It's Been Raining A Lot In The Forest

We are making staying dry on the sidelines an art form. (Notice the boot)

A Blueboy Discussion

Tomorrow is Parents' Day at Lake Forest College. There will be a breakfast for families in the morning, a F.A.N. Club tailgate prior to kickoff, and a men's game following ours. Of course, it would be great if all of those fun events resulted in two wins for the Foresters over the Blueboys/Lady Blues.

And this leads me to our topic of the day: sex-specific mascots. As a female athlete and now coach I have always resented such names (like the Lady Foresters) because it suggests that REAL Foresters are men and the women are a cheap knock-off version. However, there MAY be an exception with the Illinois College Blueboys.

The Blueboy is a reference to Union Soldiers, who wore blue (as opposed to the Confederate Greys). Now, while I am sure women could have fired a minie ball as accurately as men, the fact is that they didn't and BlueBoys were almost always exactly that--boys. [As a history teacher I feel obligated to note that WWI American soldier were referred to as "Doughboys" and WWII era soldiers were the more sex-neutral "G.I.s"--short for Government Issue, which was stamped on most of the Army's goods.] Anyway, in the case of Illinois College and their Blueboys is it okay that they are the "Lady Blues" or not? Should they still be Blueboys? Should we just treat a mascot like we treat the term "guys" and act as though they are all sex-neutral? Or is the problem the term "Lady" which tends to invoke images of tea and crumpets instead of sweat and aggressive play?

Home Again, Home Again

Whew! This has been a long week of travel and road games. Because this blog is hard to update from the soccer bus we are a little behind here...

Last Saturday we traveled to Mequon, WI outside Milwaukee to play the Falcons of Concordia-WI. Anya informed the coaching staff on the way there that it was referred to as "The 'Quon" by people in the know. It was a gorgeous warm day in The Quon and we opened the first half with The Bri Show by promptly giving up 4 breakaways. Bri was able to save a couple and convince the Concordia shooters to go wide on their other attempts, giving us a chance. Somehow we went into halftime up 1-0 and managed to win towards the end of the second overtime to go to 2-0 for the season.

On Monday we fought a little traffic (so did our poor fans) to get out to Lisle, IL and Benedictine College. We started the game at 7pm on a beautiful night under the lights with the moon hanging just over the bleachers. Unfortunately the moon was the prettiest thing about the night as we played some pretty ugly soccer. On the upside, some rookies were given the chance to get some playing time and we discovered that they were all more than able to hold their own. So we earned a loss and discovered some depth. Foresters go to 2-1.

Thursday we all piled back on the bus and traveled back north to America's Dairyland for our first conference game against the Beloit College Buccaneers. Here again we struggled to play the good-looking soccer that we are occasionally capable of, but after a tough battle with an undermanned Bucs squad, and giving up our second PK in two games, we eked out a win to lift our record to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the MWC. And as we tried to remind ourselves afterward, a win is a win.

Saturday it was back on the bus for our first "family" trip with the Men's team. It was long but successful as both teams posted convincing wins against the Red Devils (I refuse to say 'Lady Red Devils'). Mostly, for the women at least, the day was goofy, amusing, and a good reminder that sometimes the soccer doesn't matter--it's just nice to hang out in a cornfield with your buddies once in a while. I suspect none of us will see an aquarium mural again without remembering this day with a smile. And the word "Narnia" now has a very specific meaning for the Foresters.

After a long day on the bus the day before, the coaching staff woke up nervous on Sunday. We were hosting Carthage College at our home turf and expected them to be strong, fast, skilled, and aggressive. Carthage was all of those things but we manged to keep them off the scoreboard while we began to fight back, battle for 50/50 balls, possess the ball a little, move in support of our teammates, and remember how to play on our fast turf. Besides all of that, perhaps one of the most important things we did versus Carthage was to show heart. We had had a long weekend already, and yet when Carthage scored early in the second half we didn't fall apart. Instead we fought back and quickly tied the score again. The rest of the half we held our own and tried to allow our opponent as few good scoring opportunities as possible. Our forwards pressured, our midfield possessed, our defense dominated; and when all of those things fell just short, our goalkeeper made a save to pick us all back up. It was a geniune team effort that was rewarded with our second overtime victory of the year. If what Coach Bell said in the huddle is true, if OT really is "all about heart," then we certainly proved we have it. It was a fun win and a good weekend for us. We are 5-1 and hopefully beginning to discover our potential.

Foresters Chop Warriors

A convincing first win for our first game, our first home game, and the collegiate debut for our 8 rookies. Megan O'Connor's first collegiate goal opened up the season's scoring and we went from there.

Box score and full recap available here

Not much else too add, so here are a few photos from game day.


The Foresters are ready to run

Game time approaches...tick, tock, tick, tock

Warm ups begin

Our jerseys await

And we play!

Missing A Teammate

And keeping the Esrock family in our thoughts. Take care you guys. Hope to see you all soon.