Senior Day

About 3 years ago, I started a new tradition on Senior Day that I read a letter to each senior aloud to the team before the game. I was planning this when we had a 2-3 record in the conference. I already expected it to be an emotional day. It was possible that we could have to win the game to get in the tournament. We would be playing our most intense rival. It would be the last game on our campus, and the final home game for a senior class who have carried this program to new heights. I thought the last thing we would need is for me to spend time reading 7 emotional letters before such a big game.

I decided we could get together on Friday night before the men's game. I also decided that the parents were invited. I can't explain how I felt reading the letters in front of the parents, but I do think it was special.

I reserved a room in McWhorter - our new $30 million building that houses pharmacy, physical therapy, and psychology. It is beautiful! There were almost 50 people in the room. I explained what we were doing and why we were doing it this way. I'm not sure if people expected me to, but I talked about the season. We underachieved, and I made no apologies. We have to live with it and learn from it. I thanked coaches and staff, parents, and players. Then, I read the letters.

I hope the seniors like pictures. I gave each of them a photobook. The team made each of them a scrapbook. I am so impressed with the scrapbooks. The underclassmen partner up and each set of partners make a page for the book. They put a lot of time, creativity, and personal touch into making the books.

We kept 2 game day traditions. The seniors were introduced before the game with their families. The team made each senior a sheet and hung them on the fence before the game. They were so cute! All 7 seniors were in the starting line up - Jessica Rix, Marcela Sanchez, Lydia Wright, Jayme Trocino, Erica Carter, Maddie Porter, and Patience Whitten.

Our game against Lipscomb was like most of our home games this season. We outplayed them for most of the first half. We looked pretty good doing it, and we had very little to show for it. JTro did score an excellent goal in the first 20 minutes. It was a goal that only she can score. She passed the ball out wide. She moved forward to get it back at the top of the penalty area. She split 2 defenders by keeping the ball close on the dribble and had no trouble placing a shot past the goalkeeper. As happy as it was for her to score in her final game, it was also a huge reminder of what had been missing all year. I couldn't help but think, What if...?

The 2nd half was mostly the same. Lipscomb had a player sent off with 2 yellow cards, and they immediately got a good shot that hit the crossbar. We were inches away from being tied 1-1, despite outshooting our opponent by more than 10 shots.

In the last 10 minutes, we scored 3 goals. Loftis picked up her 2nd and 3rd assists. Amy Jo scored the first goal of her career. Erica got her final career assist and goal, and JTro scored the final goal of her career.

It was a nice way to end the season.

Pillow Pets

This team loves pillow pets!

Too Little Too Late

We had to hurry after the game. No stretching. No talking. No visiting. We had to take fast showers and drive to Orlando to get to the airport.

My state of euphoria did not last long. As soon as we got on the bus, I learned that ETSU and Kennesaw State tied, 1-1. That's it. We can no longer finish in a 3 way tie, and there is no way for us to get into the tournament.

Life is cruel. I think many players had given up hope that we would make the tournament. Just when everyone believed again, we were officially eliminated. I did not want to tell the team. We have had very few pleasant post-games this year, and I did not want to ruin this one. I told the team that I was proud of them. They played well. I gave one of my ultimate compliments. I told them I enjoyed watching them play.

As I was changing clothes in the Stetson restroom, I was still so happy with the result of the game and how we played and the resiliency of the players on this team. I thought back to one year ago, when I was changing clothes after the last regular season game at North Florida. I was in a bathroom stall changing my wet clothes, because the team dumped a water cooler on me because we finished in 1st place. The emotions were overwhelming. I was shaking in that bathroom stall at North Florida, and I was shaking again at Stetson. We had just played better against Stetson than we played one year ago, but we are nowhere near where we were one year ago. It is very difficult to understand and almost impossible to explain.

No explanations yet. We have 4 practices and one game remaining. We play Lipscomb on Saturday. It is Senior Day. If we play like we did against Stetson, the game will not even be close. This season, at home, that is a big IF.

