Upcoming Season

I can't believe that the spring club soccer season is almost starting. It seems crazy that the season would start when there's still snow on the ground. I have so many questions about where we will play and how it will workout with the snow, but those questions are just going to have to wait until the schedule is out.

My old team

I am super excited for the season, but I am also a little worried. What worries me is that we have very few players, girls from the U13 team are playing up with us, and I have never seen our keeper play. At tryouts last June, we lost three players, including our keeper, to Black Diamond. I am happy for them because they are my friends and will probably be very successful this season, but I am also sad that they left because it resulted in Park City Soccer Club not having enough girls for a full GU15 team. To accommodate for losing those players, a few U13 and U14 players have been added to our roster. I feel like they set us back a little, and we are now approaching where we were before they joined. This means that they have improved, which is good. Our keeper just recently started playing soccer, which worries me a lot. However I have never seen her play and she has been attending goalie training for the past couple of months, so she could be much better than I anticipate. We'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

I'm excited for the season because our team is made up of a really fun group of girls. Each girl has a very unique personality and they're super fun to play with. Seasons in the past have been really fun, so I assume this one will be the same. Even if our team isn't very successful, I think it will still be fun. That is the real reason for doing sports, right? The reason for playing sports should be to have fun, instead of just to win. After all, we will never know the true joy of victory until you know the sorrows of defeat.

The Perfect Snack

Who doesn't reach for a granola bar when they're hungry before a sports practice? I know I do, and that's why I had wanted to try making my own granola bars for weeks. I finally got around to it a couple of weeks ago. I was rather surprised with how well they turned out and I had a blast making them. My favorite thing about making my own granola bars was that I could choose the ingredients.

The original recipe I used was found on For the Love of Cooking. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/3 cup of honey
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp salted butter, plus more for pan
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup cut pecans
• 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Ingredients

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9x9 glass baking dish. Set aside.
2. Spread oats, almonds, and pecans in a baking sheet pan. Toast in oven for 10 minutes, stir occasionally.
3. While that is in the oven, combine honey, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla in a saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until brown sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
4. When the oat mixture is done, remove from oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees.
5. Immediately add oat mixture to honey mixture. Then stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Spread into the prepared glass baking dish evenly, and place in the oven for 25 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
8. Cut into squares or bars and wrap individually with saran wrap. Store for up to a week.

Finished product :)

These were extremely delicious and they were the perfect snack whenever I got hungry. The beauty of this recipe is that you can substitute almost any of the ingredients with ones you like better.

Let me know if you try this out with different ingredients!

Outdoor Practice

My friend wore ski goggles to make fun of the fact that we had practice outside and there's snow on the ground!

This week we had our first outdoor practice since the fall season. Up until this point, we have been training indoors at the Basin Recreation Field House. Our time there has been helpful, but space is limited and the season is approaching so we need to start practicing where there is more space. Lucky for us, one of the fields at Quinn's Junction is cleared every winter for our use. Practicing outside in February is almost as crazy as it sounds. It's usually below freezing and you find your muscles sufficiently frozen by the time practice is over. As you probably know, running outside when it's cold sucks. I don't think there is any other way to put it. Breathing becomes nearly impossible, your nose won't stop running, and your muscles are about ten times harder to move. In short, running is the last thing you want to be doing.

I had been dreading outdoor practices for about two weeks because of the experiences I had last year with them. When the day finally came and we were forced to play outside, I was pleasantly surprised that it was almost forty degrees! It was still cold, but it was sunny and much warmer than I anticipated so I was happy. However there are a few things that I completely forgot about since last year and I will need to prepare my bag accordingly. It completely slipped my mind that tissues, gloves, and hats are essential for practicing in February weather. I learned my lesson and I am going to keep those things in my bag from now on. Luckily it was a warmish day, so it wasn't a bad day to forget these things on.

Although our first practice was warm, I have convinced myself that we just got lucky and we won't be seeing warm weather for a while. Future practices are bound to be much colder, but I am excited for the upcoming season and I know that enduring the cold will be worth it!

Team Night!

What happens when a girls soccer team gets together outside of soccer? You start to see the real colors of each girl. Who's energetic and outgoing, and who's timid and shy. As my coach says, "It's team building." My coach is a firm believer in getting to know each other outside of soccer, so we have team night once a month.

My crazy team

Last weekend, we had our second team night. We had dinner and watched She's the Man at my house. I have known most of the girls on my team for quite a while now, but I still find it rather amusing to see how they react to certain things. Plus, just about everything anyone says is hilarious to someone on the team because teenage girls are fluent in the language of Sarcasm. There were three very funny instances throughout the night.

The first noteworthy thing that happened was when my team discovered that I have a pet bird and he flies around the house. It's funny enough when one of my friends witnesses him flying for the first time, but when an entire team of clueless girls finds out, it's priceless. Many people screamed, ducked, and were on edge for the next few minutes. Surprisingly, my coach seemed more afraid of him than almost anyone on my team. When this happened, I was laughing so hard I couldn't stand.

My bird, Ollie.
Photo courtesy of Caroline Wagner.

The second was when I pulled out my popcorn maker. My family doesn't make popcorn in the microwave, we have have a different kind of machine that eliminates the risk of burning it. A few girls on my team had never seen one before and they quickly became entranced with how it worked.

I love how easily entertained they all are :)

The last thing was watching the movie as a team. Specifically my team's reaction to the movie. Almost every girl on my team was obsessed with Channing Tatem and it was hilarious to hear their comments throughout the movie. Another funny thing about watching the movie was how everyone reacted to a kissing scene. Again, my coach's reaction was the best. Every time someone kissed, he would single me out and say, "Sophie! Close your eyes! Don't worry it's almost over!" I couldn't stop laughing every time this happened.

I love spending time with my team and I can't wait for our next team night!