The weather is starting to get a bit more tolerable here inDes Moines. Today it will be in the mid 90's, which is far better thanthe mid 100's we have been experiencing. Fortunately, we are about to moveinto the competition hotel after tomorrow's practice. It's a fair guess we will have air conditioning from here on out. I probably justjinxed the whole thing!

We have spent the last two days training twice perday. One practice was more focused on training technical skill and thesecond practice was more focused on competitive drills and scrimmaging, so wecan start to rank the players. There are 22 players on the USA JuniorNational A-2 team. Last night we broke them up into two competition teamsof 11 based on their three days of statistics and performance. The topplayers in each position were placed on the Red team, which will be the #5seeded team overall of the 18 teams in the Women's Junior InternationalDivision.  

From there, we gave the next-highest-rated players the option ofbeing placed on the top team as a back-up or being placed on the White team (2^ndteam and #9 overall seed with the opportunity for more playing time). Many of the players in this situation opted for the 2^nd team wherethey will get more playing time. In the past, very few players selectedthis option, but it definitely seems like today's players are more interestedin playing time than just "being on the top team". I find that quitefascinating.

Today, I had the Red team scrimmage against our USA JuniorNational team. This team consists of the top 20 players from around theUnited States in the 19 and under age group.  Needless to say, there aremore than a few future Olympians on that team. It was a great experiencefor our players to see exactly who they have to beat out if they want to be onthe JNT in 2013 and play in the World Championships next year. Thisafternoon, we will scrimmage the JNT again, then tomorrow morning we willscrimmage Chile. From there we will shut down training and get some restheading into the High Performance Championships tournament.

The competition pools came out last night and we arescheduled to play the Iowa Region, the Badger Region, the Lone Star Region, theDominican Republic Junior National Team and the Canadian Junior NationalTeam. My team played the Dominicans last year in a really heated matchthat got a bit feisty on more than one occasion. It will be interesting to seeif it's the same players and coaching staff this year. Might be some fireworksthis time around J  

You can follow the progress of the tournament which starts Tuesday. Our first match is at 2:15 p.m. CentralTime. Click here for a link to all of the results. There is a possibilitythat some of our matches may be broadcast over the internet. I will besure to let you know if that happens.

USA!!!!!!!!