When we got back to Belmont, I told the team we were out of the race. I assume they already knew. I told them to not let that take away from the win and the quality of play against Stetson. We need the momentum for Saturday.

Stetson

Bad News. We gave up a goal in the first 3 minutes of the game. It was similar to other goals we have given up throughout the year, most recently against FGCU and UNF. The shot hit the underneath side of the crossbar and bounced down and in the goal.

It may have taken 10 minutes after the goal was scored, and we took over the tempo of the game. It was great possession, great tempo, great scoring chances, and great effort. It was the best we have played as a team all year. I could rely on every player I put in the game. Each player gave the same amount of effort.

The other thing about the game that was similar to our season... In the 109th minute of the game, we had 26 shots and 1 goal. We were one minute away from outshooting a team 27-13 and tying 1-1.

We could not tie, so I started cheating numbers forward. We were practically in a 2-4-4 during the last 5 minutes of overtime. The play was end to end. Thankfully, Stetson missed some wide open shots, and Marcela blocked a sure goal. With less than a minute in double overtime, we put together a string of urgent passes, a composed cross, and a header in the upper 90.

Going into the game, we were 3-0-1 against Stetson in our last 4 games with 3 out of our last 4 goals against them being off a set piece. Both of our goals in this game were beautiful and scored in the run of play. Kailee, Bailey, and Rock were involved in both goals. Rock played an excellent entry pass into Patience, but the Stetson defender kicked it out of bounds. Kailee threw the ball into Bailey, and Bailey was dribbling from the corner flag toward the corner of the penalty area when she unleashed a shot with her left foot. It zipped past the goalkeeper and into the far post side netting. Amazing!

On the second goal, Jamie Loftis got on the end of a bouncing entry pass. She, Bailey, and Megan Rock locked it into our attacking third and could not get clean shots off in 2 attempts. Bailey played the ball out to the left side where LP ran onto it. She took her defender to the end line, and passed the ball back to Kailee. Kailee took one touch and served it in the box. Because we had held the ball in the final third for so long, we had excellent numbers in the box. Rock headed the ball in the corner against the goalkeepers momentum. I call that, "Putting it back where it came from."

I was elated. I was not thinking about the conference tournament or anything else. I was thinking about how proud I was of our team. They came back from a goal down on a Sunday on the road. They played beautifully and passionately. They have played well 3 halves in a row, and we are peaking at the right time.

Another Saturday practice

One thing that makes the Stetson/Florida Gulf Coast weekend difficult, besides the heat and humidity, 2 drastically different but effective teams, and the distance from Nashville is the 4 hour drive between the two schools.

When our conference opponents come play us at Belmont, there is no travel between us and Lipscomb. The teams get to stay in the same hotel the whole trip. There is really nothing difficult about the travel on the Nashville weekend. It is a disadvantage for us.

We left Fort Myers after breakfast, and we got to Deland in the afternoon. Just like all my other trips to Deland, our hotel parking lot was full of motorcycles. It was Biktoberfest, but I think it is always biker week in that part of the country.

We practiced on Stetson's field. We played chain tag to attempt to help us with our communication. We should have been doing that once a week. We did a team challenge passing drill. At the end of practice, everyone got a partner, and we had an intervention. The team sat in the bleachers while 2 players would get in front of the group and talk about each other's strengths, talents, and any positive qualities that make her valuable to the team. Then the players in the bleachers were invited to tell those 2 players one thing that she could do better to help the team.

I heard a lot of - communicate, shoot more, take on defenders, be confident, be composed. I was very impressed with the way the teammates talked to each other. They would say, "You have a great shot. Shoot more." "You know where everyone should be on the field. Communicate."

It was a great exercise, and I need to remember it, and use it earlier.

