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This Thursday, the Lady Cougars will be kicking off their soccer season by going to Gatlinburg to compete against teams from across the south.
The Smoky Mountain Cup is a regional tournament for both boys and girls soccer in the spring and fall, corresponding with each gender’s season. This weekend, the Lady Cougars will be competing against teams from all over Tennessee and Kentucky.
“I’m excited for our team to grow and be challenged against other teams who we don’t usually get to play against,” senior Andrea Solomon said.
The girls will compete against a new team everyday except for Thursday, which will be a practice and travel day as the team will travel on a bus, except for a few who will carpool to the magnificent home they’re staying in.
“We have a cabin for our team this year and we’re all staying together, so hopefully this tournament will be more like a team bonding trip,” junior Elise Gardner said.
The team will be staying in an eight bedroom cabin 10 minutes from the fields and 20 minutes from the attractions in Gatlinburg.
“It’s really big and sleeps 20 people,” senior Oliver Dixon said. “There’s an indoor pool, movie theater, and it’s super close to everything we would want to see.”
Over 15 girls will be going on this soccer trip that has become a tradition, and five of them are seniors who won’t be returning next year.
“I am really excited about this trip because I love everyone on my team and how close we are,” Solomon said. “I’m excited to be able to do this with them one last time so we can get closer and better as a team. I’m also excited to eat ice cream.”
The Be the Light 5k in honor of Janie Grace is overlapping with the tournament so some girls will be leaving late Friday night to participate in the run on Saturday morning.