Because we love our teammates

This might seem a little cheesy, but we all know what our teammates mean to us. The ones we currently have and the ones we grew up playing with, the ones we hung out with off the field, and the ones who drove us nuts on the field, the talented ones, the hardworking ones, the ones who made us laugh or hugged us when we cried. Each one of us has countless stories about the crazy, goofy, ridiculous people we see every afternoon and who we share more with than our families and un-athletic friends. And to those of us who have lost a teammate, we know the emptiness that remains in their place--as if the roster is perpetually one short. Even when the sadness over the loss fades that emptiness is still there. And for that reason, the soccer team participated in Ry's Run last week. Ry's Run is one of those tribute events we use to remember and fill that emptiness. A couple years ago, the women's hockey team lost Ryan McCarthy, one of its best teammates, to cancer. Every spring since the athletes at Lake Forest College have run a 5k in her memory. And as she would have wanted, they have a great time doing it.

We've Come A Long Way, Sort Of

Anyone who has ever won a big game recognizes this look and knows this feeling

I spent the last two nights watching the final game of the men's and women's NCAA Tournament. I have to admit to the fact that I have never been a women's hoops fan. I played myself in high school but have always dismissed the women's game as being slower, duller, and generally just far less fun to watch. I have always been a little ashamed to confess that, but there it is. But this Final Four felt different and was certainly more entertaining. Baylor's dominance, the guard play of Skylar Diggins and Odyssey Sims, Stanford's suffocating defense and intelligent team-play, and yes, the 6'8" Brittney Griner affecting every aspect of every game, grabbed me. Baylor is the best team in a game that suddenly has a plethora of very good teams; and yet Twitter, Facebook, and even the opposing coaches, are full of comments about Griner being "manly" "a man" "more of a man than Chris Bosh" and suddenly I have become very protective of a game I have not previously cared about. In a way, it feels like a change in the women's game reminiscent of the change that occurred in women's soccer following the 1996 Olympics, one that I got to witness first hand.

Olympic ticket buying is a tricky business. You have to purchase them months and months before the fact, before you even really know which teams/individuals are qualifying for certain events. My extended family had decided to convene at my aunt's house in Georgia for the games, but the various families were all purchasing their own tickets to whichever events they were interested in. We had decided to all attend one medal event together and I was arguing for a sport that had just been added to the Olympics that year--women's soccer.

My family was not and are not soccer fans. My parents were the ones who brought their books and newspapers to my high school games and clapped whenever someone kicked the ball really far. My extended family was even less familiar with soccer than that. Gymnastics and men's basketball (Dream Team II) were the events that people wanted to attend. No, I said, this is the game to see, the US Women are going to be in the gold medal game and they are going to win. My vehemence coupled with the fact that it was being played 10 minutes from where we were all staying meant that I won, though not without some grumbling from uncles and cousins.



I remember seeing lots of other events during the first week: track and field in the rain the morning after the bombing in Centennial Park in downtown Atlanta, a men's volleyball match that was so unexpectedly exciting my dad and I stood for the last game chanting "Pol-ska, Pol-ska, Pol-ska" with a large contingent of Polish fans dressed in red and waving flags, and a terrible early round women's basketball game. But mostly I searched NBC TV footage in vain for coverage of U.S. Women's Soccer.


The U.S. was playing pretty well in the early pool play rounds, but an unknown team, an unfamiliar sport, the fact that it was Women (which implied less skill and speed), and a small tournament (only eight teams in this initial go at the Olympics), meant that NBC didn't cover the team AT ALL. There were no cameras at the games, no highlights at the end of the night, very little, if any, mention by Bob Costas or the other studio announcers. The World Wide Web was in its infancy, dial up modems were loud and slow and the only thing available, Google was years off. Newspaper box scores were what I used to follow the team as the worked their way to the semi-final game. They were winning and they were invisible. Completely invisible.