That night, during our team meeting, the Campbell game finished up with Campbell beating North Florida 3-2. If we win our last 2 games, we will finish tied with Campbell with 12 points. Campbell beat us head to head, so they would advance over us. Now we need ETSU to win one of their last 2 games to finish with 12 points. If there is a 3 way tie, we will have a chance to advance in goal differential tie breaker. However, the chance of us making the A-Sun Tournament just got slimmer.

Overcoaching

I am guilty of over coaching once every other year. Ok, maybe once a year. I don't think I have over coached since the 3-6-1 vs. Kennesaw State in the 2008 A-Sun semi-finals. We went back to our 4-3-3 at halftime.

In preparation for Florida Gulf Coast, we prepared the team to play a 4-1-4-1. There are many reasons for this: 1. It would simplify defending for our outside backs against their outside midfielders. 2. It would prevent our wide forwards from having to receive the ball with pressure on their backs. 3. It would give us a numerical advantage in the midfield. 4. It would prevent dragging our center backs out of the middle and giving up corner kicks. 5. It was result oriented coaching and playing. 6. Our team has not shown any consistency or proven themselves able to win in our current system.

We had a walk through the morning before the game, and I thought the team understood their defensive roles in the system.

They didn't. We spent most of the first half locked in our own half. Just like in the 2008 semi-finals, we were down one goal at halftime. We went back to the 4-3-3 and quickly began to dictate the tempo of the game. We were not able to come back and get the victory this time.

Being down 2-0 and fearing missing the tournament, some of the players got frustrated. I did not like watching our team playing out of desperation, panic, and frustration. It was ugly. It was dangerous. It was not smart.

After the game, we found out that ETSU had lost, so we were still alive. With 2 wins, a Campbell loss, and 1 ETSU loss, we would advance to the A-Sun Tournament. We had to quickly rid ourselves of the frustration and get ready for a difficult game on Sunday at Stetson.

Jacksonville/North Florida weekend

Our last 3 games have been against the top 3 teams in the conference - Florida Gulf Coast, Jacksonville, and North Florida. I think Jacksonville is the best team in the A-Sun. I think FGCU has the best possession of any team. I think UNF is the most improved team in the A-Sun. We came close to scoring a goal against FGCU. We came close to scoring 4 goals against Jacksonville. Their goalkeeper made 2 excellent saves. We were 2 minutes and/or 2 inches away from tying North Florida.

Our 7 verbally committed incoming 2011 freshmen and their parents were at the North Florida game. I am excited about this talented class. One played in USYS National Championship Tournament last summer. Three of them play in the Elite Clubs National League. Two more will join the league this year. These players have great experience with their reputable club teams - Mockingbird, Brentwood, Concorde, Carmel, D'Feeters, and Sting.

We played fine against Jacksonville, but we played better in the 2nd half. Against North Florida, we played poorly in the 2nd half. I have no idea what I am going to get when I put the players on the field. It has made it very difficult for me to choose a consistent line up, have a consistent substitution pattern, and even have a consistent preparation for each game.

We have a practice on Saturday mornings between games. It is usually for sweating, stretching, and preparing for Sunday's opponent. I am always cautious not to do too much on Saturday mornings, until that Saturday. We played gaelic football. I learned the game from Becky Burleigh and have not played it in a long time. It is a cross between rugby and soccer. The coaches played. We ran. We tackled. There were scrums. It was vicious.

I decided to play gaelic football, because I think the team is playing out of fear - playing not to lose, playing scared to lose. I wanted to take the fear out of them and show them that we could battle that we MUST battle. We had a substitute trainer that day, and he must have thought I was out of my mind. He was probably thinking, "No wonder the women's soccer team has so many injuries."

I'm not sure which game was more dirty - gaelic football or North Florida. Anyway, we were off to a good start against UNF. At halftime, you would have thought I told the team to stop passing the ball and start kicking it as far as they could. We started playing so direct, and we never had possession of the ball. We defended most of the half, and it was hard to get the momentum back after that. The game went into overtime, and we were 2 minutes away from a tie. The ball was partially cleared from our area to a UNF midfielder. She took a shot from 25 yards out and it hit the bottom of the crossbar and bounced down and in the goal. We have given up almost the exact same goal in the games against FGCU and Stetson. The Stetson goal hit the underside of the crossbar also. Unbelievable!!!

