed by the invitational games. Players could only play in the invitational games if they were asked by a regional coach. Finally, once the invitational games were over my team went back to the dorm to go to sleep with only half an hour for five girls to shower.
Regional camp was not one of my most favorite experiences because I didn’t like the high level of competition. It made me feel intimidated whenever I saw a regional coach watch my games and when this happened I started to play horrible. At regional camp I can honestly say that I sucked. It was weird playing on a team that wasn’t like my club team. I played with different girls in Northern California that all had different methods of playing. After going to regional camp I noticed that I don’t perform well under pressure. I regret not trying harder at regional camp because in the beginning I didn’t want it as bad as other girls. It wasn’t until the end that I actually wanted to try to make the team.
Although this camp felt like torture to me I feel that now it has improved the way I play. After going to regional camp I learned more about myself and the passion of soccer throughout the U.S. Even though I did not make the regional team next time I know what will be coming my way. Right now I am getting ready for my State ODP tryouts in October and hopefully I go farther than State. My goal is to at least try harder to make the regional team. This past summer didn’t mean much to me because it was my first year doing this and being in the youngest age group I wast still naive about what I was going through at the time. Hopefully I can go far in the Olympic Development Program and understand what it takes to be a good soccer player.
Our daily schedule was breakfast at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. depending on what time our morning game was. Tardiness was not acceptable. After the morning game we would go back for lunch and then have our class session. In the class session every team gathered into a room and talked about strategies and techniques of how to be a good soccer player. Once the class was over our team would have to rush back to the dorm to get our bags and go to our workout session. Since I am a goalkeeper I had a different workout from my team. Workouts were then followed by the invitational games. Players could only play in the invitational games if they were asked by a regional coach. Finally, once the invitational games were over my team went back to the dorm to go to sleep with only half an hour for five girls to shower.
Regional camp was not one of my most favorite experiences because I didn’t like the high level of competition. It made me feel intimidated whenever I saw a regional coach watch my games and when this happened I started to play horrible. At regional camp I can honestly say that I sucked. It was weird playing on a team that wasn’t like my club team. I played with different girls in Northern California that all had different methods of playing. After going to regional camp I noticed that I don’t perform well under pressure. I regret not trying harder at regional camp because in the beginning I didn’t want it as bad as other girls. It wasn’t until the end that I actually wanted to try to make the team.
Although this camp felt like torture to me I feel that now it has improved the way I play. After going to regional camp I learned more about myself and the passion of soccer throughout the U.S. Even though I did not make the regional team next time I know what will be coming my way. Right now I am getting ready for my State ODP tryouts in October and hopefully I go farther than State. My goal is to at least try harder to make the regional team. This past summer didn’t mean much to me because it was my first year doing this and being in the youngest age group I wast still naive about what I was going through at the time. Hopefully I can go far in the Olympic Development Program and understand what it takes to be a good soccer player.
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