Eighteen B: Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer

If you are friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter or Instagram then you already know this past weekend I traveled south to Tuscaloosa, AL for a soccer alumni weekend. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I was beyond excited for this trip. NG and I started planning for this weekend back in June, and shockingly it was here before I knew it.

The women’s soccer team at UA hosts an alumni weekend every two years, so this was the second one I attended (wow that stat really ages me). The coaches always do an excellent job of organizing a fun filled weekend for us. And that’s exactly what it was- nonstop fun for 72 hours. I posted some pictures to social media over the weekend, but wanted to also share some stories from the weekend because they truly are noteworthy. First, though, let me start out by saying I have the best college friends ever and thank you to everyone that made the weekend so special! The minute I got there things picked up right where I left them. I decided to break up the weekend into two posts because there’s so much I want to share. If you’re not a Bama fan (shout out to PR for being a Georgia fan...hmmmm), you might have a differing opinion after this post.

The Weekend

Thursday night- after what felt like the LONGEST day of work, PR, NG, SP, and I headed to the airport for our flight at 8:50PM. NG and I already knew our teammate Kailey (who lives in a neighboring state) was on our flight, but to our surprise we had the pleasure of running into three other soccer alums at the airport that were also on our flight – one of them being my old roommate! The flight was fine, a little turbulent to begin with but overall fine. We arrived to Bham, headed to Thrifty and expected our Escalade to pull around the corner for us. We were told that the lowest option in terms of price (which is what we order) was not available and neither was the second lowest option – SO in our heads we immediately thought, OMG this is so exciting we’re for sure going to get a Benz, Beamer, or Bentley. We ended up settling for the gold Corolla – it’s no escalade but it had four wheels, a trunk, and a radio. After making the 45 minute truck from Bham to Tuscaloosa, we dropped Kailey off and headed to our hotel – the first ever La Quinta Inn & Suites. At $245 a night what could be wrong right??? Weeeellllll it’s not exactly what we were expecting, but hey it had a pool, free breakfast (which we actually never took advantage of), beds, and a shower. After killing one bug and after NG finished painting her nails twice we all headed to bed (first night of #clubBangerz since it was 2:30am when we were finally in bed).

The one and only, the first La Q

Friday- The morning came pretty quickly. NG started her morning off by adding another coat of nail polish (SP and I knew that’s what she was doing not because we saw her painting her nails, but because of the way she holds her hands in the air). Within about 30 minutes of us waking up, we headed to Starbucks, and then headed to the soccer field to meet up with our old coaches. Our assistant coach Tates (not her real name, just a nickname) wanted to go for a walk with us, but before doing so she suggested we take a look around the newly updated locker room and also listen to a Bama soccer alum, who is now a professional cyclist, give an inspirational speech to the current women’s soccer team. Inspirational it was! NG actually even cried during it. She spoke about how she started cycling at age 29 and now, at age 36, she’s in the best cycling shape possible and will compete to be on the next Olympic team. SOOOOO thoughts about me trying out for the 2020 Olympics??? According to her it’s possible!!! Important notes to make: The locker room (pics below) is AMAZING. I mean, I always thought it was before, but now, WOW! There’s a table when you first walk in filled with snacks like Luna and Kashi bars, peanut butter and fruit, and beef jerkey sticks. The lockers are completely new, nice and shiny. I was totally impressed. But the one thing that shocked me the most was that they still had the program from my last year sitting out on one of the tables. My soccer career ended in college and one of my greatest moments was being asked to be on the cover of the program my last year playing. I’ve never been more proud of anything in my entire life – sometimes as athletes we work so hard and sometimes feel like we might not have anything to show for it. I don’t feel that way because of that program and because I’m part of the Bama soccer alumni family.

"Future of Leaders"- true statement

New and improved lockers

OBSESSION with the "cleat wall"...supposedly football has a "glove wall"

My crowning moment- my pride and joy

After the most beautiful walk around campus (and the fastest gossip/catch up session ever), Tates, NG and I headed back to the soccer field to meet up with the boys. Side note: while we were at the soccer field for about two hours, the boys went to breakfast at Rama Jama’s (a definite must if you’re visiting Bama) and then stopped by the museum to check out one of the many (Roll Tide Ya’ll) national championship trophies. Next, Tates was nice enough to take the four of us on a tour of the brand new sports training facility. So, I thought the new soccer training facility was nice…..the new sports one (which btw football profits obvi pay for) is jaw dropping. When you first walk in there’s a mini smoothie bar set up with snacks and protein shakes galore for the athletes to take after they are done training. The indoor football field (which still smells like turf and 6:00am training sessions with Jesper) is also newly renovated along with the gorgeous weight room and cardio room. My pictures and the ESPN special do not do this new facility justice. (Side note: after our great tour from Tates we were standing outside talking to one of my friends when all of a sudden Nick Saban and his police escort walked by us heading to his radio talk show. I personally have seen him a few times back when I was in school but PR was pretty excited to see him. I’m pretty sure I even spotted PR and NG trying to coyly snap a photo of him with their phones.)

Not sure where the other 14 are located :)

Mal Moore's collection of rings and things- he was our AD, but was also once a player and coach

Nutrition station inside the weight room facility- I would have lifted a lot more if this was there back in the day!

The renovated, gorgeous indoor facility- also home to many 5:30am spring sessions

Touring about town left us starving, so we headed to hotspot Buffalo Phil’s located right on the strip. We stuffed our faces, had a pitcher of beer, met up with our hotel roommates Brookie and Carson (starters of #clubBangerz), hit up my FAV grocery store Publix for some necessities and then headed back to the La Q to rest for a little and start getting ready for the night.

Friday night started at the newly renovated Rounders. Let me start by mentioning that Rounders used to be the Dirty V when I was in college for reasons only one can guess. It was one of our favorite bars in college for the following reasons: we danced many a nights away upstairs in the dark, smog machine filled room, sometimes good country music bands played in the room downstairs, oh and NG used to bartend there her senior spring so we all got a lot of drinks “on the house”. To say Rounders received a face lift is an understatement. It received a full body makeover, and is beautiful in terms of bars. There’s now an upstairs rooftop that serves THREE DOLLAR PITCHERS!!! And has a mini stage for bands to perform and corn hole set up. There’s still a dancing room and a downstairs bar, but it’s all brand new. After about two pitchers we headed to the soccer game to tailgate with all of our alumni friends. It was SO great to catch up with everyone. We come from across the U.S. (and Canada), so everyone has a different story. At halftime the alumni were announced on the field and thankfully PR took some really great pictures capturing every moment! Once the soccer game was over, a group of us headed to Mugshots for what I think are the BEST burgers around. After, we stopped by a few local bars, had a few infusion drinks, and then headed home to the La Q before waking up for COLLEGE GAME DAY!!!!!