With the Easter season comes the annual Dallas Cup youth soccer tournament, bringing young players from around the world and British referees to homes around Lake Highlands. Once again, we’ve got two darling refs staying with us – only this year, one of our “lads” is a lass. (They’re both wearing dark tops in this photo.)
Lucy May, 23, is a relatively experienced soccer official from Portsmouth in southern England. She has a law degree, but says she has thus far opted to teach instead of practice in order to have more time for her “football.” She spends lots of time in the states visiting her parents, who now live and work in Chicago.
James Welsh, 21, is a British “army brat” who’s travelled around the United Kingdom, living in the various places his dad was stationed. This is his first trip to the U.S., and he’s anxious to experience all things American.
As soon as they stepped off the plane, we rushed the kids over to Mariano’s to get some Mexican food in their system. They were game to try anything, though the refried beans baffled them a bit, and – like many of our previous lads – guacamole wasn’t their favorite.
We’re getting used to their ways of speaking (luckily, “I’ll knock you up around 7 o’clock” doesn’t mean what I thought) and they’re getting used our “cars only” culture. They spent the first day at the Fort Worth stockyards, enjoying a backyard barbecue afterward at the Lake Highlands home of Pam Kirkley. Yesterday, they saw the Ballpark in Arlington and toured Cowboy Stadium, with James exclaiming “it’s so big, even bigger than Wembley!” and Lucy praising “they certainly didn’t do it by halves!” (At least I think that was praise.)
Because they both have family traditions of visiting Hard Rock Cafes in cities around the world, they requested dinner at ours, near Dallas’ West End. Today they’re enjoying downtown Dallas and the Kennedy Museum. I can’t wait to quiz them later to hear if they caught the conspiracy theory bug.
They’ll referee their first games this Saturday, calling local games at Richland College. Sunday morning they’ll begin Dallas Cup duties as the first games kicks off at 10am at both Richland at FC Dallas Park in Frisco (formerly Pizza Hut Park). Opening ceremonies for the tournament will be held Sunday at 6pm at FC Dallas Park and Manchester United plays FC Dallas Academy at 7:30 in the Gordon Jago Super Group game. There’s a full schedule of events here and you can purchase tickets online here.
