Day 1

I woke up at 5:30 and headed to the airport to catch my 8:50 flight to Los Angeles. I was wearing my khakis, Nike gym shoes, and US soccer polo. The four hour flight gave me a lot to think about. I slept the first half, but the second half I reflected on all the hard work I'd put in leading up to this point and all the people that helped me along the way. A big thanks goes out to my trainers and all my CUP coaches for helping me prepare for this opportunity. We landed about 11 am Los Angeles time and got picked up and dropped off at the Holiday Inn. At one we ate lunch and then at three we met again for a team meeting. Then at 5, we got ready to head to our 5:30 training at the Home Depot Center. I walked into the locker room and changed into the US training gear they provided us with. My locker had a ton of free Nike stuff that I was pretty excited about too. At the training, we worked on stringing passes together. We started with small sided games and then played bigger. After training, we went straight to dinner where pasta and chicken was served. Then we headed back to our rooms to get some sleep for our technical and fitness tests they had planned for us in the morning and afternoon.

Above: Maddie Huster (Ohio Elite), Me, Emily Ogle (Internationals), the Ohio contingent.