Three Priorities, a Fun Hobby, and Two Endorsements

During the season we like to say that our kids have three things that take precedence over everything else. The first, of course, is family. The second is academics. Lake Forest College is an academically demanding school. The Conference, the Athletic Department, and the coaches try to make it as easy as possible for our kids to do well in school in (and out) of season. Finishing a strong third is soccer and the team. In season, all of those priorities mean that there isn't a ton of time for other things. Still, our student athletes seem to find plenty of time for napping, socializing, and watching Grey's Anatomy and Jersey Shore.

Over the week of homecoming a few players competed (I use that term VERY loosely) in a Intramural volleyball tournament. Pretty sure they had fun dressing up and playing even if we learned they aren't terribly good at volleyball.
Rocky spent quite a bit of time on the floor

They might have had a better chance of winning if they could stop laughing for 5 seconds
Rocky takes Webby out. And they still lost the point.


Two extremely unofficial endorsements:

If you see a Forester chewing gum during a game or practice it is most likely Extra peppermint flavor. Coach Geiser provides the gum and prefers Extra peppermint for its long lasting flavor, general chewability, and breath freshening capabilities.


Since our season takes place in the autumn months, many of the Foresters favorite things are associated with apples, pumpkins, apple cider, and changing leaves. A beverage that seems to encapsulate all of those in one warm, yummy package is the Pumpkin Spice Latte. Alumnae who are feeling a little homesick for Forester Soccer have been known to drive far out of their way to pick a PSL up as a spirit-boost.

Playing Our Game

This week has been pretty fun for a number of reasons. Tops on the list has been the weather. Practice is always more fun when the sun is out, the air is crisp, and the grass is green.

The second has been that this week we have a singular focus: Play well against Carroll. "Winning" is something that we can think about, but mostly, if we play 90 minutes of our soccer: smart, hard, skilled Forester Soccer, we will have put ourselves in a position to come out with a victory. We can go into Homecoming Weekend feeling good about ourselves, our effort, our intensity, and our week of practice.

Not to say that we aren't pretty focused on doing all that AND winning. Just saying "victory" is sometimes out of our hands. All that other stuff we can control--effort and heart and soccer smarts, while occasionally elusive, are still more more tangible than a goal of "let's win!"

If you want to see us open up Lake Forest Homecoming Weekend with our best effort against our toughest Conference opponent, please tune in at 4:30pm tomorrow. The game will be available for viewing on the internet here

Wish us luck!

Falling Behind and Staying Ahead

Whew.

A whirlwind week last week for us. Two weeknight games on the road means late nights for both players and coaches. Eating dinner at Taco Bell in Kenosha, WI at 10pm on a Thursday certainly leaves a little something to be desired...

A few positives from a two-loss week: we tried a new formation, had some excellent moments against a skilled team, improved our soccer IQ a bit, and enjoyed a much-needed weekend off.

This week our focus is on one thing: picking up a victory at home against Carroll University to open up Homecoming Weekend at Lake Forest College. Our current seniors have not beaten Carroll in their career and it is beginning to feel like it's time.

Happy Monday! The countdown to Carroll is at 100 hours...

Victory!

We earned our first overtime victory of the season on Saturday at Lawrence University. The game was fairly even--Lawrence had some chances they didn't capitalize on, and we hit the post and the crossbar a couple times in the first half. Both teams had some defensive errors and breakdowns and displayed some nice finishing. Unfortunately we were always playing from behind.

Lawrence scored, we scored, Lawrence scored, we scored. That took us to overtime tied at two goals apiece. Overtime is two ten-minute, golden goal periods. If either team scores, the game ends; if 20 minutes elapse without a goal, the game ends in a tie.

As you can see from the box score, Becky Esrock buried one at the end of the first OT period to win the game. Lawrence has now fallen to 2-1 in conference while the Foresters remain undefeated at 3-0.

A longer practice week awaits us this week, with just two games. We host Concordia College of Wisconsin on Thursday and travel back to northeastern Wisconsin on Saturday to play St. Norbert College in another tough conference match-up.

Hopefully coming up this week on the ForesterSoccer blog: a chance to "meet" some of the players who you never really see in the box score, but who are crucial to our success. Freshman sweeper Courtenay Raymond for example, or backup goalkeeper Angie Chronis, or senior fullback C.C. Hayne.

Stay tuned.

