The lights were on, the stage was set, and the doors to Denver Sports Center were open for greatness. Alumni Week 2016 has officially begun!
The day started off with splitting these Rush legends into three teams. Green - a team full of young talent with the likes of JP and Noah making their Alumni debuts. Salmon - a formidable force of seasoned vets that were eager to show they still had "it". Gray - one of the crowd favorites as the combined social media follower count on this team was special.
The day started out with some extremely impressive match play. There was good soccer happening all over the pitch. But with the good, comes bad...A player by the name Russell Finch was all over the map with his tackling on the day. A fellow Rush alum Max Flom compared him to a newly born baby dear still trying to find his balance in the world. Luckily though no one was injured and Boomer was able to get everyone to sign the DSC liability waiver.
There were plenty of goals scored today. The almost goal of the day goes to Kenny Tribbett with a spectacular effort on the bike, but just missing the frame. The consistent "eye catcher" of the day has to go to Nick Blanco with a plethora of skillful and crafty finishes. Another eye catching performance has to go to Rigo, who found himself outside puking just as much on the pitch playing! We salute you. The gray team showed there tekkers with triangle after triangle being formed and had a dominant performance in the middle of the field with Paulo and Lindsey leading the charge.
The champions of the #RAW Day 1 though goes to the Salmon team as they defeated the Gray team in the final. The gray team had a surprise appearance in the final after being the first team in the history of soccer to get a SECOND semi-final chance after clearly having the lease amount of points in group play (Rush Soccer and FIFA are currently investigating any bribery taken by the referee Tim Schulz). The final was cagey, intense, and very Rush like. In the end though Betsy Brandon was the difference with a clinical finish in the dying seconds of the game. Her team went on to celebrate a great win. Congratulations to Brad Gorham, Will Williams, Collen Warner, Joe Web, Phil Owen, Nick Blanco, and Betsy Brandon.
Tune in tomorrow to find out what will happen on day 2...you never know what you will get on the best week of the year.
We will see you out there tomorrow. Same place, same time. Come one come all. 10am - 12pm @ DSC.