Kelci

Having just returned from Honolulu and the ladies U18 soccer tournament, it only seems appropriate to do a little braggin' on my niece. I have a brother in Parker, and his daughter is on a team that earned it's way to the regional finals in Hawaii against all the teams from the west, including California, land of lots of ladies to pick from and year round soccer weather to practice in. In the prelim games all week, they beat Northern Cal, New Mexico, and Oregon. Then in the playoff round they beat a tough Arizona team where they got pretty frustrated, and in the semis beat a skilled team from Washington. All the teams are really well coached and competitive, this is about as good as soccer can get. My brother Russ and I would watch the competition, and had been hearing about a team from L.A. called the Slammers. So what happened? Kelci's team ran into them in the finals. The Slammers had beaten the national champs in the semis and were on a roll. So was Custer.

I worked up a good dislike for the Slammers overnight. I don't like teams from SoCal anyway, I didn't like the name, I didn't like the uniforms. When the fire alarm went off in our hotel in the middle of the night, I blamed the Slammers for it, figuring they were trying to disrupt our sleep. That did work.

We arrived a little late after getting lost, which I blamed on them also. It didn't take long to see this was going to be a monster game, neither team was giving an inch. The Slammers were fast, and had little tank bodies that hustled like enraged bees. And Rush has a lot of really skilled players that pass and control the ball like pros. Pretty soon the Slammers scored, and at halftime it looked a little grim, going back and forth but no more goals. We had some chances but nothing was going in.

I always switch sides to watch the offense, and so I got real familiar with the Slammers goalie. She was a really good player making all kinds of saves, robbing us on a couple of chances. And she had plenty of attitude. The crowd was screaming at the ref, looking for a call on her. She would throw elbows, talk trash to the forwards, telling them to bring it on. "YOU WANT SOME OF THIS?" Seemed like she liked contact, because she would crash into whoever was near. I was working up a real lather, keeping it inside where it caused havoc. The only way to shut down her act would be to score, which we did when a collision in the box led to a penalty kick. So the game went into overtime tied at one. It was back and forth all game and could go either way.

I paced the sideline nervously and went up to the other end to watch the offense. I can get pretty competitive, and had butterflies in my stomach from wanting them to win so bad. On a beautiful breakaway, one of the Rush forwards broke in, beat a defender and tapped it over the goalie, who was already stretched out and couldn't get her hand up to block it. When it went over her and crossed the goal line I thought I was going to come out of my flip flops. I haven't felt that good since Laura....., well anyway there was a huge celebration and pile going on at the half line, but I couldn't take my eyes off the goalie, who was doing the alligator on the ground in disbelief. Was it wrong to enjoy an 18 year old pound the ground and moan in dismay? I never said I was perfect. Afterward I felt a little like a guy who laughed as he watched a little old blind lady bump into things as she walked. Sorry.

But really, both teams deserved to win, and both goalies were outstanding. So all of my fist pumping, body english, strutting, high fives to strangers, and continuous yes, yes, yes, chanting was more for the great game and our taking the lead than anything else. I was expecting a 21 gun salute from Pearl Harbor, which is only about 1 mile away. That didn't happen, but I did do a hula. After pretty much constant pressure from the Slammers, the game mercifully ran out and Rush had won. I can honestly say this is the best game I've ever seen. I did have an interest in it.

They now go to the national championships next month.

I am really proud to be Kelci's uncle and the same goes for the whole family. Russ and Tina are great parents, with Kelci and her sister Brenna also. Our family doesn't tell each other this very often, so for the record-WE LOVE YOU GUYS. I would have been proud even if they hadn't won the whole thing, the family dynamic is fun to watch no matter what. Congratulations Newlins!!!!