A Little About Appleton, WI

Your Foresters are heading north to Appleton, WI tomorrow morning to take on the Vikings of Lawrence University. Both teams are 2-0 in Conference headed into tomorrow, so it should prove to be a good game. It is certainly one in which we hope to come away with a victory, but the Vikings have been a tough opponent for us I'm recent years.

Some facts about Appleton and Lawrence:

--Harry Houdini spent his childhood there after being born in Hungary.

--The actor Willem Dafoe (played the Green Goblin in Spiderman) was raised there and began his acting career at a local community theater.

--Lawrence is the second oldest co-ed college in the country, having admitted women a year after Oberlin College began doing so. Lawrence was chartered and founded in 1847, a year before Wisconsin became a state.

--Actor Campbell Scott, son of George C. Scott, is an LU alum; as is Terry Moran from ABC's Nightline; and Jeffrey Jones, who played the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

--John Bradley, one of the men in the famous photo (and subsequent statue) of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima, grew up in Appleton and was a graduate of Appleton West High School. After the war he returned there and raised a family.

--Sen. Joseph McCarthy began his political career in Appleton and is buried in a local cemetary.

--If you find yourself in Appleton and notice a not-so-great odor it is, no doubt, the paper mills along the Fox River. Appleton is a center of the U.S. paper industry--Kimberly Clark and others are located nearby.

--The Hearthstone House, now a local museum, was the first residence in the world to be powered by an Edison hydroelectric station. Appleton also was the first community in the national to have an electrically powered street car, was home to the first telephone hook-up in Wisconsin, and the first incandescent light bulb outside the east coast.

--Lawrence University is named after its founder, Amos Lawrence, a Boston philanthropist and abolitionist. Lawrence, Kansas is named after his family as well.

The Art of the Headband

Emily "Webs" Weber has been named MWC Defensive Player of the Week for the second straight week.

Lisa "LA" Sorensen has been named Offensive PotW as well, meaning the Foresters swept those awards.

What I think is important here is the photo. Notice the headbands. Is it a coincidence that our top three scorers and points leaders--these two and Becky "Rocky" Esrock, wear headbands during every contest? Perhaps it is. But athletes tend to be a little superstitious...Hope those headbands are equally effective against the North Park Vikings this afternoon.

The official press release is available here. More information on the Foresters' site.

Heading To The City

Last week, we had a first real test against MSOE. We passed. Barely. We did some really nice things for periods of time and then we did some really ugly things. But hopefully we learned from our (numerous) mistakes and can apply the "lessons learned" in the future.

Saturday we picked up our second conference win of the season against Ripon. Historically Ripon is a team we have beaten, and that was no different this year. We won convincingly and kept the shutout, always crucial in a conference game.

Today is another non-conference opponent we should match up well with. North Park University, located on the Northwest side of Chicago, always has a good team with some speed, something that has given us trouble in the past.

As usual, scores will be posted on the school website and Twitter, though the game is not available on webcast.

Our First Real Test

Do you trust these two to lead us to victory? You're going to have to, as they are among the 11 starters for our game this afternoon against the Raiders of the Milwaukee School of Engineering*.

*It has been suggested that "Raiders" is not a great nickname for a bunch of engineers from Wisconsin...You may leave more appropriate suggestions in the comment section.

But back to the photo above. It was taken on picture day, with the team in their old uniforms. [Pics of the new ones up soon!] Senior and team captain Emily Weber,* has managed to wedge crazy Californian and fellow senior, BZ Greene, into her jersey. Sigh. I just take photos, I try not to ask too many questions...

*Emily Weber has been named Midwest Conference Player of the week for her role in the first two victories of our young season. Congrats Webby!

The game this afternoon begins at 4:30. The weather should be perfect. Let's hope the result is one we are happy with.

Only conference games are available on the webcast, but the results of this non-conference match will be posted on Twitterand the athletics website.

More information on the Midwest Conference can be found here.

1-0 Has A Nice Ring To It

The humidity soared, but the rain held off, allowing our full squad to see minutes during a 7-0 rout of a depleted Cougars squad.

The Foresters scored early and often in the first half and spent the second working more on possession and ball movement. All in all a pretty successful way to begin the 2010 season.

Full recap and boxscore are available here

Game Day, part I

After a short but intense and fun practice yesterday, your Lake Forest Foresters are ready to protect their home field against the visiting Concordia College of Chicago Cougars.

No webcast available for this non-conference game, but positive thoughts and energy sent our way are always greatly appreciated. Results will be available on Twitter and the Athletics website following the game.