蜜桃视频appresident Deanna Lewis is going back to Brazil - and this time she's bringing her daughter with her.
Lewis is again participating in the Native Indian Football Association's (NIFA) trip to South America and it won't be her first time joining the rest of the squad on Team B.C. Lewis traveled with the team to Brazil and Argentina in 2006 and said it was an honour to play in one of the meccas of soccer.
"My personal dream was to play against the best players in the world and this tournament has helped me be able to do that," she said. "I thought my career was done but my daughter told me earlier this year that she can't wait to play with me so now I get to go there and share it with my daughter."
Her daughter, Seraphine Lewis, is a goalkeeper and has starred on several travel teams in Squamish. It will be her daughter's first trip to Brazil and Lewis said it should be a blast.
"It was amazing the last time we went," she said. "We actually went to Brazil and Argentina and it was really awesome because not only did we get to play against their players but we also got to do some training sessions with them and learn their style. They are so amazingly talented down there."
Lewis also managed to make a lasting impression in Brazil - she was selected to sing the Coast Salish national anthem.
"I found that a lot of the people down there thought our native culture was dead in Canada," she said. "I got to sang our Coast Salish national anthem during a game in Santos and we had every player on our team and every player on the Brazilian team together on the centre line. I was on the highlights of every sports channel in Brazil that night, so that was a pretty fun experience."
In addition to the earlier trip to Brazil and Argentina, Lewis has traveled with the team to Florida, Cuba, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Spain and Portugal. The NIFA women's team has had an impressive record since its inception in 1993. It has won several tours, one of which earned Lewis the Golden Boot award for the most goals, helping the team to win the Australian tour.
The tour, which is set to take place from March 13 to 25, will see the NIFA team take on teams in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Santos, among others. The trip will also allow the team to do some sightseeing.
"We're going to see the Christ the Redeemer statue and go on a bunch of tour buses to check out the entire country," she said. "We're also planning on checking out the rainforest but I'm not sure if we're going to go to a men's professional game this time."
Lewis said she's counting the days before she hops on the plane to South America.
"I'm very grateful that I get to go there a second time," she said.
For more information on the NIFA, visit www.nifa.ca.
