Calgary Blizzard Lightning won the Girls U15 Gold/ U16 Silver division at the Pegasus Cup tournament on July 3-5 in San Diego, CA.  This Canadian team traveled from their hometown Calgary, Alberta to compete in the Pegasus Cup and enjoyed visiting San Diego immensely. San Diego offers tough soccer competition in the midst of perfect weather and fabulous beaches and tons of activities. What better spot to travel to to play in a tournament? The Calgary Blizzard Lightning girls traveled here for competition and while they often win at home, they discovered their team was the best in the bracket here too!

 

The majority of the team has been together for about 3 years now.  According to Allan Greeves, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the team plays two seasons per year: outdoor and indoor during the winter months.  Our outdoor season runs from late April to early August with our indoor season running October to mid March. 
 

“As you can see, we are in the middle of our outdoor season and our goal is to be one of the two teams representing Calgary at the Alberta Provincial championships in August.” Says Greeves. “The girls are in U16 (all girls were born in 1994 or 1995) and we play in the Tier 2 division, somewhat similar to your Silver division at the tournament.  In our division, the highest we can advance is to win the provincial championships.  The tier higher (Tier 1) provincial champions can advance to the Canadian National Championships which would be more like your Gold /elite division,” says Greeves.
 

The head coach, Karim Lalani, was unable to join the girls on their trip to San Diego and coach them at the tournament. The team’s assistant coach, Steve Matthews made the trip with the team to San Diego. 

 

Prior to the tournament, Calgary Blizzard Lightning girls had a morning skill development and training session with Jen and Bo of JB Soccer Training. Greeves thought the training was terrific. According to Greeves “JB Soccer did a fantastic job of acclimatizing the girls to San Diego playing conditions.” 

 

Calgary Blizzard Lightning team, prior to the tournament, had a chance to enjoy the local tourist attractions and look forward to returning.

 

Greeves says “All in all, the girls had a fantastic soccer experience.  The competition at the tournament was fierce and the girls really had to step up their game to be able to compete.  We would like to thank the tournament organizers and host club for hosting such a great tournament; we will definitely recommend it to other teams from Calgary.”