the nguyen-ers

Regionals in New Orleans

Tanner's flag football team has been working hard all season to be the best so they could take their talent to the NFL Regional Tournament in New Orleans. After much anticipation, they made it to game day. They were pretty nervous, but pretty pumped as well!

The morning of the tournament, the team was able to take a private tour of the Superdome for our team only. It was definately one highlight of the trip. The boys were able to walk on the field where the New Orleans Saints play, practice a few drills of their own, and sit on the bench "where Reggie Bush sat." The boys thought that was the best. And then they saw the locker room and inspected Reggie's locker, looking for a souvenier to take home, but it was cleaned out.

As a woman who likes football, but doesn't love it, the whole "Superdome experience" was cool, but I'm not sure I understood how cool it was. The "big" boys (pictured above) were just as excited to see the locker room - Drew Brees' locker to be exact - and throw on the field and run a few plays themselves. It was a chance to be a pro football player that they have never had before.

The team played in one of two pools (11 teams in the 9-11 age group) and had 3 games. The first game they won 6 to zero, the second they won in overtime 7 to 6, and the third game they won 27 to 13. This put them into the semi-final game which they sadly lost. They were so close, but just couldn't pull it together in that last game, but they did have some good competition throughout the tournament and they did very well. 3rd place is pretty darn great! They were proud of themselves, and we were proud of them as well. Way to go Saints!!

New Orleans is an interesting city. We were able to take a brief sightseeing trip with Aaron and Micah Ricks (who came to play on the team too) and we saw the Mississippi River, had a little experience on Bourbon street (ask Huy to see the moves he learned), and enjoyed a beignet (a French donut)...yum! All I can say is that I'm glad it was daylight, there are a lot of smokers there, and they girls did great at Karmen and Ty's house back in Fort Worth. A big "thank you" to them for helping to make this weekend possible!