It's hard to believe we still control our own destiny. It will help us for ETSU and Campbell to lose, but if we win our last 3 games, we will make the A-Sun Tournament.

Taking Care of Business

There are 16 days left in the regular season. We need to win 4 out of 5 games in the next 16 days.

Remember when our opponents would have more possession, more shots, and more corner kicks than we would, but we would manage to walk away with a win? Well, our conference opponents are returning the favor this year. Against Campbell, we hit the crossbar more than 6 times.

In our first 5 conference games, we average over 14 shots per game and allow less than 10 shots per game. We have gotten an average of 8 corner kicks per game and give up 4 corner kicks per game. If you have been at the games, you know that our time of possession has been good. We don't have much to show for it.

It's hard to know how much to change just because we are not winning. We are playing well and often better than our opponent. I don't want to over react, but I do want results.

Our last 5 opponents are Jacksonville, North Florida, Gulf Coast, Stetson, and Lipscomb. Our seniors combined record against these teams for the last 3 years is 12-3-3. We can do this.

Kailee and her roommates hosted a team dinner tonight at their apartment.

We have 6 unofficial visits tomorrow, and 7 official visits start Saturday.

I met with every player individually this week. I met with 24 players in 3 days.

There was a calm intensity at practice today. Some of the players were more focused than usual. I would describe it as businesslike. Hopefully, we will be in the business of scoring goals tomorrow night.

Triple Edged Sword

The United States won the first women's World Cup in 1991. I played with and against a lot of those players, and I was trained by Anson Dorrance on several occasions. I followed the team closely before and after the World Cup. I am disappointed that I have an awesome highlight video of the trip to China and the games on VHS. I don't have a VCR.

The United States was not favored to win the championship. Our team was made up of young amateurs, while other teams like Norway and Italy were made up of professional players.

When the U.S. won, Anson Dorrance described his 3 forwards as a triple edged sword. Even if an opponent could stop one of the forwards, they could not stop all three at the same time. I think by the end of the season, Belmont's forwards could be a double triple edged sword or even a triple triple edged sword.

Against Upstate, I used 8 forwards - JayTro, LP, JO, E, Bailey, Dani, Maddie, and Lofty. Each one of them brings a skill set that is different from the other. While there is a defender that might be better suited to defend JayTro or LP, that same defender might not be able to stop E, Bailey, or Maddie.

In order to become the triple-triple, there are a few things we need for our forwards to do: 1. Be consistent. 2. Be confident. 3. Work together. 4. Know each other's tendencies. 5. Execute.

If we start doing these things, opponents beware of the triple-triple!

Superstitions

I stopped being superstitious a long time ago. It just wears you out. There are so many more important things to worry about rather than packing the right shorts, making sure the right underwear are clean, or putting in the correct earrings.

I heard Andy and Kyle talking about what they would or would not wear to games because of us losing a certain game and what they were wearing at the time. During our losing streak, I even heard friends, players' parents, and people in the office talk about what they could wear or not wear to help us win. Colette Keyser is trying to find a lucky lip color for me to wear for games.

I don't believe in any of this stuff. Except... I was worried that wearing my 2008 championship ring to the games might be causing me to appear to be complacent. When I was putting on my rings and earrings on Thursday morning before leaving on the road trip, I decided not to wear that ring. I did put on the 2009 championship ring, because I have not worn it in a long time. Just because I wore it that day didn't mean I would wear it to the game. I did wear it to the game, and we won. I wore it again on Sunday, and we won. Of course, I will be wearing it on Thursday night.

The President's Spirit Award Competition will take place at our game on Thursday night. There should be hundreds of students there. It would be great to set a record for attendance for a women's soccer game. I'll be there with my ring on!

