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.