Week 1 - School & The Season Begins
9/22/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sept. 1, 2004
This past really week flew by. I've already gone through a week of classes; two weight training sessions, a psychology session, four practices, and two games. There have been plenty of ups and downs throughout this whole week, and a couple of comical incidents that happened.
My first week of classes went very well. I am majoring in accounting and minoring in economics. I spend all of my time in TU's Business Administration Hall, otherwise known as BAH. Jamie, on the other hand, lives in Keplinger Hall, aka KEP. Unlike Jamie, my classes are almost 100% American. I have numerous friends in all of my classes, which makes them go by a lot quicker. I'm taking accounting processes and problem solving one, principles of management, management information systems, topics in federal income taxation, and economic development. All of these classes are very business oriented, while I'm not sure what category Jamie's classes fall under. This semester will definitely be the most difficult semester I've had at TU so far. With our hectic travel schedule, grades will not come as easy as they did last spring.
Day One: August 23 This was our first day of classes and our first official day off from soccer. This was also the first day that I didn't see everyone on my team. To tell the truth, it was really weird. This is also the first year that Jamie and I aren't living in the dorms. We had lived in the same suite for two years, and had probably never gone a day at TU without seeing each other. Ashley Rickner and Gina Gaston had lived in the same suite with Jamie and I too. So, today was a day of transition from life in the dorms, where I see my friends all the time, to my apartment where I only have two roommates, my teammate Gina Gaston, and Sam Rutherford, a volleyball player. With it being the first day of school, I was almost too busy to enjoy my day off from soccer.
Day Two: August 24 We lift weights on Tuesday's and Wednesday's, so today was the first day to be in the weight room with Coach Helling. Today was a day of learning new lifting techniques. The new hiring of a head strength and conditioning coach brings new ways of lifting. This entailed us to brush the ground with our butts while doing front squats. This is very difficult for those of us who are not balance inclined, which includes freshman Molly Fitzsimmons, who for some reason squats on the tips of her toes. This day is always very amusing to upperclassmen. We get to stand back and watch the new freshmen struggle lifting the bar. They have no idea what amounts of weight they will be lifting when they graduate. We also have a new ab workout, which is very demanding. Freshmen Sarah Kitts must have considered the ab work out to be extremely difficult. I say this based on the fact that towards the end, her breathing was heard throughout the gym. Coach Helling informed us that we would all have six packs by Christmas. He said, and I quote, "Yes, even you Ashley Rickner, will have a six pack by Christmas." Ashley is also one who has to get the special "extra thick" band to accomplish one chin-up. This band is used to assist those of us who do not have the muscle to pull up our own body weight. While everyone else uses a thinner, light green band, Ashley uses a thicker, forest green band. No matter what band we use for chin-ups, or what noises we make while straining, we all know that the soreness will set in by morning.
Day Three: August 25 Today was a typical day. Class and weights at 3 p.m., practice at 4 p.m. I'm not sure how I feel about practicing directly after weights. We did hang cleans today, and they always tend to make us sore. All through practice, my legs felt like Jell-O. We were informed after practice that if we wanted a warm-up CD for Friday night's game, it had to be approved by tomorrow at noon. Gina Gaston and I decided to take matters into our own hands and make a CD that night. The CD includes a couple country songs, a couple rap songs, and numerous random songs. They are all upbeat songs that put us in great moods and make us laugh. I can't wait to see some of the girls' reactions when they hear what songs we chose. This CD-making process took a lot longer than expected, so we got to bed late tonight. I'm sure we'll pay for it tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off.
Day Four: August 26 We had practice from 7-9 p.m. today. Personally, I enjoy night practices and playing on our game field under the lights. We mainly worked on play in our offensive third, which included a lot of runs in the box and finishing. We were all getting ready to play our first game of the season. This was time to prepare mentally and physically. It was weird to think that our first game had already arrived. For a lot of us, this was our first game since last spring. For me personally, that was the longest that I had ever gone without playing in a game. I was ready to compete again, but the nerves were already setting in. We finished practice with a transition game, which included a lot of shots-on-goal, giving our goalkeepers quite the workout. Practice ended, and we all went back to our rooms to finish up some last minute homework and get a good night's sleep.
