Reports will be posted when submitted by the team.
  

By:  Kiki, Kori, and Amy

Waking up both excited and anxious, we made our way to the breakfast room to have our last pre-game meal. We arrived at the field with our minds set on winning. We went through our usual warm up, but before we took the field, each player had something inspirational to say to their teammates.

After coming out strong in the beginning of the game and creating numerous chances at the net, we allowed one mistake that let to Bethesda’s first goal. Knowing our team, however, we thrive on challenges like this. Just before the half, we capitalized on one of our opportunities, and Kasey was able to head one in.

In the second half, Bethesda came out strong and scored within minutes. Like we said before, our team likes to make things difficult. After pushing hard for twenty minutes or so, we finally got the equalizer. Kiki finished a shot off of Michelle’s cross.   The game quickly ended in a tie. Knowing we had thirty minutes of overtime head of us, we wanted to push strong and win it on the field. One minutes into overtime Michelle finished a goal off of beautiful combining by our team. Soon after, using her own individual talent, Michelle scored another. Bethesda refused to give up and with a few minutes left in overtime scored another goal. We were able to hold onto our one goal lead and win the National Championship!! The feeling was unbelievable and all of the midday practices in our sweatshirts paid off.

We proudly received our medals while listening and singing to “We are the Champions” and our theme song “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Not only did we receive our free apparel, but we also received the “fair play award” and Michelle received the “Golden Boot” with her four goals in the tournament.

Rushing back to the hotel to get showered, we were smart enough to leave the connecting door unlocked to sneak into our already checked out rooms.

Soon enough we found our way back to our favorite place “Earl’s Sandwiches.”  The fifteen ice cream and candy deprived girls headed straight to the chocolate cupcakes.

FINAL DESTINATION: LAX! We were excited to come home as champions, but that was put on hold with our one and a half hour delay. In our spare time Abner treated us to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream! To waste the other extra hours, some decided to play football in the halls of the airport, while other decided to ride the tram back and forth between terminals. As the plane pulled up, we all jumped to get into the place first. We made a quick stop in Chicago and boarded our flight to LA.

That is where our team is now, writing this diary, on our way back home. Coming home will be bitter sweet. We will be coming home as champions, but we also know that we have to say good-bye to our fourteen other sisters, all of the parents, and our course, our unbelievable coaches. Eleven players will be going off to colleges across the United States, and four will be left behind to play another year of club. These four have decided to go together to our rival club, the Blues. Our team has a strong bond that not many teams can find. After nine years, it is all over, but we ended it off the best way we could: as National Champions!

We want to thank the parents for everything they have done. From the beginning, they have been there for us, and without them, none of this would have been possible.

We also want to thank our coaches, Neil and Abner. They pushed us to the max, and as much as we hated doing that extra sprint, or staying that extra half hour, or getting our cell phones taken away (haha), look where they have gotten us. We are national champions because of them, and we owe so much to them.

And to our team, we love you girls so much. We know that whatever club team we play on, or whatever college team we go to, we will never again play on a team like the Laguna Hills Eclipse. We won Surf Cup, League, Las Vegas Showcase, Nomads, State Cup, Regionals, and Nationals. Thirty games since High School Season…thirty games undefeated.

By:  Kiki, Kori, and Amy

Greetings from the happiest place on Earth. It is Saturday, and it is our day off. We finally get to sleep in, but that is only because we arrived at the hotel at 1 am from our game. After a delicious breakfast, we had our final pool workout as a team. Having the attention span of a five-year-old, our team soon found our way down to the finals of the dance competition. We had a blast attempting to imitate the dancers when they lifted their legs, twirled in circles, and leaped across the stage. We were taken back by their costumes as well as their Gumby-like features. Next was our favorite part of the day, the massages. When the massages were finished, we moved on to something that any Southern California girl would do best… shopping!! Wow, we did not realize how much damage a girls soccer team can do in an hour. From the mall we went straight to Benihanas where we celebrated Abner’s “birthday” without his knowing. With our full stomachs, we traveled back to the hotel and packed up our belongings for our departure after tomorrow’s game. Little did we know our crazy, yet unbelievably generous, parents would surprise us with their own version of the song “Let’s Get It Started”. Not only did that pump us up, but it made us laugh as well when security came to tell us to “shut up!” We all went to our rooms to fall asleep and dream of winning our second national title.

