St. Louis Scott Gallagher Girls Soccer Tournament
Alyssa's soccer team finished its Fall 2017 season last weekend (Nov. 4th-5th) in St. Louis at the St. Louis Scott Gallagher (SLSG) Girls Fall Classic Soccer Tournament. It's a high level tournament and is a college showcase tournament for high school age girls. Just Donnie and Alyssa went to the tournament from our family. As usual, I would have loved to have gone but the teens had commitments here in Ohio and I didn't want to leave them. Donnie provided text and the occasional picture update of the games. Alyssa and I face timed no less than four times so I got to see her sweet face and hear her sweet voice. And while face timing is named such for the ability to see the face of the person whom you're speaking with, when Alyssa and I face time during soccer tournaments, she uses the feature to show me the bruises and cleat marks on her legs from soccer games as well as her hotel room and surrounding features. So I'm practically there :).
Before the girls first game on Saturday, they all arrived in St. Louis on Friday and went to City Museum in downtown St. Louis. Alyssa loved the museum. I'm glad she was able to experience it. I had heard of it and wanted to go to it when Alyssa and I were in St. Louis this summer for ODP but we didn't go for a variety of reason. Per its website:
Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and old alike.
Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions’. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, City Museum boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!
Neat, huh? Also according to its website, City Museum was voted the Number #1 Family Attraction IN THE WORLD (I all capped the last three words). The downside to the museum is that its location is sketchy. The area in which it's located is a known spot for car break ins. "Smash and grab" is the collequal term for the break ins. There are known parking areas (paid lots) that are particularly prone to this. Donnie parked in the museum's $10.00 parking garage. That garage is the only "safe space" (gives new meaning to that phrase doesn't it?) from the miscreants who roam parking lots near the museum in search of cars with out of state license plates to break into.
The car of one of Alyssa's teammates was broken into while the families were at City Museum. Two cars from our same soccer club (different team than ours) were also broken into. Fortunately, soccer bags and their contents do not fetch much on the black market because none of the soccer bags that were in the vehicles were taken. Donnie told me about the incident(s) on the phone. After we talked, I did an internet search on St. Louis and car break ins. Donnie was right; car breaks ins are a "thing" in St. Louis. I found an article from June 12th of this year titled, "Car break-ins are so bad they're part of St. Louis culture like baseball and barges" from the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Interesting (sad) article. The comments are definitely worth a read, too. The comments were cut off after a certain point that the article was published. Here is a link to the article.
The mom of the family whose car was broken into from Alyssa's soccer team told one of the employees at the hotel where they were staying about her family's car being broken into. The employee said that she has two cars- a normal one and a clunker. If she has to drive to downtown St. Louis, she drives her clunker and, upon parking, does not lock the doors. "Smash and grab" would then become "open the door and leisurely look for any valuables." The article I mentioned above references this exact behavior (driving old cars, leaving nothing of value in the vehicle and leaving the doors unlocked).
I know that car break ins are not limited to St. Louis. Over the summer, cars were broken into in our neighborhood. Also, when Abby and I were in Indianapolis at a dance competition last year, several cars were broken into in the parking lot of the hotel where we were staying. What's odd to me about the St. Louis car break ins is that they are a known and continuous occurrence yet nothing is done about it. Perhaps it's because the victims are mostly from out of state (ergo, not voters) that St. Louis' elected leadership (such as it is) does not have the political incentive to care?
Off of my soap box and onto soccer: Unfortunately, soccer did not go much better than the luck of some whose cars were broken into in downtown STL (although no cars were broken into at the tournament site...). The girls played a game on Saturday morning against a team ranked slightly lower than they were. Alyssa's team was ranked 22nd in the nation and they were playing a local team that was ranked 28th in the nation. The difference of only six places in the rankings means the teams were pretty evenly matched; a six place lead in the ranking did not indicate that it would be an easy win for us. As it turned out, according to Donnie, it should have been an easy win. Donnie thought our team was definitely the better team. However, the score did not reflect that. The score ended up tied, 3-3. Donnie said that two of the other team's goals were offside. They shouldn't have counted. But the AR didn't call the goals offside. Instead, they were allowed to count. If the goals had been called offside, then we would have won 3-1.
The next game was on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, it was the other team's first game of the day and our team's second game. Our girls were tired and suffered from minor injuries sustained in the first game. For example, a player from the first game stomped on Alyssa's foot (I don't think it was maliciously- just in the course of going for the ball). Alyssa walked with a limp for the rest of the day. But, she had another game to play which was less than ideal. Also, the team we played in our second game of the day, from Colorado, was ranked higher than Alyssa's team. We are used to playing one team that's ranked higher than we are, CUP South, but are not used to playing other "better" (according to the rankings) teams. Donnie said that this team was big and good. We led the game 1-0 until about seven minutes were left in the game... and the other team scored. Big bummer. The game ended up tied 1-1. Alyssa played the entire game as one of the other defenders on her team was injured. Donnie said that Alyssa played well in spite of the pain from her stomped on foot. Proud of that tough girl!!
