Another awesome team dinner

Tonight, we planned for another home cooked dinner for the boys.  Aunty Cecily treated us all to a huge pot of homemade chili which we complimented with rice, hot dogs, tossed green salad with veggies and tons of fresh fruit.

The boys spent time playing cards and we all had a great time talking about the days events and how much we are enjoying the trip.

We had a quick parent meeting and talked to Francis about Thursday's Summer Festival before calling it an early night.  Lights out very early tonight as we plan to leave at 6:15 tomorrow morning for our last game at 8 am.  Good night, everyone!

Game 2: Nevada vs Cyclones (7-2)

Today, we left the hotel at 10:15 for our noon game against Nevada.  The Nevada team is made up primarily of players from Mexican descent, short in stature with husky builds.  The Cyclones played a much better, harder game than the first which is not indicative by the score.

We were down by 4 goals when we were awarded a penalty kick for a Nevada handball inside the box.  David took the PK and put it cleanly in the back of the net.  Preston had an awesome 2nd half, aggressively dribbled his way inside the box to score just shortly after our PK goal.

Needless to say, the game was an aggressive one with 4 yellow cards being given (1 to Nevada and 3 to Cyclones).  The Nevada team was able to finish the game by scoring 3 more goals from their solid left forward with a pretty good left foot.

After the game - the boys were interviewed for additional footage that the parents had arranged with the videographer for the tournament.  We arranged for a professional videographer to tape our 2nd game and provide commentary throughout and player, coaches and parent post-game interviews.

The boys played a hard fought game today and we are glad to have put two goals away.  Tomorrow will be our final game in the tournament - we face Oregon and are hoping to pull out a win.  Let's go, Cyclones!  Let's finish strong!

A very special invitation

We received a very special invitation from Francis, one of the hotel workers that we've become acquainted with.  Francis is of Comanche Indian heritage and he invited the Express and Cyclones families to his tribe's reservation for their annual summer festival on Thursday.  We are so honored to be invited and gladly accepted Francis' invitation.

The festival is to honor St. John and it'll be a day filled with ethnic food, dance and tradition.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity - we're so fortunate to be blessed with such an experience.  Will definitely post more about the festival and share photos after Thursday.

Mahalo, Francis, for your kindness and generosity - we look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Hotel's daily breakfast and some dinner too

Our hotel provides a complimentary hot breakfast every morning which is a great convenience.  We have a varying selection of items daily which include biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, pancakes, belgian waffles with all the fixings, yogurt, cereals and bagels, muffins, croissants and other pastries.

It's such a hearty breakfast we are very glad for the convenience of not having to worry about getting the boys fed in the mornings.  The hotel has committed to special arrangements for days where we have early games and also provides dinner for guests on Mondays and Wednesdays.  We have canceled two nights of plans to cook dinner for the team so this also helps us stay below our anticipated meal budget.  Staying at this hotel is working out wonderfully - the staff is also so helpful and have been really great to the Cyclones and Express players and families.

Game 1: Washington vs Cyclones (4-0)

Game day!  Our first game was at 10am this morning against Washington State.  These boys are big in stature, fairly quick and it was a tough game to open with.  The boys matched up evenly for most of the first half when the Washington team scored in the later part of the 1st half.  I wouldn't say that the Washington team was heads and shoulders better in skill level than the Cyclones however, they were definitely handling the heat and elevation better, considering they are also coming from a sea-level (and generally cooler) environment than Hawaii.

The boys played hard - it was evident that this first game would be a difficult one where our boys needed to fight through some pain.  With some players coming into the tournament less than 100% due to existing injuries and still recovering from recent injuries - as well as continuing to get acclimated to the NM environment - the boys played a great game nonetheless.

This wasn't quite the result for the tournament opener we were hoping for but we'll continue to press on.  We'll regroup, refresh and get ready for tomorrow's game.  Go Cyclones!!

Cyclones are in the Albuquerque Journal!

Yesterday, the boys were interviewed by a reporter from the Albuquerque Journal.  Our very own, Royce Romero (#17), was the most outgoing of the group and was quoted in the newspaper article.  This was really a stroke of luck - right place, right time!

The Far West Regionals is a big deal here in Albuquerque - there are 232 teams in the tournament from various age groups from U12 to U19.  Here's a couple of shots from the newspaper which shows the quote from Royce.  Good job, Royce - you presented yourself very humbly - we are so proud of you!

Father's Day Team Dinner

To celebrate Father's Day - we planned on using the gas grills at the hotel to cook bbq chicken, steak and corn for dinner.  It would be a perfect Father's Day dinner except we needed the dads to grill (oh well - they like to do that anyway, right?)  We started marinating chicken last night and Coach Creig put together his special grill seasoning for the steak.
The dinner was delicious!  Another great meal - kinda homemade but away from home.  We were missing all of our families who were not able to make this trip and hope that these posts and photos are helping everyone feel as though they're right here with us. 
The boys are really enjoying eachother's company and are looking forward to the first day of pool play tomorrow.  Lights out at 10:30pm tonight - we need to leave for the fields at 8:15am for our 10:00am game against Washington State.  Good night everyone, wish us luck tomorrow!