By:  Michelle and Christina 

We’re bored, we’re wet, but up a goal!  And yes, we started writing this in the middle of our game. 

We finally got to sleep in and awoke to a 9:00 A.M. buffet breakfast in the hotel where our waiter said  he would come and support us at our game tonight.  Until lunch at 1:30, we occupied ourselves with the dance competition, movies, and more food. 

WOAH!  There was another lightening strike! 

We then went and ate at our pre-game meal at a wonderful sandwich shop called Earl’s Sandwich’s in Downtown Disney.  We were very fortunate to receive 30 minutes of shopping time in the Disney outdoor shopping mall.  After  getting back from the hotel, we had a big pre-game meeting on how to go about our goal of getting to the finals.  We now await the unknown time until we continue with the hour and 23 minutes left in our match versus Dallas Sting…

It is now the next day and we’re back to finishing our diary.  So, after the postponement of our match, we started it back up again at 10:30 P.M.  It was a long day, finally finishing at 12:20 A.M. and getting out of the Disney Wide World of Sports complex at about 12:40.  We tied our game 1-1, giving us enough points to advance to the finals on Sunday versus Bethesda.  Tonight was a first for everyone as we started the game on one day, July 29, and finished on the next, July 30.

Even though it was one A.M., the repetitive pool workout still took place.  And since all restaurants, diners, etc. were closed, our dedicated parents brought us back a bag of Taco Bell food worth $100.  We finally went to sleep a little after two a.m.. having a very memorable day running through our tired minds.

By:  Cat and Jill

We knew we heard the alarm go off, but at 5:45 in the morning, when it is still dark outside, waking up was not the easiest thing to do. Knowing we had to be ready to play a game in a couple of hours was our motivation to get out of our comfortable beds and get a quick, light breakfast from one of the teammates rooms. After bagels and some fruit we taped our injuries, got our gear on, and headed to the vans which would take us to Disney’s Wide World of Sports to play our second match. One would think that when we got to the field at 6:30 in the morning we would want to wear our sweats…. but not here. In fact it was already really hot and humid. After a successful game we went to complete our breakfast at none other than the International House of Pancakes (IHOP). With our hunger satisfied we got back in the vans and headed back to the hotel where we anxiously awaited our therapeutic massages. Its amazing how someone talented in massage therapy can soothe the aches and pains of a couple tough games. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and  getting ready for a very important game tomorrow. We decided to meet at 5:30 to eat dinner. Just as we were ready to get in the vans, the sky opened up with a down pour of rain, and a display of an East Coast thunder and lightening storms, which is an unusual sight for our Southern California tem. Thankfully it let up once we arrived at the chosen destination of Buca Di Bepo’s for dinner. After a delicious meal rich with carbs, we walked around the mall a little bit and then were on our way back to the hotel. Without a meeting this evening we were able to relax and focus on crushing our opponents in tomorrow’s game.

By:  Brittany & Miranda

We woke up bright and early with the anticipation of our first game. As we walked out to go eat breakfast at 7:00 a.m. we were surprised with the creative pump up posters that the parents had posted on each of our doors. After our three course breakfast (bagels and cereal and bananas) we headed out to the Disney WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS. As we walked through the Hess Sport Fields we made our way to the check in tent and then mentally and physically prepared for the game. At the whistle, we were already swimming in our sweat-drenched uniforms. Although we were disappointed by our first half performance, we managed to pull ourselves together second half and tied Bethesda 1-1. From the fields we headed back to the pool to continue our cool down which consisted of our dynamic stretching. The rest of the day was pretty low key. We showered, ate, watched movies, and then headed off to do what we do best (EAT!) As we sat around the table, we were tortured by the scrumptious looking dessert menu. From dinner we headed back to the hotel to attend our nightly team meeting. There we discussed the pros and cons of today’s game and reviewed what needs to be done tomorrow. When we got back to our rooms we continued to hydrate by playing our infamous water drinking games. Before we laid our heads to sleep we turned off our cell phones to avoid any distractions. GO ECLIPSE!

