"People don't play sports because its fun. Ask any athlete, most of them hate it, but they couldnt imagine their life without it. Its part of them, the hate/love relationship. Its what they live for. They live for the practices, parties, cheers, long bus rides, invitationals, countless pairs of different types of shoes, water, Gatorade, & coaches you hate but appreciate. They live for the way it feels when you beat the team next to you by 1 pt. in overtime, & you know those 2 extra sprints you ran in practice were worth it. They live for the way you become a family with your team, they live for the countless songs you sing in your head when your running ALL those suicides. They live for the competition, they live for the friends, the practices, the memories, the pain, its who they are. It's who we are. WE ARE ATHLETES..."

Mount St. Joseph placed third in the poll for 2008 season.

Mount St. Joseph placed third in the poll for 2008 season.
Every year the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) comes out with a pre-season prediction on which women’s soccer teams in the Division III conference. They basically guess which team will place first, second and third for the season based on last year’s record. This year Transylvania was the favorite in women’s soccer for the 2008 season. Rose-Hulman was anticipated to finish in the second slot and although we had a great season at the Mount in 2007, we were not predicted to come in higher than third place. When this was shared by Coach Taylor we reacted with disbelief and anger. I guess this is what pumped us up, because the team came alive as if there was a fire under our feet. The entire team was more motivated and energized no matter how intense the practice sessions and training became. Most of us left the practice sessions dragging our feet and begging for just a little rest time, but even those feelings faded as we started to realize that we really had more faith in our own abilities than the conference had in us. The season started out with two losses to teams that were not even supposed to be a challenge at all. Our team needed to regain confidence and it had to happen fast. We could not and would not let the Conference’s prediction jinx our chances to be the great team we knew we could be.

Soccer: The Start of the season... August 17, 2008

Soccer: The Start of the season… August 17, 2008

The date was August 17, 2008. This was the very first day of a long season to come. It all started with one memorable first day of hot, steamy work-outs that would last for two weeks of twice-a-day grueling and painful tests of strength and endurance. I had a lot going on in my mind about what I wanted to achieve that season. I had nothing to hold me back since this was the very last year I could ever play collegiate soccer. I was ready to start my senior year as a student and athlete and wanted to show all of the younger teammates what it was like to receive a college HCAC championship ring. I had a goal to end my college soccer career just as I had started it in 2005 by winning the conference championship at the end of my freshman soccer season at the Mount. It was the best feeling in the world to say you won your conference and now your challenge was to prove yourself against the best teams while getting to travel and play in the NCAA soccer tournament. I remember that we had seven strong seniors coming back who have been playing soccer for the mount the past three years. There wasn’t any other team in the conference that had that many strong leaders on their team. Almost everyone knew that this was going to be a great year for us and it was our season to win. We had strong players who worked well together and pushed each other without end. We always would say we are only as strong as our weakest link and no one wanted that reputation. So when it came down to the daily hard practices and endurance training in the hot summer heat, we worked as a team by encouraging and challenging each other to keep motivated to achieve their highest level of potential that we just knew we all had in us.

First year playing soccer

First of all, I would like to start by talking a little bit about how long I’ve been playing the game of ”soccer”. My very first game was back when a lot of young athletes got their very first exposure with the game. My first memories with the game occurred when I was about six years old. I remember my mother was the coach of my team along with the father of one of my friends. This was when all the little kids wouldn’t really play the game soccer but rather spent most of the time just kicking the ball back and forth while we were getting the feel of the game and just making sure we could connect out feet with the ball before someone else did. I soon discovered that I was a bit lost on the open field. I was a pretty fast runner and it was easy to be so focused on kicking and chasing the ball no matter which direction the ball would be kicked. The coaches didn’t make it very clear that you had to get it in the other teams goal, and that you couldn’t just kick it in any goal. Yes that’s right, at such young age, I was the first “lollypop soccer’ player to actually get the ball in a goal, but unfortunately, I scored in the wrong goal! At first I was sooo happy to get my first goal, but my victory celebration was short when I find out that it wasn’t the right goal, and the goal I was so happy to score wasn’t actually a goal for my team. So as any normal six year old I sat down right where I was on the field and threw a fit when all the parents were yelling and laughing at me. I wouldn’t get off the field so my mother had to come over and carry me off. I was very embarrassed for a little while but I really remember all the fun I had at my first game with my friends, even if my very first goal was for the other team.