Day Five: August 27 This morning, I was awoken by a phone call from my mom. Apparently she didn't know that my first class began at 10 a.m. She called around 8 a.m. informing me that she is leaving St. Louis before noon so she could make our game that evening. Before this call, I did not think she was coming in town for the weekend, so I was very excited. I was wide-awake after the call, and had a couple of hours to waste before classes started. Our pre-game meal was at Jason's Deli. This beats eating at our student union, ACAC, where every meal had been the exact same for the past two years. The nerves had definitely set in by now. We reported to our locker room around 6 p.m., and began our warm up at 6:30. We had a good warm up and I felt that our team looked ready to play. The first half did not go as well as I had planned. We were playing flat and not doing the things that we had been working on these past few weeks. Coach Richardson's halftime speech was not pretty, but neither was our play. It was frustrating because we were not playing to our potential at all. We did a few good things here and there, but for the most part, it was not a very good game. We lost 2-0, both of their goals coming in the second half. We had chances in front of their goal, but we could not capitalize on them. We left the field disappointed, but all knew that we had to put it behind us, because we had another game in two days.
Day Six: August 28 Saturday, we had a walkthrough from 9:15-9:45 a.m. During this walkthrough, we worked on shape throughout the team, especially in the midfield. We needed to stay much tighter than we did in our game vs. UALR. The walk through only lasted 30 minutes, because at 10:00 a.m., we had a meeting with Dr. Sannito. He talked to us about FOCUS. This stood for freak out, communicate, understand, and silence. We had to get with our big/little sister and FOCUS. We had to think of a goal that we wanted to obtain in the weight room. Molly Fitzsimmons, my little sister, decided that she wanted to be able to squat on her heels like the rest of the team, instead of on the tips of her toes. Acting like she was freaking out was a piece of cake for Molly. It's like second nature to her. We talked about what she needed to do in order to get her heels flat on the ground. She then understood what she needed to do. Now this is the tricky part. Imagine 24 girls sitting in a room together, trying to be absolutely silent for two minutes. All you hear is deep breathing- in through the nose, out through the mouth. I turn to look at Molly and she is shaking, with tears running down her face. These are tears of laughter of course. I have no idea how she made it through the entire two minutes without making a noise, but she somehow did. Luckily we were sitting in the back corner.
The meeting ended at noon, but that did not mean we were free to go. Coach Richardson and Coach Plakorus had the UALR game taped and it was ready to be watched. I forgot to mention one small detail about this morning's walkthrough. Right away, I think every girl on our team noticed something weird about our assistant coach's shorts. They were definitely on backwards. Did anyone mention anything to him about his shorts? No. Nobody said a word, but we were all thinking the same thing. We just continued on, like nothing was abnormal. When he walked into the meeting room to prepare the game tape, we all noticed that his shorts were still on backwards. We still chose to not say anything. A few minutes later, he finally noticed himself, and decided to try and cover it up by untucking his shirt. Little did he know, that just made the situation worse. He continued working on the tape, with his shorts on backwards and now his shirt untucked. Personally, I wanted to forget about that game, but it was good to see the mistakes we made, so we would not make them again on Sunday. After watching the tape, the team was free to go except the three captains. It was now time for a captains/coaches meeting. This meeting was short and to the point. We talked about changes that had to be made for our game vs. Arkansas on Sunday. Jamie, Alexis, and I were finally free to go, so we went our separate ways. The next time we would meet would be tomorrow morning.
Day Seven: August 29 Today was our first road trip. We met outside our locker room and headed to Breakfast By Day (BBD) for our pregame meal. We had to find out the hard way that some of our teammates should not be taken out in public. While at BBD, freshman Kim Kincaid let out one of the biggest man burps I had ever heard. A few heads turned in the restaurant, to say the least. We finished our meal and were on the road to the University of Arkansas. While on the charter bus, we watched "For the Love of the Game." I would recommend it to those of you who haven't seen it yet. We arrived at U of A safe and sound and headed to the locker room. We were all ready to begin our warm-up, but were told that we had about 20 minutes to waste. These were the longest 20 minutes of my life. I just wanted to go out on the field and begin, but instead we hung out in the locker room and we were all getting more nervous by the second. We had a good warm-up again, and I felt like we were ready to play. Arkansas scored in the first minute and a half, and that ended up being the only goal of the game. We had many chances to score, but once again did not capitalize. Although the game was much better than our game on Friday night, we still walked away with a loss. We need to work on finishing, so hopefully that will be our focus throughout these next couple practices. We all got back on the bus and headed home. While on our way home, senior Katie Nirider passed a huge tray of brownies up and down the aisle that she had made the day before. Every brownie was gone by the time we got home. That night I was sleeping by 9:30 p.m. The school week is going to be a long one, and we have a very important game to prepare for. We are playing our cross-town rival, ORU, on Wednesday night. This game is always a physical battle, and hopefully we will walk away with a win. See you at the game!
