favorite memories

was reminicing this afternoon at a family gathering, thinking about my favorite memories associated w/the u of p women. for me, the are

1. clive hugging that ncaa championship trophy. there are a couple of pictures of it in the chiles center that i still go an stare at. prcieless!

2. dont know how many of you saw this one. it occured at the rally in pioneer sqaure when the girls game home. there was a drawing where two people at the rally got to go up on the stage w/the team. the second person selected was a young girl, mayb 10-12 years old. when her name was annouced, she literally burst into tears an by the time she got up on the stage, she was shaking uncontrollably. it was like she was meeting a rock star or had just won miss ameria. i just love to see how our fine young ladies affect the youth in our community. we are very lucky they are such great ambassadors an i for one am very proud they represent us.

Some other moments: After the 4-overtime game vs. NC in Greensboro, the first Final Four my wife and I went to, we went out for dinner at a very "hot" seafood restaurant outside Greensboro. We were chatting with our waitress and told her we were visiting to see the Pilots play in the Final Four. Her response: "Oh, wow, you must be so proud of the way they played!"

In Austin at the game you mention: Sitting in the stands with French and MacMillan nearby and seeing the tears when Christine scored the winning goal.

At UW the first time we saw Christine, realizing she was the real thing!

In College Station, when Christine scored the third goal, Earl Dorsey saying, "That's it. We've won!"

After the Greensboro game, Tara Koleski's father saying: "20 All Americans vs. a well coached team."

And best of all, after the Greensboro game when complimented about how the Pilots played, Clive's understated response: "Glad we could entertain."

Let's see...my very first game as an undergrad in 2002 - vs. UNC.

Semifinals in 2002 - #8 Pilots vs. #1 Stanford in Palo Alto. I was home for Thanksgiving and went to the game. Was hanging out in the stands when I hear drums. Outside there are 10 Villans who had climbed into their cars and driven all day to get to Stanford. Security took the drums and held them for us - I went and sat with them behind the goal (we attracted a bunch of drunk Stanford students, apparently)...and partied like crazy when we scored the winning PK. Then we played like crazy.

Watching the 2003 and 2005 championship games.

...any of the games where the original drum squad guys (from 10+ years ago) came and played. I'm friends with some of them and we love making music together...especially during soccer games.

...and that's just for starters.

upsoccerfanatic,
i agree w/you about the four overtime game vs. unc. an it is because of that game that i am such an ardent opponent of penalty kicks, especially in the ncaa playoffs!

Great thought, fuzziewozzie. Nothing is more exciting than the two 15 minute non-sudden victory/death overtimes, followed by two 5 minute sudden victory/death overtimes. I guess if you get to that point, pks are ok, but let's decide it on something less random, if possible.

Besides, our stretching NC to barely short of 130 minutes in that game probably cost them the finals. I always like to think of that game as the beginning of the end for the NC dynasty.

Another story related to that game. After the game, we were talking to Tara Koleski and asked her if she would be rooting for NC, since they'd beaten the Pilots. She said absolutely not, it was time to make this NC thing a thing of the past (or something like that).

A couple of mine are....

1) The Quarterfinal game in 2005 versus Notre Dame. Our sister school had always been our nemesis up till then. I don't know what the head to head record was at the time...but...they've always seemed to own us! More so than UNC and Santa Clara...I was hoping we'd kick the Irish butts this time around. And boy...we DID just that! What a night that was! Sold out...electric, loud, supportive crowd! One of my most satisfying personal PILOT victories! Wonder how Larry Williams felt that night?!

2) Christine Sinclair in 2005 versus Colorado....and it wasn't even one of her goals.

There was a long pass kicked to the corner. Christine gave chase. Three (3) defenders formed a "running wall" to cut her off. She fell in behind them. Christine tried to go in-between a couple of them. But they impeded her....cut her off....running shoulder to shoulder. Christine downshifted....and settle back behind them. But only for a millisecond. Christine turned on the WARP SPEED turbo jets and went AROUND the wall of defenders. It was a jaw dropping moment!!! This scenario happened in just a few seconds.....with ALL the players in a FULL SPRINT to win the ball. But...(and the 3 defenders)...saw everything happen as if it was in SLOW MOTION. All they could do was WATCH and FOLLOW Christine go by them...ALL 3 defenders TURNING their heads simultaneously....as she made this move!! It was comedic!! You should've seen it in their eyes. They were SHOCKED!! In DISBELIEF!! Its funny...that's a special moment during competition when you realize that the other team realizes...its game over! The goals and wins become ceremonial. The message is sent and the opposition knows....they're done!


