What The Heart Wants

Hearts Abound

On Saturday morning, the Hearts' players and management worked together to get everyone's housing situation for the 2018 season rectified. The final two houses were split 3 and 3, with Erin, Jen, and Cari in one and Savannah, Mana, and Frannie in the other. Julie took care of the leases with the incoming players and gave out what gift cards she still had remaining from the GoFundMe campaign to them.

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The Hearts Pre-Season Kickoff took place at Lucky Strike Philadelphia, a comprehensive entertainment center with bowling, billiards, ping-pong, shuffleboard, and semi-private lounges. As the players, staff, and their guests entered, Kristie gave them a break-down of the evening's activities. Once all 40 people were there, Wendy took over.

Wendy: With this being the final weekend of the off-season, Erica and I thought that we needed a full-blown bash to lead us into the grind of our first year in NWSL. This is the first time our entire roster is together, and we want to get them into the competitive spirit, so the two of us have put together an eight-team bowling tournament for tonight. Each team will have five players who will bowl two frames a piece. Winners of the first game move one direction, losers the other. Eventually, we will play for 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th places, with certain "quality" prizes for each team based on their finish. We have separated the players into five teams of four each, the coaching staff into one, and two teams that will be made up of the rest of our party. The first six teams will be able to draft one player each from the free agent pool.

Kristin: Wendy, can I move over and join my goalkeepers?

Wendy: I guess we can do that.

Wendy moved a couple of players around in order to put Kristin with Steph Labbe, Sammy Jo, and EJ.

Wendy: The six Hearts teams are set. They are as follows:

Team 1: Wendy, Erica, Carm, Ali

Team 2: Kristin, Steph Labbe, Sammy Jo, EJ

Team 3: Morgan, Becca, Diana, Mana

Team 4: Cari, Cami, Steph Ochs, Liz

Team 5: Kristie, Steph McCaffrey, Jen, Savannah

Team 6: Bianca, Stephany, Frannie, Erin

Wendy: We select Lauren as our guest player.

Kristin and Steph talked for a few seconds, then came to a consensus on their choice.

Steph L.: Being that we're an all-goalkeeper team, our wild card should be one too. We take Connor O'Hara.

Diana: We take the only girl to ever throw a shutout at the Little League World Series, Mo'ne Davis.

Steph Ochs and Liz debated which of their boyfriends should be chosen. After a couple minutes of debate, they settled on taking Tyler. Kristie's team picked up Danielle, while the team led by Erin settled on Amy Mahan, manager of the Hearts' Team Store in Reading Terminal Market. The other two teams were made up of: Brian, Julie, and Sarah O'Hara, Deanna Berley, and Aaron Donahue; and Bill and Zach Palladino, Jason Dambach, and Ryan and Molly Berley.

The results of the tournament were:

1st: Team GK (2)

2nd: Team Spouse (8)

3rd: Team Legal (7)

4th: Team Second City (5)

5th: Team Staff (1)