My aunt surprised me by buying two tickets on the street for the semi-final games at the Georgia Bulldogs storied football field. (The hedges were removed for the soccer events). We sat and watched China beat Sweden and the U.S. beat Norway in OT for a berth to the gold medal game. There were close to 50,000 screaming yelling crazy awesome fans at the game, but when the two of us got home, ecstatic and drained from a day of intense soccer, no one there knew the results yet. Not only was the game not available anywhere on TV but the results hadn't been announced.

Three days later, with next to no coverage, the United States met China in the first gold medal women's soccer game ever. The streets of Athens were filled with fans. Brianna Scurry, the starting goalkeeper, had been so impressed by the support of fans she promised to run naked through the streets of Athens if the Americans won.* My cousins and I painted flags on our nails, my mom wore a Dr. Suess looking felt hat with red, white, and blue stripes, Chinese fans waved enormous flags and beat drums and ate rice balls they carried into the stadium in their fanny packs.

*Apparently she did run naked through the streets, though she waited until early morning when they were finally empty of fans

The game was incredible. It came down to the very end of regulation. Michelle Akers, the American's star midfielder, was so exhausted that she had to be carried off the field and get an IV in the locker room before the final whistle. The stadium was so loud I remember shouting into my brother's ear and still not being heard. I had to write "sudden death, then PKs" on my hand with a pen from my aunt's purse, to tell him what would happen if it ended in a tie. Finally, Shannon McMillan, who had scored a golden goal against Norway to put them in the final, scored another one, and victory was ours.

The stadium of 76,000+, at that time the largest crowd to ever watch a women's sporting event anywhere in the world, stayed to watch the medal ceremony, the US players running around the field with the flag slapping fans' extended hands, the Chinese players running out to clap and thank their fans and supporters. We got home, drained and elated and excited, and like sports fans everywhere we turned on the TV hoping to relive the event. This time Bob Costas mentioned the gold medal victory and showed some still photos, but because there had been no cameras at the field NBC was not able to offer any video highlights. If you weren't in the stadium in Georgia that night, you didn't see the game.



Hard to imagine now--when even a game being played in Japan at 3am local time is available on ESPN3 on demand or any sports bar can put GOLtv on in a corner for a paying customer to watch Sunderland lose on a Wednesday afternoon to Manchester City. And most sports fans recognize many of the names from that Gold Medal team: Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastian, Cindy Parlow, Tiffeny Milbrett, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly, Joy Fawcett, Carla Overbeck, and Shannon Macmillan. So in some ways soccer and women's sports have come have a very very long way since NBC ignored them in 1996.

In other ways, not so much. Last night I watched an incredible female athlete, a newly crowned champion, get called a man on national television, instead of simply congratulated for the hard work she put in all season and the physical beating she takes from opponents game in and game out. And last year, when we Foresters traveled to a school with a recently founded women's soccer program, we were not allowed to change or shower in a locker room because the women's locker area was being used to house the visiting football team. And so, we changed into our uniforms in the basement of a dorm while residents did laundry and gave us strange looks, and our post-game showering was done quickly and illicitly amongst football equipment while our teammates held off the teams streaming off the field.

Progress? Yes. Are you we done? No.

Global Warming Has Its Perks

Audra, Lisa, Emily, Courtenay, and Anya enjoying the unseasonably warm weather

After Courtenay missed a team workout, some of her teammates joined her for a make-up jog along beautiful Lake Michigan. Looks like a great day for a run.

The Offseason Part Deux

In the Midwest Conference our off-season has three pretty distinct parts. The first part is sandwiched awkwardly between the end of the season in November and finals/Christmas Break. It involves a lot of administrative tasks, the Awards Ceremony, decompressing from the season, and heading home for the holidays.

