All of the pictures taken this year are posted on our photo website http://lightsphotos.ifp3.com.
Another good day at the AAU National Tournament. Northern Lights has placed 3 of its 8 younger teams into the Gold Championship Brackets, and just missed putting two more teams in the Gold by literally 2 points. Congratulations to the 15-2, 15-Red, and 13-1 teams which will all be competing for the Gold Championship titles on Saturday.
12-1: By ??? not submitted yet
13-1: By bre maloney, karly lewis, and payton nutter : On Friday we had the afternoon session, so we got to sleep in until 9:00! We woke up, made breakfast, and hung out for a while. We quick made our pizza for lunch, then got set to play for the day. On the way to the convention center we played our pump up music to get us ready for the day. We first played a Puerto Rico team named Vaqueras. We came out strong the first game and won, then lost the next game and finally barley lost the third game. Knowing that we had to win our next 2 games of the day, we came into the game against the Milwaukee Sting with a new attitude. Going into 3 games yet again, we pulled it off this time. For the final game of the day we played A5 and beat them in two for a change. -by bre maloney, karly lewis, and payton nutter
14-1: Today...was an...interesting day. we had great moments mixed with some disappointing moments. We lost our first match in two and won our second match easily in two. don't get me started on the third match. we played gva and beat them in three. we played really really really really really good. then wee had to play a challenge match against them. the score was 24 19, wee were up. then....BAM. we lost. now we are going to win silver
14-2: By the team Today was a very long day. The morning started out with 3 solid wins. We played really hard and strong. We had a loss at the end for our challenge match, and lost 17-15 in the 3rd game. We were so Close and wanted it so bad. After, we went to UNO's pizzeria and ate a HUGE meal. Xoxo MNL 14-2's :)
15 - 2: By ??? not submitted yet
15 - Black: By ??? not submitted yet
15 - Red: By Maddie Wheaton Today we had an early start. We all had to get up at 6:15 to leave at 6:40. We then went to the convention center and played the 15-white. Although we love them, we thankfully beat them! We played humacao next. They came all the way from Puerto Rico and we also beat them! Lastly, we played AVA. They were a very hard team. In the first game we were down by 9 at one point but we came back and won the game! The next game we beat them 25 to 15 winning us the match!
We all went home and showered. Our wonderful parents then came to our house and made us dinner! The hamburgers were delicious! However the moms made us clean our rooms.. Which we did not like. We are all getting ready now to play tomorrow now. We are going for first and we are planning to get it!
15 - White: By ??? not submitted yet
Bonus Write up Hannah Tapp 17-1's. Even though they weren't required to submit a writeup today, the 171 team did a great job with this summary of the trip down toFlorida.
Our alarm clocks sounded at around 3:45 this morning. In most cases, this is not an ideal way to start ones morning, but knowing the final destination made it all worthwhile. We meet at group check-in at 5 a.m. and greeted each other with smiles and our inevitable drowsy eyes. After a short wait we got our tickets passed out and started through the mandatory security checkpoint. The security check went quickly and only Hannah's bag had to be scanned a second time-- because of her failure to follow the simple direction of dumping out all liquids in her water bottle. We then rode the train to our terminal and purchased snacks to tame our grumbling tummies. We boarded the plane and everyone had enough room to store their bags in the overhead bin; Samantha's beast of a bag even fit after a few group shoves. After take-off, we all went fell fast asleep. We landed safely and waited in the baggage claim for them to rent the vans. This was when a life changing event happened! We can all practically be called NBA player profile geniuses because we follow professional basketball so closely. And being the geniuses that we are, we can all identify an NBA basketball player when we see one. So to begin, it all started when a bystander passed us saying he just saw Carmelo Anthony. Being the NBA freaks we are, our eyes circled the room for Carmelo. Me, being a prior Anthony fan when he played for the nuggets, frantically looked for the famous basketball player. Sadly I didn't spot him, but thankfully Samantha did! She spotted a 6'7 tattooed man. And it sparked for her, it was Carmelo. He was wearing a Jordan T-shirt and a backwards Miami Heat hat. He was wearing a great disguise!! Only Samantha and her obsession with this famous athlete could have picked him out. His iconic cornrows were gone, his skin was much darker than his actual skin tone, he stood abnormally tall, and he was supporting the recent champions and competitors the Miami Heat. Totally unrecognizable to the average eye, but thank god Samantha doesn't have the "average" eye. Alyssa got photos from her iPad of him, as he waited in line to get a Budget rental car (which must have been another one of his tricks to blend in). The vans were finally ready, and everyone was excited to get to our house and settle in; if only it was that simple.
Our rooms weren't ready so we went to Orlando's Premium Outlet Mall. First, we went to eat at the food court. Storm clouds were building overhead and it looked like it was going to rain, but it held off until the end. After we finished our Subway/Taco Bell/A&W Adam told us that we had forty-five minutes to shop around. Sticking in groups we wandered off to different shops. We enjoyed our time, escaping the humid heat by entering the frigid air-conditioned stores and listening to The Fudgery workers harmonize beautifully to common tunes; this reinforced the valuable lesson of not judging a book by its cover. As we meet back up when our time ran out, Adam gave us another half-hour to shop. After that half-hour was up, Adam gave us twenty more minutes to shop. Throughout our growing time at the outlet mall we learned that Tim Tebow himself was making an appearance there that day. Our hope for seeing the superstar was growing as Adam kept increasing and increasing our time at the mall, but our dreams were crushed during the next meeting because the coaches room was ready for move-in. :( As we gathered to go it started raining, so we all were ready to get out of there anyways, even if that meant never meeting our favorite celebrity crush. We piled in the vans, which graciously picked us up from our sheltered area out of the rain, and drove to a parking lot near our houses. Finally, we were going to unpack and relax at the houses.... Nope! Not Yet! So we picked up groceries and a few essentials at Target. In Target, we parted in different directions, some were admiring each other in different pairs of sunglasses, some compared nutrition labels in the food isles, and some colored. Finally we departed and this time we all hoped it was for the houses. But, no.. not yet. We found ourselves in the parking lot again, where we met Adam, Mer, Jen, and Curt. Then Barbara left our car to get something's straightened out. When she left, she took the keys with her. Without the car on, we all started heating up(FAST!) and Sarah almost couldn't handle the heat. But right before Mama-Mer went to go retrieved the keys-- she was back! We were finally off to our houses!!!
At the houses, we found our rooms and settled in. We ate delicious tacos with guacamole, chips, and salsa! We went for a swim and all found our photogenic sides with Alyssa and Jamie's underwater cameras. Who would have known someone could make such "beautiful" faces under water;)! We followed our swim with a wonderful team meeting and went to bed!