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Irish Captains Get Nostalgic With Memories Of Brazil Trip

Sept. 20, 2004

Notre Dame’s fast start to the 2004 women’s soccer season is due in large part to the team’s highly-successful preseason training trup to Brazil. The Irish tri-captains took the time to look back fondly on the trip and pay their unique tribute to the team-bonding experience with a classic top-10 list (und.com also has gathered photos from various sources and soon will be presenting a comprehensive photo gallery of the trip).

And in case you missed it, be sure to click on the “News” link and relive the great moments from the 10 days in Brazil – including various diaries, freshman-focus Q&A’s, game reports and quotes from the coaches, special player features and more.

Without further ado, here’s the 2004 tri-captains’ tribute to the 2004 Brazil trip:

“Well here it is, the wrapup of our wonderful Brazil trip. Honestly, we had a great time. Brazil is a great country which has brought so much to the sport of soccer, and to have the opportunity to experience and learn from their type of style just gives us that much more experience as individuals and as a team. Even though we tied one and won the rest of our games, we grew as a team and are looking forward to the rest of the 2004 season.

So here it is, our top 10 favorite things about Brazil:

10 – The victorious five wins. We had to add something soccer-related in here ;).

9 – The comfortable flying, complete with free sleeping eye-covers, toothpaste and some aggravating travellers who would not bring their seat to an upright position…you KNOW who you are! (Dr. Leary).

8 – Having 35 people on the trip, each with a camera, some carrying two … therefore having to pose for half-an-hour for the SAME picture.

7 – Having a harmless midnight dip in the pool and having coaches from other teams mistaking the private dip as a swim workout worth filming in hopes to gain ground on Notre Dame soccer. Thankfully, some trusty teammates decided to pour water onto their video camera!

6 – Dealing with Katie Thorlakson’s unbearable and infectious reactions to cheese and meat.

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Candace Chapman and her Irish teammates enjoyed scrumptious vittles throughout the trip.

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5 – As elite athletes, we must make sure to thank the founders of McDonalds-Brazil for their great work and valued nutritious snacks that we gorged on while supposedly “shopping.” Those mouth-watering cheesebugers were savored in a record time of .005 seconds by our most experienced eater … Candace Chapman. On the other hand, the skinniest players of our team, Jill and Melissa, chose to eat some refreshing salads in hopes of repeating our incredible distance in celery tossing at the upcoming Featherweight Games 2004.

4 – The arm-reach plus violent waving done by our salivating manager when he thought he wasn’t counted for getting ice cream for dessert (we love you Tony!).

3 – On behalf of the whole team, we think it would be appropriate to give an all-around “Shout Out,” “Thank You” and “God Bless” to the one who made this all possible. One name says it all “Hiiiii SAAAANDRAAAH!”

2 – “Bump…set…spike” … thanks Mary, but you definitely don’t have to say it each time your team gets the ball! Yes, there also was the lift-fest, fist/curveball serves by “Yani” and uncontrollable backbreaking diving by Jill to save the game. We also can’t forget the crazy competitive beach volleyball tourneys within the team that sent some teammates crying and left some with numerous physical and mental bruises. If you can’t play with the big dawgs, then get off the court.

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Melissa Tancredi’s singing from the back row helped the bus rides go flying by during the Brazil trip.

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1 – The “bump-n-grind” dance party on the bus … especially the never-before-seen gallavanting oh-so-elegantly in the air by our coach Randy “that’s right, this hair is all natural baby” Waldrum.

Thank you all for reading up on our trip and following our team. As this year’s trusty tri-captains, we will make sure this season goes down in the books as one of the best!

GOAT baby, just GOAT IT!

From the Sister Mary (Boland) and the two most gorgeous foreigners … the red-streak Canadian (Melissa Tancredi) and Gunny-Goo-Goo straight from the grassy hills of Iceland (Gudrun Gunnarsdottir).”