I was sitting by a fellow and excitedly asked him to validate what just happened...."OMG...Did you just see that?" He had the "same look" as the defenders...he could only nod to acknowledge me!! I don't know about the defenders...but I'm not sure if my neighbor ever recovered from seeing that!! He was quiet from that point on through the whole game....he wasn't before. Gee...maybe he was a Buffalo fan?

GO PILOTS!!!

I always loved to see Shannon on a breakaway with a player or two in front of her. With Tiffany you knew it was speed and great control of the ball at her feet, but with Shannon it was like you could just see the wheels turning in her head as she raced down the field figuring out what move she was going to use to get by the defender.

My favorite memory was of Clive at a game- the only time I ever saw him lose his cool.

Even that, he did in a playful way.

UP was ahead by a goal with a few minutes left, and several balls had been kicked out of the stadium, so when a new ball had to be put in play, it took time to get a new ball from other parts of the stadium.

The opposing coach started ranting about it , saying UP was purposely not retrieving the balls quickly enough, and kept it up even after the ref began stopping the clock so time wouldn't wind down. I guess he had no control of the game, so he was just using the situation as a way to vent.

When Clive had enough of the tantrums, he and Bill Irwin picked up a couple handfuls of practice balls, walked over to the other coach, and threw the balls at him. Clive went back to his seat and sat down,

end of tantrums.

My favorite memories are a bit more old-school... I think I posted about it before, but riding the rooter bus with a bunch of other Pilot fans all night down to Stanford to watch us take on the Julie Foudy-led Cardinal was something I'll never forget, even if we did lose the game.

Another favorite was when we were playing some poor team and beat them something like 14-0 or 15-0. The Villa boys went through about four different flag guys, because they were absolutely gassed after having to sprint down behind the goal and wave the flag so many times.

A funny memory was watching the Penn State game in 2005 at Yorgos on Greeley. The game went so long that a bunch of locals started trickling in for happy hour drinks... and when UP won a bunch of dudes who have probably never watched a women's soccer game in their life were cheering, even if they did think it was Portland State that had just won.

Ah yes, the 2005 Penn St. game... I watched it with a few buddies at The City downtown... there were several Pilot fans there for the game at the start, but by the end of the game, the whole bar was cheering and yelling for the Pilots! It was great!!! I remember not being able to drink my beer and pacing back and forth across the bar.

The bartender thought we were all a little nuts at first (well, we all were nutty Pilot fans...) but he was quickly converted to the way of the Pilots after switching all the TV's (and that place had a TON of them) in the bar to the game! What a blast that was...

Watching the Lady Pilots over the years has been the most consistently satisfying spectator experiences I've had. When trying to remember the most memorable moments, three stand out as the most amazing goals scored:

First, Shannon had a free kick from about 25 yards out, left front. She put the ball down as the wall was forming and calmly curled it over the crowd into the upper left corner. The ref called it off since she hadn't blown the whistle for the kick. (remember the sudden death goal in the semis?) Shannon simply put the ball down and, as soon as the whistle blew, did the exact same thing and the keeper couldn't do a thing to stop it.

Second, Christine was racing down the left center as one of the midfielders (I think Lindsey) sent a long pass that was slightly behind her. In full stride, Christine caught the ball behind her with her heal, flicking it forward over her head and, with the next touch, put it in the goal. That one should be on YouTube.

Finally, Michelle's run down the left sideline against San Diego resulted in the most amazing one-on-many goals that I have witnessed. What made it even more satisfying for me was having my Scottish son-in-law sitting next to me, who has been critical of most games he has watched in the US, exclaiming that it was one of the most amazing single-handed efforts even he had seen on the pitch. Just realizing that we have two more years to look forward to this wonderful talent makes it even more enjoyable.

Right after the championship game in 2002, an ESPN reporter asked Clive something to the effect of how it felt to win. He said something like, "I feel happy for Shannon and Tiffeny and all the players. This is for them." I have never seen a classier gentleman in any sport, at any level.

Sometimes, when I'm at a game at PGE park, I'll look up at Clive's retired number and the first thing I'll think of is him, holding the trophy. And then I'll think of how nobody deserved a championship more than him. What a class act.

Maybe later I'll tell you some basketball stories. Being in the band, I've got TONS of those...some of them are even repeatable!

Trumpet, welcome to the Board! A great post.

Needless to say, I think we would all like to hear some of your hoops stories!