With our two Saturday games ending in a tie, making it into the finals looked improbable. Statistically, it was possible. If we beat our Sunday morning opponent by 3 or more goals AND the two teams in our bracket (the highest one) who were playing each other Sunday morning tied, then we'd make into the finals. The deleterious effect of tying two games on Saturday seemed evident on Sunday morning. Donnie said that the girls didn't play as well as they normally do and we lost Sunday morning's game 0-1.
The silver lining in not making into the finals was that Donnie and Alyssa were able to head home right after the first game on Sunday. They were home by 4:00 pm. The girls were excited to see each other and hung out the rest of the afternoon and evening. Donnie and Jacob went to a movie and we all got to spend a little time together recounting the weekend.
As for the teens and me when Donnie and Alyssa were in St. Louis, we managed to have some fun. I tried to find an activity that all three of us would like and a movie sounded like a good idea. Alas, there was no movie that three of us could agree on seeing. I tried my hardest to broker a movie outing. Abby called me out on only wanting to go to a movie to eat popcorn (of course she was correct). Abby and I went to an arts and craft show in Bellbrook on Saturday. Going to an arts and craft show is something that no one else in the family besides Abby and I would enjoy. I'm glad that we went because we did, in fact, enjoy it. Jacob hung out with one of his friends and went to see UD play basketball at UD arena. Jacob's friend provide the tickets; Jacob drove the two from Springboro to Dayton.
I don't have too many pictures from the weekend. Alyssa didn't want to carry her phone around with her at City Museum. Donnie wasn't with Alyssa a lot of the time at City Museum (the girls from Alyssa's soccer team went around the museum together with their soccer coach) as he assisted the victims of the car break-ins. Donnie is level headed and thinks so clearly, especially in a crisis. I would have been able to provide moral support but probably not much more than that.
Alyssa sent me one picture from their hotel room- the view outside. She "showed" me their hotel room when we face time. Donnie sent me a couple of pictures from games.
Alyssa and the tall forward: During the second Saturday game (when it was Alyssa's team's second game of the day and their opponent's first game and the game where Alyssa's foot hurt from being stomped on in the first game) Alyssa was marking the girl pictured below. All of the girls' birth years on Alyssa's team and all of the teams they played in this tournament is 2006- Alyssa has a January 2006 birthday so she's among the older 06's. She is not among the biggest.
Donnie texted me this picture during the game and I replied asking what the chances were that this girl wasn't fast? She was, in fact, fast. Alyssa kept up with her the entire game (Alyssa's mark did not score the one goal that the other team scored). Pretty good especially as it was Alyssa's second game of the day, she experienced foot pain, and she physically appears to be about two years younger than her mark.
At one point in the game, a ball in the air was headed both girls' way. Both girls jumped to head the ball. Alyssa did not win the ball out of the air. Shocking, huh :).
Alyssa loves to play soccer and she loves a good view. She was so excited to tell me about the view outside her hotel's window. There's a creek somewhat visible in the picture.
Before the girls first game on Saturday, they all arrived in St. Louis on Friday and went to City Museum in downtown St. Louis. Alyssa loved the museum. I'm glad she was able to experience it. I had heard of it and wanted to go to it when Alyssa and I were in St. Louis this summer for ODP but we didn't go for a variety of reason. Per its website:
Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and old alike.
Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions’. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, City Museum boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!
Neat, huh? Also according to its website, City Museum was voted the Number #1 Family Attraction IN THE WORLD (I all capped the last three words). The downside to the museum is that its location is sketchy. The area in which it's located is a known spot for car break ins. "Smash and grab" is the collequal term for the break ins. There are known parking areas (paid lots) that are particularly prone to this. Donnie parked in the museum's $10.00 parking garage. That garage is the only "safe space" (gives new meaning to that phrase doesn't it?) from the miscreants who roam parking lots near the museum in search of cars with out of state license plates to break into.
The car of one of Alyssa's teammates was broken into while the families were at City Museum. Two cars from our same soccer club (different team than ours) were also broken into. Fortunately, soccer bags and their contents do not fetch much on the black market because none of the soccer bags that were in the vehicles were taken. Donnie told me about the incident(s) on the phone. After we talked, I did an internet search on St. Louis and car break ins. Donnie was right; car breaks ins are a "thing" in St. Louis. I found an article from June 12th of this year titled, "Car break-ins are so bad they're part of St. Louis culture like baseball and barges" from the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Interesting (sad) article. The comments are definitely worth a read, too. The comments were cut off after a certain point that the article was published. Here is a link to the article.
The mom of the family whose car was broken into from Alyssa's soccer team told one of the employees at the hotel where they were staying about her family's car being broken into. The employee said that she has two cars- a normal one and a clunker. If she has to drive to downtown St. Louis, she drives her clunker and, upon parking, does not lock the doors. "Smash and grab" would then become "open the door and leisurely look for any valuables." The article I mentioned above references this exact behavior (driving old cars, leaving nothing of value in the vehicle and leaving the doors unlocked).
