homecoming weekend

November 23rd, 2006

I don’t know where I’m at right now, but it’s probably not home (This is where you start to feel bad and decide to invite me to your house for thanksgiving dinner). Anyway, I just got back from the national tournament and we did well. It was a nice kicker to the 2006 season.

Funny thing is, mid-october I didn’t think our fate included a post-season. We were well into conference play, and well into a funk. I kept hearing about the talented squad we had this season compared to years past, but I was concerned about the lack of tick marks this talented squad was collecting in the W column.

It was all very frustrating. Although we were consistently dominating teams, we were unable to finish them off. After the final blow of the whistle we would walk off the field defeated and confused. Why weren’t we putting these teams away?

As far as hopes for a post-season play, this team was living in the past. Sure, the team had made it to the national tournament 8 consecutive times in 8 years, but we can't ride on that statistic like it's our ticket to Kansas City or Florida.

We had loooong meetings consisting of a lot of talk; lack of accountability, lack of resiliency, lack of consistency, a lot of conviction. You name it, we talked about it. We could say all we wanted to, really.

But I think it was simple: we weren’t finishing and we couldn't maintain consistent shutouts. This isn't an issue for the forwards, and this isn't a back-line issue; this is an altogether 11-player one-unit team issue.

We could possess the heck out of the ball, string long pass sequences together and create pretty offensive attacks, but we just couldn’t make it dangerous enough to score the crucial goals. We could all out dominate a team back to front, win tackles and high pressure, but we still couldn't manage a shutout.

I’m still not sure what exactly happened; whether it was Coach’s “truth” pre-game speech, or how we attacked Bobby Mo during homecoming weekend or maybe we just finally recognized that our season could potentially end before November if we didn’t get our butts into gear.

What I do know is that we didn’t fold. We starting playing with an urgency that gave everyone the confidence, nay, the will to create goals on one end of the field and prevent them on the other. We became the force that we all had talked about and hoped to be. We earned a post-season.

-Coley


the roomies

serena, christine, me, abby

...and that's not even all of us.


HOMECOMING WEEKEND

It started off with a Pep Rally. I felt like I was back at high school in an assembly, but late at night and the attendance was optional. Since I am a transfer I had to join a handful of freshman in an inter-sport relay competition; limbo under a volleyball net, twirl around a baseball bat, rush a football, dribble and score a soccer ball, and make a basketball lay-up . The men's baseball team proved to be the swiftest, but our lady trojan soccer team took 2nd. Yep, that means we beat men's soccer and basketball AND the football team.
Christine stole a palm tree at the after-party; it now adorns the door to her room. She also stayed up late to decorate our window with letters reading "WEST COAST".

Saturday was the big rivalry game against Robbert Morris at neutral site 15 minutes off-campus. The men's team made us each a personalized candy bag for having to travel on our homecoming. This didn't keep away the fans, consisting of mostly out-of-town family that came to visit. We destroyed Bobby Mo 4-1. It was a sweet victory and, I predict, the turning point to our stagnant conference season thus far (5-2-0).

SUNDAY Maria and George were married at Iglesia Emanuel. They are both on the women's and men's soccer team, respectively - cute, huh? Our team pretty much filled up the entire bride's section. It was a looooooooong event. Hispanic families. Loud music. Entertaining and light sermon. Good food. The cake and the dancing, well I do not know because we left before we could indulge.