Hello again friends and family. Sarah and Erin reporting from chilly Oneonta. Lauren last told you about some of our adventures in the beginning of the week while we were on Maui. Well, since then we had two back-to-back matches versus the U-18 Maui International men’s team and the Maui Red Devils a Women’s Open team. The results you ask, a split. We unfortunately lost to the men’s team 3-0 but we made up for it with a 2-0 win over the women. Christine Marra and Lindsey Brechbiel had a goal each and it was a great effort by all. After the game Liz and Dave treated us to a pizza dinner on the sidelines and we headed back to the hotel to get a good night sleep to prepare for the excitement of the following day. We were all ecstatic for our snorkeling trip to see sea turtles, whales and beautiful coral reef! Bright and early on Saturday morning we all met in the lobby and piled into our mini vans. When we reached the harbor, we climbed aboard the “Pride of Maui” and received our masks and snorkeling gear. Our first snorkel spot was “Molokini Crater” rated one of the top 10 dive spots in the world by Travel Magazine. The sights were truly breath taking!! On the voyage to our next stop we had the rare opportunity to see several whales migrating from Alaska. Our second location was called Turtle Town, and the name alone made Vandenbergh, who has a deep fear of turtles, nervous. Here we had a few close encounters with some sea turtles and had fun going off the slide at the front of the boat. Unfortunately Mother Nature herself cut our trip short when the waves began to get too big for our boat to handle. Upon our return from snorkeling we began packing. While holding back our tears, a few girls went to get a last Hawaiian dessert at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. The long plane ride home was one full of mixed emotions. We were all overcome with a sense of great sorrow to leave such a beautiful place behind but also happy to have shared so many memories with such a great team. As we pulled into the town of Oneonta the sight of snow welcomed us. We’re all adjusting to the cold weather again and we are really looking forward to some nice spring days.
Signing off this is Erin Boyle and Sarah Mikiewicz!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Hawaii Spring Training - Day 7
Aloha Everyone!
The Oneonta State Soccer team is coming to you from the beautiful island of Maui. We had some complications for our flight and as you last heard, we were waiting in the airport. The flight went well and it felt fairly short compared to being on a 12 hour flight. In less than half an hour, we landed on Maui. The view from the take off was gorgeous because we left just as the sun set. We gathered our luggage, which is a pretty big task when you have 21 fifty pound red bags stuffed to the brim. It was dark on the ride back from the airport so it was a relief when we arrived at the hotel. We received our keys and broke off into our room assignments. You could hear shrieks around the complex as we entered into our rooms. These weren’t just ANY rooms, they were suites complete with their own kitchen, king sized bed and rock paneled shower. It was unbelievable. We passed out early in preparation to scout the island in the morning. Around 9am, the majority of us headed out to the beach to work on our tan of course. Once we arrived, it was nothing but blue sky and sand from there. The lack of tourists made it such a relaxing place to be. Maui definitely kept its reputation for its laidback atmosphere in our book. While most of the team was at the beach, a bunch of us went up and down Front Street (the main street in the area) in search of souvenirs and unique shops. We found a variety of places from Billabong to small art galleries to the Hard Rock Café. Due to our change in plans, we were unable to hold practice. Lucky for us, the local high school soccer coach allowed us access to the school’s field to practice in the evening. It was a ten minute drive up the mountain which provided us with the most gorgeous (and most distracting) view of the ocean. We worked hard and pushed each other for an hour and a half until we couldn’t see the ball anymore. Playing this hard reminded us that not only was this a vacation but a journey that we are taking together. After some team pictures, you could feel the unity and appreciation we have been developing over these last few days. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day. Hawaii is the place to be especially over snowy Oneonta. Some of you parents might have a request to transfer to University of Hawaii this coming semester!!! Once again, we had to crash early because we had another big day ahead of us. Just a quick thanks to all our supporters, parents, fans and coaches for making this trip possible.
Mahalo and Aloha!!!