I know that car break ins are not limited to St. Louis. Over the summer, cars were broken into in our neighborhood. Also, when Abby and I were in Indianapolis at a dance competition last year, several cars were broken into in the parking lot of the hotel where we were staying. What's odd to me about the St. Louis car break ins is that they are a known and continuous occurrence yet nothing is done about it. Perhaps it's because the victims are mostly from out of state (ergo, not voters) that St. Louis' elected leadership (such as it is) does not have the political incentive to care?
Off of my soap box and onto soccer: Unfortunately, soccer did not go much better than the luck of some whose cars were broken into in downtown STL (although no cars were broken into at the tournament site...). The girls played a game on Saturday morning against a team ranked slightly lower than they were. Alyssa's team was ranked 22nd in the nation and they were playing a local team that was ranked 28th in the nation. The difference of only six places in the rankings means the teams were pretty evenly matched; a six place lead in the ranking did not indicate that it would be an easy win for us. As it turned out, according to Donnie, it should have been an easy win. Donnie thought our team was definitely the better team. However, the score did not reflect that. The score ended up tied, 3-3. Donnie said that two of the other team's goals were offside. They shouldn't have counted. But the AR didn't call the goals offside. Instead, they were allowed to count. If the goals had been called offside, then we would have won 3-1.
The next game was on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, it was the other team's first game of the day and our team's second game. Our girls were tired and suffered from minor injuries sustained in the first game. For example, a player from the first game stomped on Alyssa's foot (I don't think it was maliciously- just in the course of going for the ball). Alyssa walked with a limp for the rest of the day. But, she had another game to play which was less than ideal. Also, the team we played in our second game of the day, from Colorado, was ranked higher than Alyssa's team. We are used to playing one team that's ranked higher than we are, CUP South, but are not used to playing other "better" (according to the rankings) teams. Donnie said that this team was big and good. We led the game 1-0 until about seven minutes were left in the game... and the other team scored. Big bummer. The game ended up tied 1-1. Alyssa played the entire game as one of the other defenders on her team was injured. Donnie said that Alyssa played well in spite of the pain from her stomped on foot. Proud of that tough girl!!
With our two Saturday games ending in a tie, making it into the finals looked improbable. Statistically, it was possible. If we beat our Sunday morning opponent by 3 or more goals AND the two teams in our bracket (the highest one) who were playing each other Sunday morning tied, then we'd make into the finals. The deleterious effect of tying two games on Saturday seemed evident on Sunday morning. Donnie said that the girls didn't play as well as they normally do and we lost Sunday morning's game 0-1.
The silver lining in not making into the finals was that Donnie and Alyssa were able to head home right after the first game on Sunday. They were home by 4:00 pm. The girls were excited to see each other and hung out the rest of the afternoon and evening. Donnie and Jacob went to a movie and we all got to spend a little time together recounting the weekend.
As for the teens and me when Donnie and Alyssa were in St. Louis, we managed to have some fun. I tried to find an activity that all three of us would like and a movie sounded like a good idea. Alas, there was no movie that three of us could agree on seeing. I tried my hardest to broker a movie outing. Abby called me out on only wanting to go to a movie to eat popcorn (of course she was correct). Abby and I went to an arts and craft show in Bellbrook on Saturday. Going to an arts and craft show is something that no one else in the family besides Abby and I would enjoy. I'm glad that we went because we did, in fact, enjoy it. Jacob hung out with one of his friends and went to see UD play basketball at UD arena. Jacob's friend provide the tickets; Jacob drove the two from Springboro to Dayton.
I don't have too many pictures from the weekend. Alyssa didn't want to carry her phone around with her at City Museum. Donnie wasn't with Alyssa a lot of the time at City Museum (the girls from Alyssa's soccer team went around the museum together with their soccer coach) as he assisted the victims of the car break-ins. Donnie is level headed and thinks so clearly, especially in a crisis. I would have been able to provide moral support but probably not much more than that.
Alyssa sent me one picture from their hotel room- the view outside. She "showed" me their hotel room when we face time. Donnie sent me a couple of pictures from games.
Alyssa and the tall forward: During the second Saturday game (when it was Alyssa's team's second game of the day and their opponent's first game and the game where Alyssa's foot hurt from being stomped on in the first game) Alyssa was marking the girl pictured below. All of the girls' birth years on Alyssa's team and all of the teams they played in this tournament is 2006- Alyssa has a January 2006 birthday so she's among the older 06's. She is not among the biggest.
Donnie texted me this picture during the game and I replied asking what the chances were that this girl wasn't fast? She was, in fact, fast. Alyssa kept up with her the entire game (Alyssa's mark did not score the one goal that the other team scored). Pretty good especially as it was Alyssa's second game of the day, she experienced foot pain, and she physically appears to be about two years younger than her mark.
At one point in the game, a ball in the air was headed both girls' way. Both girls jumped to head the ball. Alyssa did not win the ball out of the air. Shocking, huh :).
Alyssa loves to play soccer and she loves a good view. She was so excited to tell me about the view outside her hotel's window. There's a creek somewhat visible in the picture.
Comments
Post a Comment