U.S. Youth Regionals in Edmond, Okla. culminated my 2012-2013 soccer season and represented the growth of my officiating skills throughout the year. The prestigious invitation to attend the tournament as a member of the Louisiana state referee delegation allowed me to experience the multitudes of quality friendship, teamwork, and determination within the Southern Region of the U.S.
During the trip to Oklahoma, a few of my referee friends and I from Louisiana went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. The surreal experience brought a strong sense of patriotism to our group. Oklahoma's tragedy is encapsulated by the gateways at each end of the memorial. One gateway holds the time before the explosion, and the other holds the time after the explosion symbolizing the memorial as the actual time that the bomb took the lives of the many people in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.