An interesting weekend was had as the weather was unusual at best. I attended the Brittany Tournament in Wilson on Friday night. In the spring, the Brittany is for high school girls team (63 were there-playing 35 games) and in the fall, there is a boys high school tournament. All games are played at the beautiful Gillette complex in Wilson on Friday night and Saturday. The town of Wilson should be lauded for building this great six, soon to be eight, field soccer complex. Lights, seating, room to roam and park....they made a commitment and did it RIGHT. The folks of Wilson put on a great show with the Brittany. After every round of play, which consists of six games, the participants of all twelve teams gather for a ceremony. The referees pick a sportsmanship winner from each team. The teams get their seniors introduced and the team gets pizza to devour. Most schools also make a donation to the Brittany fund which provides scholarships for college to children (not just soccer players) in town. KUDOS to all involved! It should be an event that you should attend even if you don't have a child playing. The weather was starting to get bad....wind and rain during the last set of games on Friday night.
Saturday morning, it was up early for me to host the "Back of the Net" soccer show. Then off to the MADD Walk at NCSU's Centennial campus. I did the "jog" and had a good time but was wearing a hat and gloves on April 9th, due to the coolish temperatures. In attendance were the CASL Wildcats coached by Nicole Hutchinson. They raised over $10,000 for this great cause!
The weather kept things cool for CASL games on Saturday as the bad weather waited until later to rear its ugly head! That ugly head appeared a little after 7 pm at the same time as the Carolina Railhawks game. A little under 10 minutes into the game, the lightning and then the rain came. The field and stands were cleared and a rain delay of almost 2 hours commenced. The game resumed around 9 pm between the Railhawks and the Puerto Rico Islanders. These two teams played in last year's final series with the Islanders prevailing. PR went ahead in the 1st half but in the 86th minute, the Railhawks tied the game. Alas, in stoppage time, the Islanders put another one away and had a 2-1 victory. The second half was played in a driving rain and the players, coaches and the 400 fans that remained are to be commended!
Due to the rain on Saturday, some of Sunday's games were postponed. All games in the southern 1/2 of CASL's footprint had to be postponed due to the risk of injury due to standing water. We were able to open fields in the north which were wet but playable. This is the third full or partial rain out day that has occurred on Sundays this spring. CASL's scheduling staff will be hard at work trying to reschedule those contests.
The strange weather continues today as a high of 85 degrees is forecast but it doesn't feel like that this morning. I hope that all survived the weekend and I am looking for better weather this weekend, not just for CASL folks but fot the Railhawks as they have another home game this weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment