Unfinished Business

The gear has been stowed, the exit meetings completed, and winter workouts will be outside the office door soon for the players to retrieve. It hasn't felt like we should be done with soccer. Maybe it is the unseasonably warm weather, or possibly the continuing analysis about how things could be better. In all honesty, it probably doesn't feel like the 2009 campaign should be over because we have some really serious unfinished business.

To lose one heart-breaking game in the closing minutes is unsettling, but to finish six games that way is practically unbearable. I found myself in anticipation of that next chance for so many of our games this year, and we fell barely short so much of the time. It has taken me a few weeks to finally accept the fact that yes, we are indeed done. That breakout didn't happen this year, and in true form, we were meant to end things in a shootout. It was so painfully appropriate.

Part of me is ready to start fresh next year, before there is any disappointment, or frustration or disbelief. The other part of me is having a hard time letting go of the fact that we never managed to tap into the potential of this team.

There is next year, and for that I am thankful. However, there is also right now, and right now needs to look better and be better than past years to move this team to the other side of those close matches. I am encouraged by the commitment of the returning players to work with and for each other in the off-season. I, too, vow to work harder so that I can be the potential-tapper that a coach is expected to be. It will take the combination of the commitment of the players and the focus of the coaches to bring together the formula that will lead to success. There were enough of those "character building" exercises this year in our tough losses, that character should never be our issue. Winning needs to be, and getting prepared to finish that business starts now!

Making Our Mark

Like many of the games this October, our concluding regular-season game started with clean uniforms and socks and ended with mud-soaked shoes, shorts, socks and jerseys. Currently, Nelson Field, on the UW-Stout campus looks more brown than green and is finally more mud than grass. After withstanding a wet, and lingering, snow storm, we took our home field for the last time this season with the expectation that we would, with the help of Whitewater, make our mark on the field. We did that...with every cut, and slide and step and dribble. Footprints remain in that mud, and in a way, those prints will remain year in and year out.

We took time yesterday to honor one of the players who has made her mark during practices, training sessions and games. Katie Zernikel, our only senior, has run countless steps on that field, and the mark she leaves has been tallied in record books and calculated in minutes. That mark, however, is arguably less powerful than the intangible one that she leaves in the hearts of those who know her.

I think it is human nature to want to leave a memorable mark, and it is apparent to me that those who support the UW-Stout soccer team desire to leave an enormous, positive impression on the women of this team. Repeatedly, through this year, the team has been hosted by amazing families and fed by generous parents. The players are surrounded by supportive and loving family and friends. They have been there in sun, in wind, in rain and logging a number of miles along the way. They cheer and console, congratulate and comfort. The microcosmic reality of sports competition brings to light the character of the players who play, but it also reveals the hearts of those who cheer them on. This team is incredibly lucky to have such supporting fans.

At Saturday's game, the UW-Stout Soccer community collected nearly 100 cans/boxes of food for the local food pantries. It will be a small contribution to that bigger cause, but any mark we make is an important one.

We are on to the post-season now, and we have a chance to go back to UW-River Falls to upset the third-seeded team and move on to the semi-finals of the WIAC conference. I am inspired by the drive this team has to make an impression, and we WILL certainly make our mark.

Remembering the Positives

Before the 2009 season started, I have to admit, I thought that this year the players would start to reap the benefits of their hard work. You hear it all the time in sports..."Oh, we're young" and "This is a rebuilding year", and I had hoped that those declarations would stop applying to the Stout team. However, I think I have learned some valuable lessons this year as a coach.

We are, indeed, a young team. Sixteen of our players are freshmen or sophomores, six are juniors and we have one lone senior. The juniors and senior we have are possibly past the "young" label, but when so much of our team are brand new faces who are trying to navigate our expectations and our systems for the first time, it takes some time to build.

Building takes patience and a deliberately positive approach. I admit that I was lacking a bit of both for some of this year. By nature, I am an incredibly competitive person with not as much patience as I like to tell myself I have. Any team who works as hard as this team does deserves a lucky bounce every once in a while, and too many times this year I have let myself get wrapped up in the frustrations of the last-minute losses. Nine games have been lost by one goal and five of those one-goal losses happened in overtime or in the last ten minutes of the game. This team deserves to be on the other end of some of those tight games.

This team continues to persevere. They have incredible chemistry and a willingness to keep going. Several players are continuing to improve, willing to learn and working tirelessly for that lucky bounce that is bound to come. They are connecting, they are defending, they are working and they are encouraging. Positive building is happening, despite what the record books might say.

We are not yet done with the 2009 season. We have three games in the span of four days this upcoming weekend, and I personally plan to take the approach of pointing out all the phenomenal things this group of women are doing. There are plenty of things to compliment, and even if this year has ended up being one of those "rebuilding" years, I want to make sure that we build with the best bricks we can.

Coach's Favorite

It is completely expected, at this point in a winless season, that frustrations will start to emerge. One expressed concern that I recently heard was that I have "favorites" and that those players are the only ones who get any playing time. I was initially defensive about that comment, but as I let the thought settle on a reflective heart, I started to admit to myself, that my accuser may actually be on to something.