Lauren McGee #7
The Oneonta State Soccer team is coming to you from the beautiful island of Maui. We had some complications for our flight and as you last heard, we were waiting in the airport. The flight went well and it felt fairly short compared to being on a 12 hour flight. In less than half an hour, we landed on Maui. The view from the take off was gorgeous because we left just as the sun set. We gathered our luggage, which is a pretty big task when you have 21 fifty pound red bags stuffed to the brim. It was dark on the ride back from the airport so it was a relief when we arrived at the hotel. We received our keys and broke off into our room assignments. You could hear shrieks around the complex as we entered into our rooms. These weren’t just ANY rooms, they were suites complete with their own kitchen, king sized bed and rock paneled shower. It was unbelievable. We passed out early in preparation to scout the island in the morning. Around 9am, the majority of us headed out to the beach to work on our tan of course. Once we arrived, it was nothing but blue sky and sand from there. The lack of tourists made it such a relaxing place to be. Maui definitely kept its reputation for its laidback atmosphere in our book. While most of the team was at the beach, a bunch of us went up and down Front Street (the main street in the area) in search of souvenirs and unique shops. We found a variety of places from Billabong to small art galleries to the Hard Rock Café. Due to our change in plans, we were unable to hold practice. Lucky for us, the local high school soccer coach allowed us access to the school’s field to practice in the evening. It was a ten minute drive up the mountain which provided us with the most gorgeous (and most distracting) view of the ocean. We worked hard and pushed each other for an hour and a half until we couldn’t see the ball anymore. Playing this hard reminded us that not only was this a vacation but a journey that we are taking together. After some team pictures, you could feel the unity and appreciation we have been developing over these last few days. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day. Hawaii is the place to be especially over snowy Oneonta. Some of you parents might have a request to transfer to University of Hawaii this coming semester!!! Once again, we had to crash early because we had another big day ahead of us. Just a quick thanks to all our supporters, parents, fans and coaches for making this trip possible.
Mahalo and Aloha!!!
Lauren McGee #7
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Hawaii Spring Training - Day 5
Aloha Family and Friends!!
Today was a very exciting and crazy day here on the island of Oahu!!! We started off our day around 9am to get a bus to Pearl Harbor for the morning/afternoon. Once we arrived at the harbor we ran into some complications because of the cruise ships that unloaded so many other tourists who also wanted to be at Pearl Harbor the same day we were! Dave and Liz gave us the option of walking around the Harbor or walking through the USS Bowfin Submarine. Many of us went through the submarine and to enter you had to walk through a 4 foot door which gives you an idea how compact it was inside. We walked through the life of many soldiers when we went through the Bowfin Submarine and were able to see where they slept, ate, and worked. After we went through the submarine we all ate lunch under a nice tent at the harbor and finished 9 pizzas which wasn’t a problem for our team!! After lunch we had a team bonding experience with our special guest Shelly Behrens. And then it was finally our turn to go on the tour after waiting for quite a bit but it was worth every minute we waited. The tour first started off with a 23 minute movie on the history of Pearl Harbor and after the movie was over we hopped onto a ferry to go over to the Memorial site. The memorial was really emotional and no one was allowed to talk once we got to the memorial to show respect to those who served for our country. What was really interesting at the memorial was seeing the oil still spilling out from the USS Arizona Ship that sunk still to this day. We were told that the oil spilling out was the tears of fallen soldiers which all of us found unreal. We had a really great time at Pearl Harbor but once we left it was time to GO GO GO!! There was a problem with the airline that was taking us to the island of Maui tomorrow so we were informed that our flight was taking off tonight at 7:10 instead of tomorrow in the afternoon!! At this point it was 3:30 in the afternoon and we just left Pearl Harbor and needed to be all packed and ready to leave the hotel by 4:30 to catch our flight to Maui! Surprisingly room 902, which housed the North Rockland connection, were the first ones to make it down to the lobby with bags packed and all!!! ((Hey Deb, Dan, Joe & Di don’t we make you proud!! J love your girlies)) Everyone else did make record breaking time and left the hotel to go to the airport without any problems! Right now we are all waiting to board the plane to go to Maui and stay at the Aina Nalu Resort which should be beautiful! Tomorrow’s events include laying in the sun and a training session late afternoon which seems like a nice relaxing day! I can’t believe its Tuesday and we’ve been in paradise for 5 days already, we are such a lucky bunch of girls!! Hope everyone had a nice Easter, we will keep updating!!