Part Two begins once the students return to campus for the second semester. It is largely player and captain organized and almost all of the responsibility lies with the individuals. The team gets together for optional runs, weight lifting, workouts, and pick-up games on our on-campus indoor turf. Some kids play on IM soccer teams too. Recently a group of 12 current players and alumnae got together and road-tripped to Madison. WI for a competitive Women's tournament over President's Weekend. It's in these months where the team really starts to set the tone for what THEY want out of the next season: they can motivate themselves and their teammates to bigger and better things or they can slowly watch the winter slip past without much self-improvement at all. Whichever option they choose is usually pretty evident in Phase Three...

In March and April the coaching staff is allotted 20 hours to train with the team. This can take all sort of different forms: working in small groups on specific skills, playing full games, fitness, position-specific practices, etc...These sessions are scheduled based on player availability and desires and are far more sporadic than the everyday, full-team practices we have during the season. These sessions take us up right up to finals and the start of the summer holidays.

Every year it is surprising how quickly it all flies by and before we know it we'll be back on campus in August for the start of another season. Yay!

In Which We Both Give and Receive

Last Sunday was the Fall Sports Awards Ceremony and because we are a festive bunch, the soccer team followed that up with a team dinner and White Elephant gift exchange.

The various awards given to the team for the 2011 season include:
Most Valuable Player Bri Schliebinger
Most Improved Player Charlotte de Tar
Lisa Sorensen was our lone representative on the Midwest Conference all-Conference team
The team selected Becky Esrock and Lisa Sorensen as our captains for the 2012 season

We didn't have a great win/loss record but there is no question that the team award recipients deserve the accolades. We had some great individual efforts at various points throughout the season--it is just a shame that more of them could not be recognized.

Later in the afternoon, after the Bears had lost an ugly one to the Chiefs, we gathered around and enjoyed a meal and a gift swap. The team gave the coaches some great gifts that they will no doubt enjoy for years to come. AND we all contributed a gift to the Athletic Department's Toys For Tots drive.

It was a good way to get together and enjoy one another before finals and the holiday break begins.

Photos follow!

Maeve!!

Maeve Connelly, a sophomore who was new to the soccer team this year, is more than just one of the best back-up GKs in the conference: she is a hockey player. And this week she has been more than just "a" hockey player; she is THE hockey player. As in, MVP for the week. Apparently she scored a couple of game winning goals or something.

Nice work kid. I talked to your agent, she said you'll be signing autographs at the rink following the next home game. Make sure you don't leave before I get mine.

The Post-season

This is the first post-season in years that we have not been playing in the Midwest Conference tournament. So while we sit at home and ponder what went wrong, soccer is still being played. In fact, other than the few weeks during a World Cup, this might be the best time of year to be a soccer fan.

Division III: Information about the Midwest Conference soccer results can be found here. Carroll University beat St. Norbert College to advance to the NCAA Tournament. THey will be taking on St. Benedict at Dubuque, Iowa this Saturday. Good luck to the Pioneers in representing the MWC! The rest of the bracket can be found on the NCAA website.

Divison II: The NCAA bracket selection show is tonight. Information :available here

Divison I: Last week the Divison I conferences held their conference tournaments, allowing some teams to up their RPI and chances of getting an at-large bid. Illinois, for example, played and won 3 OT games at Northwestern last week to win the Big Ten Tournament. Beating OSU, Michigan State, and regular season champion Penn State was huge for them as they earned an automatic bid to the tourney. Penn State, as regular season champion, secured an at-large bid. Penn State is worth watching as their striker, Maya Hayes, leads the nation in goals (26) and points (60). Check out the bracket.

In addition to all the college soccer (men's tournaments are going on too) Major League soccer playoffs have been extrememly competitive and exciting this year. THe LA Galaxy just beat Real Salt Lake to win the Western Conference Championship, while Houston Dynamo bested Sporting Kansas City to take the East. The two conference champs will meet in LA on November, 20 to compete for the MLS Cup.

Whew. Lots happening. Flip on the TV and catch some of the action!