Enthusiasm

It is impossible to overstate the excitement of the Bridge of Life Under 13s team as they prepared for the Regional Championships last Saturday, June 18. The three winning teams from Poipet (Under 17s, Under 13s and Girls) met the other first-placed teams from Pailin and Battambang for the holiday tournament. The boys were told a month before about the upcoming Championship. Thirty whole days of waiting! Hundreds and thousands of hours and minutes to wonder what it will be like to compete against teams from neighbouring Provinces!

Our Sports Coordinator, Chanthy, was worried that the youngest team might sleep in and miss the 5am departure. So rather than risk missing the bus, he invited the crew for a sleepover at our home/ office the night before! We borrowed mattresses and spread them out across the floor. The soccer players were supposed to come at 7pm, after dinner, but they started gathering from 2pm. (That's keen!) No surprise, then, that they found it difficult to get a full night's sleep. Phoeurn also crashed at our house to help supervise and, since all of the kids were awake at 2:30am, he grabbed a whiteboard and talked soccer strategy. At 3am they tried to sleep again but by 4am they all up, dressed and ready to go!

The Under 17s and Under 13s lost both of their games but gained experience through playing better teams. (Maybe they will do better next year if they get more than a couple of hours of sleep the night before?!) The Girls had a friendly match and they won that game. Win, lose, whatever... the kids and teenagers had a great time.