HEY CHICAGO, whaddya say?

This past Sunday some of the varsity girls took a trip down to Chicago to watch the WPS Chicago Red Stars Inaugural Home Opener at Toyota Park. The weather was all but cooperative but the girls were troopers and made the best out of a not-so-ideal situation.

With the rain and wind making conditions consistently terrible we opted out of gallivanting around downtown and headed to Woodfield Mall in Schaumberg. After lunch the girls were sent on a scavenger hunt through the mall - the winners get a 'get out of fitness' card for a portion of our next power hour. This got the g irls motivated! Winner hasn't been determined yet, but from what the coaches have seen thus far it should be good competition. The girls were asked to pose in prom dresses, hats, sunglasses, on the indoor playground, and many others. Though we had a few warnings, thankfully no one was arrested by a mall cop!

After an ice cream stop we headed to the field. The weather was still pretty miserable but we were all bundled in our Rocket-Red parkas...and better yet, our seats were under an awning so we kept dry the entire game! The game ended in a 0-0 tie but there was still plenty of good soccer watched.

With the exception of the players looking like 'highlighters' in their fluorescent uniforms everything about their game was professional - tactful runs and precision passes even in the inclement weather. It was good for us, as a team, to see BOTH the Chicago Red Stars and Sky Blue FC were in a flat four zonal system. This gave us all an opportunity to see the benefits of playing with this shape. Although no goals were scored there were many good opportunities and hard strikes at goal which made the game exciting and worthwhile...though some of our players may argue the highlight of the soccer part of the trip were the $1 hot dogs at the park!

All in all it was a good trip spent with good people, we'd like to something similar in the future with hopes of better weather and not having to return at 11:30 pm on a school night!