First off our trip to Florida was sooo great!!! I did not want to leave, especially Mickey and Ariel. Well, we left for Florida Thursday morning (Sept. 22) at 5:45 a.m.  We left the school and flew out of BWI.  The flight was not bad at all.  Everyone was a little nervous because we had some first timers, but all in all it was a fun experience.  We get to Florida and everything is great, the weather was a little cloudy, but it eventually cleared up as the days went by.  The first thing we did when we got to Clearwater was check in, however it just couldn’t be that easy.  Our rooms were not ready and we had to wait 2 hours before we could get in.  It was not to bad because there was beach stores everywhere, so the team went shopping, however some of us stayed at the hotel and turned the Lobby into a living room as we watched a movie.

            Well, we get into our rooms around 3 p.m.  All of us girls decide to go swimming at the beach.  The weather was cloudy, but we just could not resist.  We got in and it was extremely salty, but the water felt great.  The team decided to try and body surf and most of us were successful, however poor Vanessa Thompson was not.  She tried to catch a wave and slammed her back right into the bottom of the ocean.  When she came back up, she had scratches all over her back that you could tell hurt.  We stayed out in the ocean and had a great time, until we all began to itch.  We didn’t realize it, but we were either stung by jellyfish, or were getting a bad case of sea lice.

After the team went swimming, we went back up to our rooms to get ready for dinner, which was at Cooter’s.  At Cooter’s we ate alligator and some really great seafood.  After dinner we were in bed by 11 because we faced Pasco at 1 p.m the next day.

We played really well, but unfortunately lost.  We started off really intense and were hanging strong with them, but then they would just pull away with the win.  The team is having a hard time finishing a game with a win against the good teams, but we are working on it a lot in practice, and expect to succeed.

Anyways, we actually didn’t win any games in the tournament.  All the other teams beat us, but we fought so hard and each game we would be up just a few points, and then lose by just a couple points.  We screamed and cheered our little hearts out. Our team is so big (13 girls) that we took over the gym. We might not have won a game, but we sure showed a lot of heart.

            Now that the tournament was over and we lost, but grew as a team.  We thought were do we go next?  And it was DISNEY WORLD!!!  We drove that Saturday evening to Orlando and checked in to our fabulous resort, the All-Star Resort in Disney World.  We checked into our rooms and began getting ready. Tonight the team was going to Pleasure Island to dance.  Pleasure Island is located in Downtown Disney and in Pleasure Island there are a lot of clubs.  After our team dressed up, the girls performed a fashion show.  Since we got our hot clothes on, we headed outside for the bus and began dancing.  We were carrying on, laughing at each other, and deciding on what kind of entrances to make into the club. As we were doing that we kept saying, “Spot light is on you!” This was a saying we said all weekend it was hilarious.

            We were having a blast at the club.  Jasmine Jackson and Janae Burt were shaking their booties like crazy.  Boys were all over them.  Then there was the rest of the team dancing around each other, singing to songs, and having a great time.  Pat Brewer and Ron Swann (Assistant Coaches) decided to go into the club with us, and they were looking great themselves.  We were running that club.

            It was now Sunday morning and we were about to be at the best place on earth, where all the magic happens, DISNEY WORLD!  Everyone was so happy to be there, it was like we were 5 again.  The first thing we did was get our picture taken in front of Magic Kingdom (on website).  Then we watched the show on the Magic Kingdom stage, where Jasmine got a little teary eyed when she saw all the princesses. After the show we hit the rides.  Ron also got teary eyed at Magic Kingdom.  He saw this little girl hug a robot type trashcan that some man was operating in the background.  Ron had to walk away because he got caught in the moment and shed a tear.  But anyways, I can’t really explain the rides because it is honestly something you have to experience for yourself.  They are all so fun because you see all the Disney characters and you feel like you're right there with them.  It was a great experience.

            After Disney World we went to Market Place, which is a place full of stores.  We went shopping and some of us bought plants from this crazy lady.  She was so funny and goofy, but so nice.  Anyways, we were suppose to be back at the resort at 11 p.m. and if we weren’t, we would be in trouble.  It kind of happened, because we were at the resort, but not in our rooms.  Thankfully Rachel Olup and Megan Starr had receipts to prove we were downstairs in the gift shop, so they saved us.  If they didn’t we were running sprints.

            Well now that the vacation was over it was time to get back to Maryland. Overall the trip was great both on and off the court.  We grew as team and made some great memories.  This trip really pushed our team to the next level.  We played some great teams in Florida that allowed us to see how good our team really is.   When the matches were all done, we realized how well we can perform and we made plays that we never knew were in us.