ETSU

Finally! We got a break! A game that could have gone either way went our way! In overtime!

Just what the doctor ordered. We won a game that wasn't close. Then, we won a game that was very close and came down to the wire.

We scored 8 goals in 2 games. Seven different goal scorers. The assists were spread out all over. We generated over 20 corner kicks. Five set play goals. Four Big 5 goals. That is the Belmont I know and love!

I feel great about Laura Harris scoring a goal in each game. Erica was involved in all 3 goals against ETSU. I am proud of our senior center backs for scoring the goals that gave us the victory at ETSU. Marcela tied the game 2-2 in the last 4 minutes when she scored on a corner kick.

Jessica Rix got the game winner in double overtime with a well placed free kick that landed half way between the goalkeeper and the last defender. That is where we aim, because it causes the goalkeeper to make a decision whether to come out or stay on the line. She got the goalkeeper to take a couple of steps off her line. When the last defender allowed the ball to bounce, there was nothing the keeper could do. It bounced right into the goal.

For her effort, Jessica was named Defensive Player of the Week. Lauren Paynter had 1 goal and 3 assists in 2 games and was named A-Sun Player of the Week. LP is our leading scorer, and she is ranked in the top 10 in the conference in some statistical categories.

We were the only A-Sun team to get 6 points last weekend. All other teams went 1-1, 1-0, 0-1, or 0-2. That helped us make a big move in the standings.

Our next 3 conference games are at home. We must use this momentum to keep going and keep winning.

We played on 2 excellent fields last weekend. The good surfaces helped us play better soccer and get more corner kicks.

Again, we were not able to play at full strength. Sometimes I allow myself to dream about how good we might be and how much fun we would be to watch if all of our players were healthy. It doesn't do me any good to think about it too long. I have to work with the reality of some players not playing at all and others not playing at full strength.

If you had asked me in the summer, I would have said that our starting forwards would be Erica, J-Tro, and Emily Jones. Emily is out for the season. E is 75-80%, and J-Tro is probably 70%. A successful team will have other players take advantage of the opportunity to play, step up, and pick up the slack. I feel like LP, Jane Owen, and Bailey Kimbell are doing just that. Now we need greater consistency.

It is very surprising to me that we have gone into overtime 5 times, and we have no ties.

Finally, I just want to say what an emotional game the ETSU game was. It was less emotional for our team, but you could see the emotion in Andy and the ETSU players. That team was fired up! For us to win that game the way we did was a huge accomplishment. It will get easier for Andy from now on, but I am glad that one is over, and I'm glad we won.

Goooooooaaaallllllls

We set a goal for this game to score 1 goal every 15 minutes. Accomplishing that goal in the 1st half was critical. In the first 90 seconds, Jamie Loftis stole a ball in the midfield, caught the goalkeeper off her line, but Lofty's shot hit the crossbar and bounced out. Over the next 40 minutes, J-Tro had 2 breakaways saved by the keeper. Bailey was taken out in the penalty area, but no foul was called. I am sure most players and coaches were thinking, "Here we go again." We did not execute free kicks or corner kicks well enough to get a goal. With 4 minutes left in the half, I had 6 substitutes on the field. I told everyone on the bench to fill up water bottles, because we were going to the locker room for halftime. While the girls were lined up at the water jugs, we got a throw in.

We just changed our long throw in play that morning before the game and practiced it with a few people but not everyone. Erica took the throw in, Dani made her run, Lydia received the throw and got it to Dani in the middle of her run, and Dani put it in the near post with a good left footed shot in the 43rd minute.

While we were celebrating on the sideline and breathing a sigh of relief, I wondered how many of the players actually saw the goal. I told them to stop watching the game and go back to the water. Maybe it was good luck. We were up 1-0 at halftime. It was a Big 5 goal, it was a goal off of a restart, and it was an important goal. In the 2nd half, we scored another set play goal and another Big 5 goal. We scored 5 goals on the night with 5 different goal scorers.

Since the burn, we have declared an 8 game season. So we are 1-0 with 7 games remaining. Hopefully, this will be the game that changes our season. Like Andy said after the game, "Good things happen when you burn stuff."

The Burn

Less sleep, more problem solving, longer staff meetings... These are the things that happen when you are 1-7. One of Andy's ideas was to burn any and all negative memories from the last 8 games, so we feel like we are making a fresh start.

After practice on Tuesday, I gave the girls homework. Write down anything that caused negative thoughts, doubts, or frustration over the first 8 games. Bring it to practice on Wednesday, and we were going to set everyone's papers on fire.

After practice on Wednesday, we went over to a construction site (always easy to find on campus, usually near the soccer field). One by one, every person lit her (and his) papers and put them in a metal trash can. We had a pretty good small fire going, and we slow clapped until Andy put the lid on the trash can.

No one read their list. Everyone was told that this is the end of negativity, frustration, and the last 8 games. We cannot carry the past with us going into the next 8 games. We must go into our last 8 games with free minds, positive energy, and confidence.

I enjoyed the experience and have felt some weight lifted off my shoulders. Hopefully, everyone else feels the same way.

Kennesaw State

I'm not going to revisit the whole game. The one thing I want to talk about after this game is the bench. The substitutes played awesome today, changed the momentum of the game, and kept the momentum for the remainder of the game. It was one of the best performances by a group of substitutes that I have ever seen.

As low as our confidence is right now, it was very inspiring to see those 8-10 players play well together and play well against one of the best teams in the conference.

However, it is also an indication of one of the main things wrong with our season - inconsistency. I have not been able to rely on a core of players to perform their best over a period of time. I have not been able to predict how a certain player will do in a certain situation. I don't know why the players are so inconsistent. Injuries? Difficult field conditions? Weather conditions? Difference in opponents? Is it because they are a bunch of 20 year old female college students?

We actually took a lot of positives from the game today. We proved to ourselves that we can play as well as anyone in the conference. We know exactly what we need to work on. We are a deep team with many, many weapons. We have an identity, and it's not too late!

coincidence

We started Saturday morning watching some video. We watched video of us playing well against Mercer, and we watched video of Kennesaw State not playing all that well. It was designed to be a confidence builder.

We spent about 45 minutes shooting. We created good scoring opportunities on Friday night, so we needed to make sure we could finish our opportunities against Kennesaw State.

I had to meet with recruits after practice. I was very pleased with the level of players we had in on the visit, and I was even happier to get their positive feedback. It was a little awkward on Friday night when we lost in ot, I was very animated with the team, and everyone was sick about the result. The recruits stood around in silence waiting for their hosts. It was uncomfortable for everyone. I'm sure the mood improved throughout the night.

When I was finished with my business at Belmont for the day, I went shopping. I needed a distraction, and I needed to buy a wedding present for Jennifer Rix and her husband Matt Reynolds. They got married on the 4th of July weekend. I couldn't go to the wedding, and I just kept forgetting to get them a gift. I went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond in Cool Springs to get them a gift card. When I walked in the store, I thought I saw Matt. I haven't seen him in a year, so I assumed it was not him. I was just thinking about Matt, so that person looked like him.

I bought the gift card, and turned around for a minute, and I saw Don Rix. Then, I saw Matt again and then Jenn. I walked over and started talking to them. We visited for a while. Jenn said they were there shopping for stuff for their apartment, so I gave them the gift card right then and there. No card. No mailing address.

The fact that I've had at least 4 months to buy that gift, and that store is not near my house, it was one of the biggest coincidences ever!

Not Again!

I started my day on Friday at 9am with 5 recruits on campus. After 3 meetings, 2 tours, and many other obligations, it was time to begin our conference season against Mercer.

