Ever wonder what happens at the NCAA Women’s College Cup?

Eeeeek, sorry guys – I had this queued up for Friday night and never published it! Well, better late than never, right?

I’m at the NCAA College Cup, just about to head out to the Semi-Final games. UCLA takes on Stanford at in the California showdown at 4:30pm CT, and then North Carolina vs. Notre Dame at 7pm CT. I’ll be freezing my socks off in this Texas Snow-Down (get it?), but you can watch from the warmth of your living room on ESPN2/ESPN360.com/ESPNU.

For some great insight on the game itself, I leave that to the pros: Check out The Equalizer Blog. Hey, I just had lunch with most of the “experts” he interviewed! (That’s the photo above! L->R Atlanta Beat coach Gareth O’Sullivan, FC Gold Pride coach Albertin Montoya, Philadelphia Independence GM Terry Foley, LA Sol supporter Tracy, LA Sol GM Charlie Naimo, Chicago Red Stars assistant Denise Reddy and Chicago Red Stars Emma Hayes.) Anyhow, here’s a super-brief recap of my trip so far:

THURSDAY

Met up with NSCAA CEO Joe Cummings, Red Stars GM Marcia McDermott, William and Mary coach John Daly, NSCAA/NCAA representative Rob Kehoe, and Creighton coach (and my former goalkeeper coach from the ol’ Wyoming days) Iliana Moschos at the Dallas airport. Boarded a plane to College Station. Sat next to Joe Cummings on the flight and learned about some REALLY amazing plans he’s got for the NSCAA. Big thinker. I like that.

After checking into the hotel and getting a quick cat nap in, off to the Restaurant/Bar across the way for a coaches’ social. Free food, and the frostiest Blue Moon on tap I’ve ever had. Yum. I’d say there were easily 200+ coaches there and it was great to meet up with old friends from my Region 1 ODP, TCNJ and NYU days. Plus, I got to meet (okay “recruit”) more female coaches to take an active role in the NSCAA which is always great!

FRIDAY

Wake up pumped to begin my day. Keep plugging away on Convention bits til lunch.

Had an amazing conversation with Awista Ayub of http://www.awistaayub.com – we’ve just confirmed that she’ll be doing a book signing at the Women’s Committee booth in Philadelphia. Want to know more? Media links: http://www.awistaayub.com/mediakit – there are links to two videos on there – ESPN and ABCNews as well as links to articles. She was also on CNN International this week.

Wrapped up confirmation of Dawn Scott as an NSCAA Women’s Committee Featured Clinician. Session title: “Tournament Strategies to Improve Player Physical Performance: The England Women’s National Team.” Saturday from 4pm-5:15pm in CC-103.

Text comes in, which means it’s time to meet the WPS coaches for lunch. I head down to the Fox and Hound for a tex-mex style quesadilla, which is okay. We banter on a little bit about the league, coaches’ impressions of various legislation, etc. I think at one point a trade was being negotiated but I have no proof to substantiate my claim so I plead the 5th.

Back to the hotel just in time to head out bundle up for tonight’s games –> Will 6 layers be enough? I don’t think so, but it’s pretty much all I’ve got. I’ll be sure to blog again this weekend to keep you in the loop. You can also follow the play by play on Twitter.com/nscaawomen.