Mary Clifford at Regional Camp

ODP Regional camp was held from July 5-8 in Pomona, CA and was such an amazing experience for me. It was an honor to be there and to help represent our club.

It was really exciting to play with a group of girls from a bunch of different states and the scrimmages were challenging and fun. I enjoyed all of the coaches and their drills and their feedback was helpful. I think that I grew as a player during this camp because I got to see all of the different levels of play out there in my age group and got to go against a lot of good players who all made me better.

It was also really cool to get to meet Brandi Chastain and take a picture with her! She signed my bag and that was a really nice closing to my experience there. She was very kind to everyone and had some great stories for the camp. The coaches were all great. They talked a lot about soccer, but also life lessons too. I learned so much and am thankful for all they shared.

The schedule made us hurry between meetings, playing, and the cafeteria. We were always moving quickly as a group. The cafeteria took 15 minutes to walk to, but the food was worth it. The dorms at the college were really nice and four of us shared a four-bedroom suite. All of the dorms were air conditioned which was nice to walk into after a hot and sweaty practice on the field. During free time I would go to friends’ dorms and hang out. I made many new friends at the camp and got to know some of the older Rage players better too.

Attending this camp was a privilege and helped me grow not only as a player, but as a person too.

Mary Clifford