After winning the state title in November, several members of the Douglas High School girls' soccer team set out simply to find a spring traveling club that would be attending highly-competitive tournaments outside of Northern Nevada.
The goal from the start was to get more exposure in front of college coaches. After a wildly-successful spring, it appears they are going to get just that.
Nine Douglas players helped the Real Reno FC Select 94 club to a Western Regional championship in Modesto, Calif., at the end of June. The regional title gave Real Reno a berth into the US Club National Championships at Virginia Beach, Va., next weekend.
In winning the regional championship, the team - which includes players from Douglas, Reno, Galena, Spanish Springs, Carson, Truckee, Sparks and Tahoe - because the first Northern Nevada girls' squad to ever advance to nationals.
"We saw that this team had a good set of tournaments lined up," said Brianna Randall, who was a first-team all-league goalkeeper for Douglas last season. "Five of us tried out at the start of the season, but when regionals came up, we needed some guest players. That's when the other four Douglas players came on."
Douglas is represented by Randall, Alex Laing, Cora Moody, Alison Chambon, Holly Downer, Kaitlyn Varble, Shannon Hubbard, Shannon Prinz and Tia Lyons on the team.
"Regionals was a great tournament for us," Randall said. "It was our best tournament of the season by far. We played really well as a team and connected really well."
The national tournament is a recruiting hot spot, drawing more than 300 college coaches every year. With mostly the entire Real Reno roster set to enter their junior years in high school, this will be their first major exposure on the recruiting path.
"It adds pressure, of course," Randall said. "The people that ultimately decide your future are going to be there watching you play.
"It's more of a mental game at that point, because we all know how to play, or we wouldn't have gotten this far. When that type of pressure is added, it either makes or breaks you. I hope we'll play really well. It hasn't really settled in yet that we are going to be playing for a national championship and it probably won't settle in until we play our first game there. It's very exciting."
In order to even get there, though, the players are looking at a bill of more than $1,000 each to cover plane tickets, lodging and food for the weekend.
Jethro's Oven and Grill in the Ranchos is hosting a spaghetti feed, to which 50 percent of the proceeds are being donated to the team, tonight. The event, which has already sold out, will also include a raffle.
The team conducted a car wash on Sunday and they are currently accepting donations to get to the tournament.
"We are in need of a lot of help," Randall said. "We know it's really tough with the economy the way it is right now. People think they can't help out that much, but a little bit goes a long way and the community has definitely supported us so much."
Real Reno has a Wells Fargo bank account (No. 2783122779) set up to accept donations, or checks can be made out to the Great Basin Youth Soccer League with Real Reno written in the memo line.
For more information, check the team's Web site at www.realrenofc.com or call coach Owen Blake at (214) 477-7467.
"We will represent Northern Nevada by training hard and playing to the best of our abilities," Randall said. "(This tournament) is the biggest opportunity we have of being seen and a big step in helping to procure a soccer scholarship."
