Sarah Broacha (U15) at Regional Camp
Friday July 5th, 2013
Today is the day I left for Regional Camp at Cal Poly Pomona. I was really nervous and exited at the same time! I flew out instead of driving to have more time to settle in to the dorms, but once we got there, everyone was really rushed. I didn’t even get to meet my roommate until later that night. When I got to the dorms a schedule was posted, and I was already late for an introduction meeting! I shoved my bags into my dorm room and ran to meet everybody. Luckily I made it to the door of the meeting area before it closed! At the introduction meeting all the coaches introduced themselves and told us where they coach/coached. I was so exited to work with all these talented coaches. Brandi Chastain being one of them!
After the meeting we were told we have a 15-minute walk to dinner, and then get 20 minutes to eat quickly before nighttime soccer training! I was really nervous that I wouldn’t play well. I normally don’t eat right before soccer, but I went along with it. Soccer training turned out to be easy. We where scrambled into teams, and the training was mostly to meet your new teammates and learn how to play together successfully.
Later on, I got to meet my roommates. Usually there are four girls per dorm, but our dorm only had three. Victoria shared a room with me, and she was from Nevada. My other roommate was Brynnae, and she was from Utah. They where both really nice, and fun to talk to!
Saturday July 6th, 2013
Today we all had to get up at 6ish to be outside the dorms at 6:45. We had a 15-minute walk to breakfast. Right after breakfast, we had training from 8:30-10:15. In this training we learned some passing drills, and played 11 v. 11. Once training was over, we went to lunch, then got a couple hours of free time before our next lecture. I learned a lot from it. I learned that the most important quality to have is to be coachable–understand and fix your mistakes. I want to be a triple impact competitor. That means I need to play to make my self, teammates, and the game better.
Once again we had training right after dinner, which was a little hard because I usually get hungry after trainings. I made sure to buy some healthy snacks at the store. I think the first full day of camp went well!
Sunday July 7th, 2013
Today is the second, and last full day of camp! It felt like camp has gone so quickly. We all woke up at 7ish to be outside of the dorms at 7:30. We walked to breakfast and once we got back, had some free time. Then, training was at 10:15-12:00. We played big games again, and our team won! Go team Laura! We never really made up a team name. Lunch was at 12:30-1, and then we had a lecture. Brandi Chastain and another one of her teammates taught us a really valuable lesson. They taught us to keep trying if something doesn’t happen the first time. Both of them didn’t get on the national team the first time they tried, but they worked even harder to prove the coaches wrong and eventually made it onto the national team! I have a lot of respect for them and what they accomplished. After the lecture, everyone went to dinner, then training. In the training they scrambled the teams again! It was really hard to remember everyone’s names. I am sad that I have to leave tomorrow!
Monday July 8th, 2013
Today is the last day of camp. We woke up at 6:30 today to get to breakfast early. Training was early because a lot of girls had fights home in the morning. Luckily my flight was at 6, so I had a lot of time. We got a bagged lunch, then took a bus to the airport at 2:30. My bus group was the last bus cause we all had late flights. I was waiting in the airport for around 3 hours until we boarded. Overall this weekend was really fun. I enjoyed meeting new people from our Region and it definitely improved my soccer skills. I hope I get to go to another one soon!
-Sarah Broacha (U15)
