About the Author
Karina is a member of the U10 Washington Wolves Club team. She started in our recreational program as a field player, but her love for defending the goal is what made coaches first approach her about being a goalie. Since then, she has grown and excelled in the position as our first ever U10 club goalie.
Fun fact: Karina's favorite goalie is Michigan sophomore Hala Silverstein, hence why she loves to wear her Michigan jersey. She got this jersey from a guest player at this tournament.
Hi, I’m Karina and I'm the U10 Goalie (Number 1). I love being a goalie! I'm doing this first post for our new blog. I hope you like it!
Day 1
The 2025 Sunshine Showcase in Orlando, Florida was a journey for our team. Day one had a rough start. We lost our first game, but the good thing was we were good sports and got over it. When we went to lunch, we went together to have fun while we ate. When we got back to the field our spirits were lifted and everyone was pumped for the game.
Once the game started, we got one goal, but they took it back. After that, the ball just kept going back and forth until we finally got another goal. The first half was over and we headed over to Coach Brooke. She told us some good strategies and told us to get out there and get that goal back.
As we set up on the field we waited for the whistle, and then we got the ball and got a goal. After that we got goal after goal after goal!!!!!! Finally the other team got a goal, but that didn’t put our spirits down, and thanks to our spirit, good teamwork, and obviously good playing, we won!
Day 2
All of day two was really tough. Our first game we lost to a very experienced team. The game was really hard because we lost a player because he got whacked in the knee with a stick (which must really hurt), and one of our other players was sort of sick so she couldn’t be in all the time.
The second game was even more rough. We were playing another experienced team, and boy were they physical. The game started out fine, but soon they attacked us with all the might they had. Their goalie tackled one of our players and hurt her but the goalie didn’t get a penalty. We got really angry at their team for doing that to her so we tried to make a comeback, but it ended up with a goal on us.
At halftime we went over to Coach Brooke and Coach Gloria. They told us how it would not be the end of the world if we lost because we are still young and have a lot of learning to do. So we went back out there with a smile on our faces! We still lost the game, but we were just happy we could do what we could do because we did better than win, we had FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Day 3
Day three was the best day of all. We only had one game, so we made it our best. We had a rough start to the game because everyone was sleepy and tired, but by the second half we had scored two points and they had scored one. In the second half we were much more awake and on our game, then we got a goal, and then another goal!!! We were so happy that we were winning, but the other team was not. They played their hardest, but still didn’t get another goal. The final buzzer went off and we ran into a group hug.
We had gotten fifth place out of all the U10s, which was pretty good since there were eight teams there. Coach Gloria was really proud of us and told us that we were making history for the Washington Wolves because we were the first U10 team for them ever!!
We can’t wait to improve and win more games!!!!!!!
Credits:
Photos by Steven Ritchie and Amy Barrer.