I absolutely admit that I do indeed play my favorite players, but not for the reasons that calling them my favorites might imply. As a player, and now as a coach, when there is discussion of a"coach's favorite," it is never a compliment. It often refers to the players who have the best relationship with the coach and who sidle up next to him/her weasling playing time that is often undeserved. My issue with that definition is that it is not the way I would define the favorite players who play for this team. For this team, the players who earn playing time are favored for hard work, experience, consistency, commitment, talent, dependability and guts. Unlike the perception of players who are feeling unfavored, the players who play are not "given" favors, they absolutely earn them.

Our team has regular opportunities for players to get some extra shooting or technical work. The shootarounds are open to any and all players who hope to improve in some skill area. Monday's shootaround included 3 of my "favorite" players, a back up goalie and me. I don't expect that all of the players will be there, but the consistency of voluntary practice pays off in improvement for the players who attend. Technique can be tweaked, and repetition and individualized instruction can happen there.

It is not the taking advantage of opportunity that makes a player the coach's favorite, but what is borne out of making the most from the opportunities given is favorable for any player who truly wants to get better.

The traditional "favorite" player doesn't have to even show up for extra work...they get the advantages without trying. My favorite players keep working no matter who or where they are and strive to keep the spot that they have worked so hard to earn.

Family Weekend

There is a reason the women on this team are of such great character, and the reason becomes clear when they are each flanked by supporting family and friends. We enjoyed the presence of many parents and siblings at the family weekend festivities this past weekend, and although the performance at the game was lacking, the company at the potluck and the fun at the golf outing partially made up for the disappointment of the non-conference loss.

The players all introduced the visitors who joined us for the day, and then the entire group participated in a rousing game of ultimate ninja. It was entertaining to watch how the competitive streak runs so deep in some families. Sunday morning, a handful of players, alums and parents met at the local country club for a fun morning of golf and socializing. The weather could not have been better, and it was truly an amazing weekend.

Practices have been better the past two days, and the team is determined to show better in the next few matches. Tomorrow we will open our WIAC conference games with UW-Eau Claire, and then follow it up immediately with a game Friday against UW-Stevens Point. Both Eau Claire and Point have traditionally done well in both WIAC conference play and on into the NCAAs. We aspire to compete with such programs, and tomorrow will be a great test of the mettle of this team.

We are coming off a disappointing performace against Augustana. The team who had competed so well in the previous games, was not the team that took the field on Saturday. It was a lull the team hopes not to repeat, and it will take focus and intensity from the entire team to pull off wins in the two upcoming games.

Optimistic Losers

You would think after three straight losses, we would be hanging our heads and disappointed about how things are shaping up, but we are not. Don't get me wrong, we would be happy to be on the other end of these 1-0 losses, but there is so much to be excited about, it is hard to remember that we have not scored a goal yet, and we are winless for the 2009 season. True, we have not scored a goal, and ties and wins have eluded us, but so many great things have happened.

We are creating opportunities, possessing with purpose, defending with intensity and continuing to get better each half. It is our goal to improve each half that we play, and so far we have accomplished that goal. We have some bigger goals that we need to start scoring and winning to achieve, but I think we can all sense that the flood gates will eventually open. We have half returners and half freshmen, and that makes for an interesting mix. It has potential for difficulty, but these women have decided that it is going to be a non-issue. They have come together so quickly and with more chemistry than we could have hoped for, and the goal now is to keep that going as classes start and people begin to flood the campus and dorms.

We are in phase two of our three phase motto this year. We want to "come together, stay together, work together." We have come together just fine, and now that there are a number of distractions that could seep into the mix, we need to focus on staying together. When those two things happen, it will be easier to continue to work together, and I have every confidence that good things are going to happen for this 2009 team. Records cannot speak to how entertaining and well-played our first three contests have been.

The next three matches will be just as entertaining as we come upon some tough competition, but I feel we are more prepared for that portion of our seasonhan we would have been had we chosen to lighten our load at the start. Playing good teams only makes us better...and that is working so far.

2009 Season Kick-off

On the eve of the opening game for the 2009 soccer season, the UW-Stout Blue Devils are poised for a memorable and successful season. After arduous and competitive tryouts, and a fast-moving preparation, the Blue Devils are more united than would normally be expected for a team with half returners and half newcomers. They are focused and determined to take this program to the next level, and I personally am very excited to see all that they will accomplish this year.

Preseason ends tomorrow, but classes do not begin for another week, so the team will continue to focus on only soccer for a few more days. The 2009 team has worked hard to learn each others' strengths, to communicate well and to come together for a common purpose. Along with all the soccer playing, this team has conditioned, lifted, done yoga, gone night hiking, competed in synchronized swimming and discovered the ultimate ninja in each of them.

This team wants to enjoy what they do.

This team wants to compete.

This team wants to win.

This team is going to accomplish great things.

This team is ready to kick off the season, and I am confident that they will kick it off well!