The tournament consisted of 917 teams, from 21 states and 16 countries and it's their 26th year. What an amazing experience this was for our U11 boys and their families. The U11 boys were the only ELA team to participate in the USA Cup this year, and what a memory they have made for themselves and for their parents!!!
We left Blaine Minnesota winning the USA Cup for our age bracket - U11.
Out of 31 teams (in our U11 age bracket) from all of the world, our ELA U11 Boys WON!!! It was a combined team effort which consisted of some of the U11 Boys from the Red & Blue teams, 1 U10 player and 1 guest player from Canada.
The Tournament kicked off with Opening ceremonies where all teams from all countries marched in carrying banners, flags and their team colors to fill the stadium. Honorary torchbearers to light the cauldron included the Olympic silver-medal winning U.S. Women’s National Hockey team members: Jenny Potter & Gigi Marvin plus former U.S. Men’s National Team and Thunder player Tony Sanneh. In the closing cermonies our boys were presented the USA Cup and each boy got a medal to bring home.
Ela played a Brazilian team first, a Minnesota team and then 2 Costa Rican teams. We then went on to play 2 more Minneapolis Minnesota teams and then the final championship game was against the Grand Cayman Islands. The Ela boys traded pins and t-shirts with the teams they played against and other teams they came across. They made some great memories through the week and had a lot of team-bonding and fun activities to fill the days and nights.
Consider it for next year...........
