That’s how Kingston’s Sienna Harrington described her recent trip to Missouri earlier this month, which culminated with her U14 Girls’ South Shore Select Soccer Club team winning the national championship.
“It feels surreal and exciting because the skill level and competitiveness of the other teams from all over the country we were going against were so good,” Harrington said. “They were very physical and fast paced games. Every player on the Select 09 GA team worked so hard all year to get to where we are and am so proud of everyone.”
Harrington’s club kicked off the July 6-9 trip with a 1-0 victory over the South Carolina Surf SC. It then beat the Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals, 2-1, to earn a spot in the finals. It was there where the South Shore Select doubled up TopHat, 2-1, for the crown.
“The excitement of beating some of the top-ranked teams in the country and advancing from game to game until we were national champions was definitely a highlight,” Harrington said. “Especially because we came from behind and won our last two games, 2-1, in the second half of the game.”
Her favorite memory?
“[It] was when I was on the field and the whistle blew during the championship game,” she said. “Our whole team was celebrating on the field and the Select 06 team that was watching came running out on the field too.”
Harrington, an incoming freshman at Silver Lake, has now shifted her focus to the high school pitch.
“I’m going to spend the next six weeks continuing to work on my speed and agility to prepare for high school tryouts at the end of August,” she said.
~ Nate Rollins