Love,
Beth Cherry #9
Today was a very exciting and crazy day here on the island of Oahu!!! We started off our day around 9am to get a bus to Pearl Harbor for the morning/afternoon. Once we arrived at the harbor we ran into some complications because of the cruise ships that unloaded so many other tourists who also wanted to be at Pearl Harbor the same day we were! Dave and Liz gave us the option of walking around the Harbor or walking through the USS Bowfin Submarine. Many of us went through the submarine and to enter you had to walk through a 4 foot door which gives you an idea how compact it was inside. We walked through the life of many soldiers when we went through the Bowfin Submarine and were able to see where they slept, ate, and worked. After we went through the submarine we all ate lunch under a nice tent at the harbor and finished 9 pizzas which wasn’t a problem for our team!! After lunch we had a team bonding experience with our special guest Shelly Behrens. And then it was finally our turn to go on the tour after waiting for quite a bit but it was worth every minute we waited. The tour first started off with a 23 minute movie on the history of Pearl Harbor and after the movie was over we hopped onto a ferry to go over to the Memorial site. The memorial was really emotional and no one was allowed to talk once we got to the memorial to show respect to those who served for our country. What was really interesting at the memorial was seeing the oil still spilling out from the USS Arizona Ship that sunk still to this day. We were told that the oil spilling out was the tears of fallen soldiers which all of us found unreal. We had a really great time at Pearl Harbor but once we left it was time to GO GO GO!! There was a problem with the airline that was taking us to the island of Maui tomorrow so we were informed that our flight was taking off tonight at 7:10 instead of tomorrow in the afternoon!! At this point it was 3:30 in the afternoon and we just left Pearl Harbor and needed to be all packed and ready to leave the hotel by 4:30 to catch our flight to Maui! Surprisingly room 902, which housed the North Rockland connection, were the first ones to make it down to the lobby with bags packed and all!!! ((Hey Deb, Dan, Joe & Di don’t we make you proud!! J love your girlies)) Everyone else did make record breaking time and left the hotel to go to the airport without any problems! Right now we are all waiting to board the plane to go to Maui and stay at the Aina Nalu Resort which should be beautiful! Tomorrow’s events include laying in the sun and a training session late afternoon which seems like a nice relaxing day! I can’t believe its Tuesday and we’ve been in paradise for 5 days already, we are such a lucky bunch of girls!! Hope everyone had a nice Easter, we will keep updating!!
Love,
Beth Cherry #9
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Hawaii 2008 - Day 3
We arrived in Hawaii on Friday night after 11 hours in a plane. It was a little cramped but leaving the cold, snowy north east to beautiful sunny Hawaii makes it all worthwhile. We had the girls up Saturday morning to hike from our hotel in Waikiki to Diamond Head. Diamond Head is the most famous volcanic Crater in the world located on the South-east corner of Oahu at the end of Waikiki Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I believe that the total hike was about 6 miles that included 280 steps up to top BUT if you ask the girls it was 10 miles and by the time we get back to Oneonta it just might be a 20 mile hike! The pictures will show it was worth every step and I am sure they already have memories of a lifetime.
Sunday morning was our first training session and how great it feels to be outside in 80 degree weather kicking a soccer ball around. The girls worked really hard and their touch is coming back fast! We have 2 more training sessions before we take on a U18 boys club team from Maui and the Maui Red Devils Women's team.
Tomorrow we are off to Pearl Harbor. We can't wait.
Liz McGrail
Oneonta State Women's Soccer Coach
Sunday morning was our first training session and how great it feels to be outside in 80 degree weather kicking a soccer ball around. The girls worked really hard and their touch is coming back fast! We have 2 more training sessions before we take on a U18 boys club team from Maui and the Maui Red Devils Women's team.
Tomorrow we are off to Pearl Harbor. We can't wait.
Liz McGrail
Oneonta State Women's Soccer Coach
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