39 Days and counting...

It is never to early to write a blog about soccer!
Our soccer season is just over five weeks away, 39 days from today to be exact. I am beyond excited and ready for it to be here. As it draws closer I have had a few people ask me whether or not I am looking forward to the season, my general response has been, "I have been looking forward to the season since last June!"

This year will prove to be different than the past, in more than one way.
To start with, and perhaps the biggest change for me, is that I am now the head coach. For the past two years I have been the varsity assistant coach, but was handed the girls soccer program last June. I thoroughly enjoyed my two years as assistant coach and learned a lot from those years. However, I cannot deny I am excited to be the head coach this year. Though, I am quickly realizing there are a lot of little things that happen behind the scenes that need to be in place in order to have a smooth start to the year. With each week bringing us closer to the season, I am trying to tackle one more project and keep my head above water. It's a lot of work, but I love it.
Another difference will be the players. Obviously every year we lose players to graduation. But last year is looking more like a mass exodus than graduation. From our entire team of 17 varsity players, we will have five returning. Some will move from the jv to varsity team, which will definitely help, but with that many holes to fill it will no doubt be different. As I was walking to school today I passed a colleague who began asking about soccer, and the turnover of the team. I gave him this fun fact that shows the experience we lost from last year's team...we do not have a single player returning on the varsity team that scored a goal last year.

Some may view that as a bad thing, and some are even calling it a "rebuilding year." Honestly, some outsiders have spoken of lower expectations/hopes for our team knowing what we lost. I look at it as a challenge and as an obstacle that will make us stronger, better, and more unified.

I am writing this blog today, because during lunch this afternoon I met with all the girls who are planning on trying out for the team. I gave them our season schedule, talked a little about tryouts, and gave them a pre-season packet that included a daily running guide to ensure they came to tryouts in shape and ready to run. We had a brief meeting right before Christmas break and I put quite a bit of fear in them, when I told them how hard I expected them to work. As I laid out my expectations for them, I ensured them I would provide the tools to help them meet those expectations. Over the past two years I had a growing reputation of running practices that were physically demanding, and tiring. The girls are worried, now that I will be running every practice, they will be pushed harder and harder.
They should be worried, because we will work very hard. After all... I don't want to fail to meet their expectations! ;-)

I honestly have no idea what the season will bring as far as our record and performances. I have some thoughts, but you never know. I am always optimistic and will always be positive. Regardless of what happens on gamedays, I know it will be a positive experience, a growing experience, and a challenge that made all of us better people.
In looking at our schedule we have the amazing opportunity to playing Patch and Ramstein - last year these are the two teams that played against each other for the Division 1 championship (we play in Division 2 with divisions broken down based upon your school's student population). Not only do we get to play both of those teams, we get to play them in the same weekend! I told the girls today, I am pumped for that weekend and really looking forward to the opportunity we have. It will be a great weekend. We have some redemption as well, seeing as Patch overwhelmed us last year and beat us 8-0.
I have been working hard in preparation for the season - gathering insight and information from former players, as well as picking the brain of other coaches. I have been meeting with three players weekly to create a vision for the team, and try to get a better grasp of who we are, and where we want to go. I have also been working on a secret project that took a lot of emailing and chasing, but finally landed it! Sorry...just like the girls you will have to wait to find out what it is! But I am certain the girls will absolutely love it and be blown away, it's going to be awesome.

As I finished our team meeting today I finished with the following four points. I told them these are things they can expect out of the season:
1. We are going to have fun.
2. We are going to work hard, real hard.
3. We are going to be different.
4. We are going to compete. Every day. Every game.

It's 39 days away, and I cannot wait!