Regionals/Weekend Recap - I met Megan Rapinoe! in 2019 Amazing Stories!

Regionals was a blast this weekend! Our women’s team place 2nd overall as did our men’s team! Our first game was at 10am against Portland and we won! Then we played San Francisco and 1 pm and lost. Our last game was at 4pm against Sacramento and we won that game. I was soooooo exhausted after the Sacramento game. the tournament started at 9am and there were games every hour on the hour through 6pm. There were multiple fields at the sports complex we were playing at, so it wasn’t like we were all playing on the same field. And everyone was assigned to work one game that they weren’t playing in (scorekeeper, umpire, boundary line judges, camera, water runners). The game I was assigned to work was at 2pm, right after our 1pm game and I was a water runner. Totally fun job, but it was like running for 2 hours in a row lol. Still, it was the least stressful job, and I was grateful.

I did not make it to Crater Lake National Park. When I came up with that game plan in my head, I was under the impression that I would still have a lot of energy left in my tank at the end of the tournament. Lofty goals! 3 games, plus 1 job game, plus 30 minutes of team warmups before each game, and I was so DUNZO afterwards. I also woke up and started my day at 2:30 am. I wanted to visit a beach I’ve been meaning to visit along the Oregon coast, but haven’t had a a chance to do so. I was bummed I couldn’t stay long once I got there, but it was still cool to see if the VERY early morning. Behold canon beach:

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It was super cool to see in person.

I had a friend agree to watch my dog Friday night and Saturday night, so it felt like a real vacation.

After the regional games were over, I was exhausted both mentally and physically. Mentally because I was with my team literally all day, either socializing between games, playing the games, or working the game I was assigned to and didn’t have any alone “recharge” time. Physically because I felt like I was moving non-stop from 9am - 6 pm lol.

So after the tournament ended, I had a choice to make: A) make a hotel reservation and get cleaned up, recharged and go out and do more team socializing at the bar for the remainder of the evening, B ) make a hotel reservation and get cleaned up and then crash for the remainder of the evening and then do Crater Lake on Sunday morning or C) drive home and crash at home. Guys, I chose C. I couldn’t justify the hotel expense when I google mapped the route home and saw that I could be home by 10 pm and cleaned up and in bed by 11pm. And I remembered that the Reign FC had a game Sunday afternoon at 1pm and it was their World Cup homecoming game and I had a ticket for it. Players like Megan Rapinoe, Allie Long, and Jodie Taylor would all be there. I’ve only missed one of their home games this season and really didn’t want this to be a game I missed. And it was even sold out!

So Crater Lake will have to wait for another day, but I DID get to meet Megan Rapinoe after the game and got her autograph:

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My phone battery legit was super close to dying before I was able to take these photos. After every Reign game, the players sign autographs for fan, free of charge. She might be one of the most popular/highest paid women soccer players right now, but she participated in the fan zone autographs just like all the other players. i couldn’t help but think to myself: I personally know a few people who paid thousands of dollars to go watch her play in the world cup in france, but they didn’t get to meet her personally or get her autograph. I paid $17.50 for a ticket to a game at her home turf and got to meet her and get her autograph.

Also, even though I did come home on Saturday, I didn’t tell my friend who was watching my dog. She was/is under the impression I did the responsible thing and stayed the night in Oregon. I basically wanted an uninterrupted night’s sleep once i got home that night and wanted to sleep in until it was time to leave for the Reign game. I told her I was going to be back in town just in time for the Reign game and asked if it would be okay if I picked my dog up after the game. She said that was fine. She would have KILLED me if I went to Crater Lake without her though, so its probably best I’m saving that for another time.