Hey!! My name is Kellie Zakrzewski and I am a sophomore at Cheney High School. I am a two year varsity starting forward. Along with High School ball, I also play club ball. I play for the U-16 Spokane Shadow girl’s team. Soccer has been my passion growing up as a kid. It has always been fun for me because of all the room and potential to get better and become good or even great.  This past year, I was invited to guest play in two huge tournaments with the talented and well coached WPFC U-16 girl’s team. One was Surf Cup in early August and the other was the Adidas Final IV College Showcase in early December. I didn’t know the girls. I didn’t know how they would take me or if I would be accepted among their closely bonded team. I hadn’t even met any of them, save for having competed against them in our last league season. Then they were the competition and the "enemy", now they were my teammates and the ones whom I would be playing with for many games to come.

Surf Cup
To tell you the truth I was scared to go. Go away, by myself, with no friends, family or coaches that i was familiar with there to help me with anything I needed. I stumbled onto the plane that early morning with my bags, feeling nervous and a little scared.  During the plane ride, kept thinking about the team I was going to be playing with. A million things were racing through my mind. Things like if I would be an outcast among the girls or if I would get to play or if I would play well with a brand new bunch of girls. Only shortly after arriving at the airport I found one of the players and her parents who would be taking me to the hotel to meet the others. Both she and her family were kind and very easy going. We got our rental car and made our way to the hotel a half hour away. Once we got to the hotel I noticed that we were one of the last two players to arrive which only built onto the apprehension growing inside my stomach. As I entered the lobby the girls kind of looked at me with curiosity. Looking at the girls I noticed all eye balls were on me….the newbie. One of the coaches, Lance, introduced me to the girls as Kellie Z. from Spokane. They said hi to me as a group and nervously, I gave a ‘hi’ back with a little wave. Some of the girls came up to me and told me their names along with a warming welcome or glad you could come. These lively players were very kind to me and helped me out throughout the whole trip. This descent start only helped me to begin to feel a little bit more comfortable in this intense environment. The following day we had our first game against the De Anza Force Blue. I nervously stumbled onto the field with one goal in mind. This goal was to simply COMPETE. I wanted to show the team as well as everyone who was watching that I deserved to be there and that I had something to offer. My nervousness quickly faded when I realized that these girls were there for the exact same reason. With my aggressive, competitive and hard working traits I planned to play my best and try to become one with the team and try to become a key component to the teams overall success. I had two goals that first game proving that I most definitely could play and compete with these girls. Both goals were well played through balls to space that I ran onto and easily passed into the corners of the goal right past the goal keeper. I even scored in some of the situations that I practiced at the Striking and Finishing Academy that the Spokane Soccer Academy put on this summer. It has helped me develop a more accurate shot as well as recognizing situations that call for the use certain surfaces of the foot and certain weights to put on my shots in all kinds of situations and different areas on the field. In the semi final game we were tied 0-0 at half and much of the second half. With about five minutes left I re-entered the match wanting to make an impact and feeling good. About a minute later I dribbled down the left flank looking to put up a cross, but found no gaps at all. With room to dribble, I cut back across the 18 firing a bullet of a shot to the side netting of the far side making it a 1-0 game. That’s how the game ended and we moved into the championship game where we lost a heartbreaker. Making it that far made me, as well as the team, pretty happy. Playing with these spontaneous, hard working and relentless girls was one of the best experiences of my life. I made tons of friends. I had the chance to play against huge clubs like De Anza Force Blue, Real So Cal Blue, and Northwest Nationals. In the end, we came out second below So Cal Blues. I scored 5 goals the whole tournament and had an absolute blast playing with WPFC and was the proud owner of a killer soccer tan!

Adidas Final IV Showcase – Hosted by the Texas Soccer Club
As I left cold and snowy Spokane at 5 o’clock in the morning I was very excited to get to hot and sunny Texas. I was excited to see the team again and to play with them as well. I thought knowing and playing with the girls before in the previous tournament would help me have some more composure on the field as well as some confidence and friends off the field. As we got up that next morning for our first game, my roommates and I realized a sort of stuffiness in our room. Yes, it was the evil humidity. While we were warming up for that first game, the heat and high humidity didn’t seem to be hitting me quite yet. It wasn’t until I was on field playing that I could finally feel to heat and thickness of the air getting to me. I was low on water that first game and feeling dizzy. I was struggling to get air to breathe. The whole game I was trying to focus on just the game instead of my wobbling body and my spinning head. We lost that game to the Lonestars 4-0. I learned my lesson that day. From that point in the trip on I was drinking water like a crazy woman and played much better in the two following games against the Charolette Soccer Club and the BUSA. I scored our teams only 2 goals of the whole tournament. Both of which were in the very last game. One was a half volleyed shoot from the 18 off of a long cross from the right side and the other was a rebound off of a fumbled ball in the box. We ended up 1-1-1. This trip was very fun and beneficial for me. I made new friends and played some good soccer while doing it. Guest playing, for me, was a huge success and definitely a highlight in my soccer playing experience. It truly is a completely different experience playing with girls you have never met before and working well with them. Walking onto a team and playing well with brand new faces and adjusting to different ways of playing is truly something special. When I was able to adjust and make the best of the situation I felt like I had accomplished a major task. To me it was a huge accomplishment and one I will remember forever. These priceless moments and unforgivable memories I shared with this team will always be remembered and I will always be looking forward to my next chance I get to guest play with them or any other team. It really is something else!