On the road again...

We’re on the road again…literally and figuratively. We played Oshkosh at their place yesterday and we’re slotted to go on the road again for a game against Gustavus Wednesday afternoon. The team is also on a new figurative road that is taking us to some new places for this team, and we are all enjoying the scenery.

It has been a positive couple of weeks with equally positive weekends.
We had three shut-out wins at home and that weekend was full of family, and phenomenal weather. It was a truly incredible few days, and as a group we began moving with a positive energy that is going to be hard to slow.

I’ve been busy watching high school games, planning practices, attending shootarounds and watching film. The entire team has been busy with classwork, lifting, practices, study hall and training room expectations. They even went to St. Paul last week to get in training for our off-season fundraising.

I have to admit that when a player and a team are as focused as we are right now, there is not much room for life outside of soccer, but the nature of players who want to compete at this level is that soccer is life anyway.

I am continually impressed by the hearts of the young women who compete on this team, and after having a chance to see the support of their families, I am not at all surprised that they are the way they are.

I received an email early last week from the Oshkosh team that they were going to be wearing pink for yesterday’s match. It was in honor of breast cancer research, and a really worthy cause. I told the team about the gesture, and Ali Sonsteby, a sophomore on the team, suggested that we join the movement and put pink tape on our socks. They did that and added pink prewrap on their heads. It was a great idea that gave a physical demonstration of the heart of this team.

The game itself was an important one, and I am struck by how evenly matched we are on paper and very evidently on the field too. It was a great intense game, and we were energized and continually learning, even into the overtime periods.

We all hope that we’ll have another shot to play Oshkosh later this year, but until then, we are busy prepping for another non-conference game and another very important conference game against UW-La Crosse next Saturday. It has been good to find a new road….now we just have to stay on it.

Time to take some drastic steps

I just finished reading Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture." It is a fast read about all that really matters in life. I was quickly reminded that it is too easy to get caught up in the details of life's mosaic. The pieces that are really ugly when you look at them up close can be part of a beautiful picture when you back up to look at the entire scene.

We've been given some ugly pieces so far this season. Early injuries, difficult opponents, a relatively young roster and unlucky bounces and calls are all ugly pieces to what I truly believe will be a phenomenal picture when all is said and done.

I believe that because I've seen this team when no one else is watching. I've seen the character of players who run in the dark to get conditioning because they were not put into the lineup for a game. I've seen players commit to what they can give to practice, even if it means they have to run off with all of their gear to make it to class on time. I've seen the team rally around our injured and express immense gratitude for the generosity of our many parents.

The pieces we have been given may be ugly, but it matters more how we arrange those pieces to get the finished product that we want.

Pausch did not use the mosaic analogy, but rather made reference to brick walls in our lives. Walls that are put there to see who has it in them to get over them. The walls are put there to keep out "the other people". We don't yet have entire walls, but rather the bricks. We can let the bricks build upon themselves until there really are walls, or we can manipulate them to be steps in another direction. I vote for building the drastic steps!

Time to get creative

The team took a collective sigh of relief as the bus pulled in from our Labor Day jaunt to Rock Island, Illinois. The conclusion of that trip marked the end of our longest one day road trip of the year and the end of the grueling preseason weeks. We have been battered by the demands of preseason and by the opening games of our season, but there is a positive and creative energy that has started to take shape.

Through the course of preseason we lost three players to ACL tears. It is a frustrating reality on all fronts and the plans for everyone have to shift direction. Those players planned on playing, their teammates planned on playing with them, and the coaching staff planned on many things from the crew that now spends their time in the training room. So, we have to be creative. The line-up has changed and there are more expectations from the remaining players than there might have been otherwise. We'll find creative solutions to unexpected issues.

We have run across such unexpected issues both on and off the field. The picture of the sign above our shed represents a few things about the women on this team. I gave the assignment of sanding and painting the sign to some of the seniors on the team. They collaborated with a couple of the younger players, and they all problem-solved and put up a graphic display of the talent we have among our players. They had to be creative about how to get the image the way they wanted it, and that sign now represents the creative and hard-working talent of the five who worked on it: Jessica Halverson, Laura Howard, Kelsey Keimig, Kaitlin Arjes and Alicia Sonsteby.

Classes have also started and the chaos of new schedules forces yet another shift in thinking. There is a very real need to prioritize, and the commitment of the team to the energy they bring to practice seems to reflect their desire to continue moving this program in a positive direction. They seem to have set their minds to creating an atmosphere of competitive freedom on the practice field, and I have no doubt that it will pay dividends for them.

What I love about soccer is that you have the freedom to have personal and team creativity. The best players can adapt to any situation and still find a way to perform. The mental part of sport fascinates me the most, and I am happy to report that the 2008 Blue Devils have taken the mental challenges in stride and they have not yet been distracted by frustrations.