A winning tournament

For at least the last nine years we have spent Presidents Day Weekend at soccer tournaments for Joel and Will. First in St George, then Mesquite and Las Vegas and finally the last two years in Arizona (Casa Grande and Gilbert). Since half of Will's Utah Storm team is graduating from high school this spring, it is uncertain if Will will be on a club soccer team for his senior year. So this may be our last Presidents Day tournament. 

This tournament was sponsored by FC (Football Club) del Sol out of Phoenix. Teams from all over the country played at the brand new Bell Bank Athletic Complex in far east Gilbert Arizona. The complex opened last month. The 24 soccer fields were amazing but parking and access in and out of the park were a mess. It didn't help that this weekend the complex was hosting pickle ball, basketball and soccer tournaments, plus a beer fest on Saturday. Wills team won a team from Minnesota 2-1 on Saturday morning, lost to a good Las Vegas team 1-4 that afternoon and then won 9-0 against a team from San Antonio Sunday afternoon. Those two wins led to a #2 finish in their bracket leading to a play off for third place Monday at 11:30 with the #2 team from the other bracket. That team is from the FC Barcelona academy in Casa Grande. 

Will played hard in all three games. What follows are photos I took with my brand new camera and telephoto lens.

One of many tumbles.

This free kick by Will was well placed and after two other handles led to goal #9.

 Thanks to Nate Moller for this video of the shot.

Notice the 9-0 on the score board.

Thanks to coaches Jeff and Chad.

I'll add more after Monday's game along with how the 10 hour drive home in a snow storm goes.

Storm's final game for third place against the FC Barcelona team ended up in a 1-1 tie, that Storm then lost in shoot outs.

This slide hurt. The blades of the new turf gave Will a nice thigh slicing.

Lined up for the shoot out. 

 Will's shot hit the top bar. rats. Not withstanding, Will said this game was one of the best he had played.

 This was one of Will's Storm team's best showing in a tournament.

After the game we had Five Guys for a late lunch and then headed north at about 3:00. Snow started after a late dinner in Kanab and lasted through about Fillmore. We were late enough to miss all of the St; George traffic on I-15 that when combined with the snow really slowed down the freeway.. We pulled in about 1:30 AM. I passed more than a few cars (sometimes more than two in a stretch) on a snowy, slow-going, two lane US 89 between Kanab and Panguitch.