SO MANY FOND MEMORIES OF BLUE LIGHTNING... SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR...

Sitting at Joanne and Dick's poolside yesterday evening with Swampscott Blue Lightning Coaches Eve Gambale, Suzanne Wright and Anthony Cerra as many of the players on the team were similarly huddled in the hot tub nearby evoked so many fond memories of a half-dozen years of watching soccer together!  

Thanks to Jill and Mike Hartmann, a photo of some of these same girls taken at the Memorial Tournament in 2006 was compared with a team photo taken this week at the season-ending Pingree tournament. Since then, our daughter, Ali, found a couple of others, taken at tournaments in 2007 and 2009, respectively.

I am attaching these various photos so that the rest of the girls and their parents can enjoy this same, warm feeling of community spirit -- and of friendship -- recognizing how many years we have known and enjoyed one another.

Though some of the faces have changed over the years, Swampscott Blue Lightning has stood for the same values throughout: continued development of youth soccer skills, strong, positive reinforcement of teamwork and of friendship, not only among the children but among the parents as well.    

On behalf of the Sloan family -- Ali, Debra and myself -- we want to once again thank ALL of you who have shared the Blue Lightning experience with us, and to assure ALL of you that we FULLY intend on supporting Big Blue soccer into the future, so you can FULLY expect to see us (and hear me) on the sidelines!

GO BLUE!!!