P.S. We forgot to mention that we witnessed history yesterday; the ‘Discovery’ space shuttle launched right before our eyes while we watched in awe from our hotel balcony!

By: Jenna and Courtney

“Ring, ring, ring!... This is your wake-up call.”  The morning began with an unwanted 7:30 mandatory breakfast.  With everyone still half asleep ( bed head, morning breath, and the whole bit) we somehow managed to pour ourselves some milk and cereal.  One of the many morning laugh included a player “accidentally” spilling milk on a fellow players floor.  After eating, we RAN back to our rooms and JUMPED under the covers, only to remember our coaches words from the meeting the evening prior…” No napping between breakfast and the opening ceremonies!”  Indeed we all did stay awake (although our heavy eyelids made this difficult), and we began our primping for the banquet.  After the beautification process was complete, we all met up in the hallway (parents and coaches included), and everyone came to realize that our beauty stretches beyond the playing field.  [Team Bonding #1]  All 14 of us packing into one elevator, we made our way down to the banquet room, with the 47 other teams nearby.  After being bombarded by the parent paparazzi, we finally made our way to the designated REGION IV GIRLS U18 table.  Each team present was given 2 tables of 9 place settings.  [Team Bonding #2]  We Eclipse girls feel the need to complicate everything; therefore we decided to squeeze all 14 of us at one table.  Onlookers, out-of-staters, our parents and the coaches, originally thought we were trying to develop a new talent (Juggling silverware and plates as if we were in the circus), but soon came to realize that we could not stand a moment of separation from each other. *ha-ha*  The luncheon began with a Welcome prayer by the US Soccer Vice President, Evelyn Gill, and the singing of our national anthem.  Our favorite past time soon followed >EATING<.  Following the meal, Bob Gansler spoke, with his experience on being on the men’s side of soccer.  One thing that caught our attention, and laughs was one of his favorite quotes… “No one is useless… you can always serve as a bad example” J  After the banquet, we returned to our rooms, changed, and hit the road to the fields.  We trained at 4, in the heat of the day, in order to get the final kinks out before tomorrows opening game.  After practice, we did our dynamic stretches in the pool, and quickly showered up for dinner at Macaroni Grill.  Macaroni was delicious, and ended with a Happy Birthday Celebration for the officially 17 year old Michelle Enyeart.  Returning to the hotel with satisfied tummies, we had a meeting to prepare for Bethesda, and returned to our rooms for the night.  (You could not really think we were already hitting the hay!)  As we finish this diary, we head off to a teammates room, to begin our HYDRATION drinking game.  Let the laughs, memories, and water-filled unforgettable moments begin!

By: Tessa and Megan

The day began by an extremely early wake up call because of the time change. We then took off for our breakfast buffet where we found out that one of our star players was very ill. She had been throwing up all morning and was in a lot of pain. All of our fellow players were worried and anxious to see her get better. Although this was a major setback in our day, we still went on with a very wet, sticky, and intense training (mind you, this was only 9 am). The humidity hit us the same way as finding out we were unable to eat dessert for another weekL. After getting drenched by our own sweat we returned to the hotel to get wet even more. We commandeered the shallow end of one of the pools for our cool down and had one little psychotic child tell one of our girls, “You’re crazy.” We walked through the lobby with itty bitty towels and up back to our rooms to shower and beautify.

By: Kasey and Katie 

Slowly we all arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport at 7:30 am, everyone was ready to depart on our quest to win a national championship. We had some detours along the way… for example, Christina Trenton got a flat tire on the way to the airport and some of us stopped to pick her up so she could join us on the flight. Once we got on the flight, some people fell right to sleep, others played card games, and others watched DVD’s and the entire first season of “The OC”. Once we landed in Houston for our layover, we had five minutes to get food before we departed again. It was a mad dash to find food for fourteen starving teenagers. Finally, we arrived in Orlando, we got the rental cars and headed straight to our first team dinner of the week. We decided to eat at Chevy’s. Michelle Enyeart has her birthday this week, so they brought the entire restaurant out to sing to her and she got a sombrero to take home. From the restaurant, we checked into the hotel and hung out in one room. After a brief team meeting, some of the players played a drinking game… but don’t worry, it’s with water. It was a tiring day, but everyone is very happy to be here to WIN our U-18 National Championship.