Spring Showcase Part III

On Saturday we woke up at 9 a. m. for our day of SPARQ testing. We ate breakfast around 9:30 and then prepared to put our athleticism to the test. We arrived at the fields around 10:30 for our 11 o’clock time. We did the usual SPARQ warm up, but with 2 extremely intense trainers. After getting our blood flowing and our muscles warm it was time to represent St. Louis against some of the best athletes in America through SPARQ. The first test was the 20-yard SPARQ sprint where JC and Travis put up top scores. Next was the arrowhead, which is an agility SPARQ test where surprisingly, goalkeeper Derek Oney had one of the best scores. Following arrowhead and the 20-yard sprint was the vertical test. After about an hour of testing we were all ready to kick our feet up and relax since we didn’t have a game. We had lunch after SPARQ and then spent the rest of the day relaxing. Just a side note, the older kids did better on everything in SPARQ testing, like in the rest of the season.
Afterwards, we continued on our quest to eat a healthy SPARQ meal at Cici’s pizza. Adie said the cinnamon buns at Cici’s made his mouth water. However, he was too tired to go up for seconds thanks to the rigorous SPARQ workout. Cat-man Jose said that Cici’s was even better then Burger King.
When we returned from lunch, Dakota and Seth embarked on a journey with John, a blue collar kinda guy, while the rest of us pretended to study during our SPARQ study hall. They witnessed SPARQ drug addicts buying copious amounts of food, including a big candy bar, which was followed by John telling these pupils the importance of living healthy and emailing their college coaches. English Teacher Decker caught Zimbabwe/Zibawa/Zimblahblah, spreading rumors that the SPARQ study hall was only half an hour long, so many of the younger team members got called in for an extra hour of “studying”. Jared Ray was the leader of this escape from study hall movement. After a 45 minute shower, he attempted to roll into the study hall a half hour late, only to his dismay he found out the SPARQ study hall was moved back half an hour. Later, JR was caught while he attempted to catch SPARQ lizards around the hotel. He was not successful.
After study hall, we left to go visit our old friend Stacey at her buffet. Goalkeeper Kent (I live on a gravel road) Kobernus chowed down on Tilapia fish and SPARQ cheese cake, which he described as “a testament to modern standards of living”. Ariel however was disappointed in the lack of any more tamales, being switched out for fajitas.
When we returned to the hotel, Big Deezy called us in for a “seven and a half minute meeting” in which he warned us against getting too comfortable and taking part in any SPARQ hazing of new kids. Needless to say, we went to bed early without any excitement or any breaking of curfews.
Monday morning, travel day, our SPARQ alarm clocks woke us up for breakfast at 8:00 AM. After a quick run to Subway, we headed for the fields. The older team scored early on a penalty kick that was beautifully placed by Joe Bettger. Brandon Leveling called it “a work of art”. However, lack of organization hurt us and we gave up two goals, losing a close 2-1 game. The younger team got a goal from Caterino “I love Bigmacs” Jose, entering the half at 1-0. However, they lost their lead, losing 2-1, including the red carding of a player who described his tackle as “a love tap”.
The SPARQ vans drove us to the airport in Orlando where we ran to our terminal, only to discover that our flight was delayed. New kid Dominic Hewitt got suckered into buying a cheap SPARQ neck cushion for the flight to sleep instead of studying for his Theology exam tomorrow. I’m sure his parents will be pleased. After a rather lengthy delay due to bad weather and our SPARQ plane arriving late, we are finally boarding the plane for the Motherland, after our fun trip down to Florida.


Cici you later.
Dakota, Seth, Joe, and Zimbabwe