Megan Johnson, daughter of Deanna and Marty Johnson, experienced an unforgettable trip to Frankfurt, Germany on June 30th. The Weyburn Comprehensive School girl’s soccer team, “The Eagles”, along with their coaches, Scott Benning and Jacquie Van Dewoestyne attended FIFA, Women’s World Cup Tournament.
The team of 12 girls, ages 14-18 all worked together to make the trip the best experience ever.
They attended three World Cup games: USA vs. Sweden, USA vs. Columbia and Canada vs. Nigeria. The games helped them realize where their talent, skills and hard work could lead them. After watching the Canadian game, the team insisted on meeting with Team Canada and by the end of the night they all had autographs and four team members received special gifts from Karina LeBlanc (Canada’s team goalie) and Christine Sinclair (Canada’s team captain and striker).
Shastidy Sterling and Dayna Haines received a goalie glove from Karina LeBlanc and Megan Johnson and Raquel Bellefleur received an autographed soccer cleat from Christine Sinclair. Meeting with Team Canada was something they will never forget and was a highlight of the trip.
As they were sightseeing, they met another Canadian soccer team that was also watching the World Cup. The Weyburn girls were able to have a game against Dresden in Dresden and team Waldorf near Heidelberg. They were able to meet and greet the players and exchanged e-mail and facebook names. The girls were also able to take in several interesting tours.
Coach Scott Benning says, “The soccer was fantastic. It was an amazing experience for our team to be able to meet with and play against the German teams and to watch the world’s best female soccer players in the World Cup games was extremely exciting and inspiring. I was very proud of our girls during the tour. They represented our team with class and humour and were great ambassadors for Canada.”
Flying 13 hours across the world with their teammates brought them closer to one another and it helped them play the game they love ! Megan Johnson concludes, ”when we go to tournaments, we are not only playing a sport we love, but making great memories while doing it. The season of 2011 has started and we are taking skills we learned in Germany into our game to make it an awesome season!”
Congratulations to Megan Johnson for winning The MVP Award while she played with The Weyburn Red Devils Soccer Team! Megan continues to play with “The Eagles” and has already scored over 20 goals this fall! Way to go Megan!
