After a great second place finish at the Western Regional, we on the Arizona Heat 2nd Degree were feeling really good about our chances at this year’s national tournament. However, those hopes were dampened slightly when we found out that one of us wasn’t going to be able to make the trip. It would change our game plan a bit, but we still felt strong heading to Indianapolis. Arriving at the airport, another member of our team showed up extremely ill, but he decided to make the trek anyway. He wanted to be there for the rest of us and he was sacrificing his health for the team. When the team arrived in Indianapolis, it was decided that our sick teammate was too sick and needed immediate medical attention. A trip to the hospital now left us with only four players. Despite the circumstances, we had to carry on.
The first day of the tournament was particularly challenging because we were playing with a different line up and we had never played against the other teams. Unfortunately the two games against the RHI Indy Cruisers and North Georgia Screamin’ Eagles resulted in two heavy losses, but we knew that there was still plenty of soccer left to be played. Off the court, our teammate who fell ill was being kept in the hospital, so we knew we had to...




