I’m a little late to the game again, which seems to be standard for me after attending convention, but here we go.
With a Wednesday morning wake up call of 5AM, I was off to the airport for soccer’s biggest party thrown by the NSCAA. While sitting in the airport waiting for my flight, I couldn’t help but to notice a beautiful sunrise.
Within only a few hours of being in Philadelphia, I was off to begin my time for the convention. The days really tend to blend together, so that was why I captured as much as I could through photos. You can put together a whirlwind of a week a lot easier with the iPhone providing both a camera and a timestamp!
Wednesday brought these sites:
This sign was my first photo at the convention center. I thought it was quite clever and incorporated both Philly and the NSCAA nicely.
That same night, little did I know that I would be seeing Pelé speak at the President’s Reception. The star-struck attendees cleared a path for him to walk in and address the room. The amount of cell phones that were in the air taking photos and record videos of this once in a lifetime experience was wild to see.
How do you top that though? I mean, really. I did reports on this guy in elementary school about how incredible he was and here I was listening to him speak in person. It was truly unbelievable.
Here is a view from the media room. This is just a glimpse into the exhibit hall where you can buy so many different soccer-related things that you never knew existed. Also, a lot you did know existed.
I was also able to catch a glimpse of Briana Scurry delivering a lecture to a crowd! Here she is (apologies for the picture being a bit blurry):
And only a few hours later, Pelé showed up again speaking about the New York Cosmos with Raúl González Blanco…
On Saturday, Sir Alex Ferguson addressed the awards banquet for the NSCAA All-America awards.
If you ever are able to get to the Philadelphia Convention Center, be on the lookout for teacups. And lots of them. This was something I happened to notice on my way to a lecture session. I’m still working on figuring out how they don’t move and all stay lined on a wall. I guess that’s why I’m not an artist.
Hop on over to my “What I’ve Done” page to check out what I did during convention this year.
Special thanks to the NSCAA for, yet again, another great experience! See you in Baltimore next year! 🙂
Deb Handy 
Awesome photos!