My personal record against Mercer is abysmal. Mercer has had soccer forever. As a player, I played against Mercer and my team won 6-0 or better. I have a very funny story about that game, but I won't share it now. The mid-90's were some of Mercer's best years. They had one of the best players in the country - Mirella Ninic. I had just started the program at JSU in the same conference, and we had to play them twice each year. I was going 0-2 against Mercer for 3 years before ever getting a result against them. In 2000, my JSU team was down 2-0 at Mercer. We were probably going to qualify for the conference tournament, and Mercer was fighting for their tournament life. It was possibly a do or die game for them. JSU came back and won that game 3-2. I still remember all 3 goals in the 2nd half. I remember some of the halftime speech, and I remember the Mercer coach not getting up off of the bench at the end of the game and remaining in that same position as we got on the bus.

Since 2005, Belmont has not beaten Mercer. I think our record vs. Mercer since 2005 was 0-3-4 going into Friday night's game. Yes, we beat them in PK's to win the 2008 A-Sun Tournament. That felt like 2 wins, but it goes down in the record book as a tie. We lost to them in the 2007 Semi-finals in penalty kicks, and that one is a tie too.

The first 45 minutes, we played as well as we have played all year. We had 3 excellent scoring opportunities and despite other opportunities, we failed to score. At halftime, we talked about how Mercer would not quit, and we couldn't play like we did in the 1st half. We would have to play even better.

We did not play better in the 2nd half. We didn't play terrible, but we did not sustain the same level of play. Regulation ended in a tie, and we were destined for our 4th overtime game out of 7 games. We did not have the momentum going into overtime. We gave up 2 or 3 corner kicks in the final minutes of regulation. I felt a sense of accomplishment to deny Mercer from scoring on a corner kick in the last minute of the game.

We gave up a goal with less than 2 minutes remaining in the first half of overtime. I can't describe the feeling - depressing, deflating, disappointing, sick, familiar, ...

I will tell you this, after the game, I let the team have it. We have lost 6 games - 4 in overtime and 1 in the last seconds of the game. After those games, I have been positive, I have been critical, and I have said nothing. I have been very careful not to rub salt in the wound, and I have been worried about the team's resiliency and ability to bounce back after a devastating and dramatic loss. Friday night, I rubbed salt in the wound.

I don't know if I did the right thing or the wrong thing, but I am running out of things to do and things to say. I do know this. My staff and I are working together to make sure the team believes we can win and we will win.

Jane Owen Robbins

One of the most fun parts of this job is watching young women gain confidence and the effect it has on all aspects of the student-athlete experience.

As a freshman last year, Jane Owen played in 2 games. She did not come in at the same level as most of the girls on the team, and she has been working to catch up ever since. JO plays center back, and it is not a position where I substitute very often. If you are not #1 or #2, you get very little playing time. The great thing about Jane Owen is that she trains so hard at center back that she makes our forwards better at practice. For a coach, this is a great situation. For Jane Owen, it is probably not her ideal role, but she continues to work hard at it.

On Wednesday, I was making the travel team for the last trip, and Jane Owen's name was in the bubble of players who might not travel. She was on the travel team in the morning, then not on the travel team after lunch. She was definitely a player I would evaluate in Wednesday's practice to make a final decision. While JO was working hard at center back, I thought about how she almost scored a goal against SEMO. We have some forwards who are injured, and I needed to take more forwards than defenders.

While we were in Missouri, I told Jane Owen that there was a slight chance that she might play forward against Missouri if I had to go deep into the bench. I told her to make sure she watched the center forward during the game. Since we only played 30 minutes, I did not go deep into the bench that game, but I did have to play a lot of players against SEMO on the 100 degree turf. Andy came up to me during the game and told me he thought we could put Jane Owen in the game at forward. She ended up having a great scoring opportunity, and the goalkeeper made a good save.

Wednesday's practice was 1.5 hours, and in 90 minutes Jane Owen's training habits took her from not travelling to the travel team. She did not get in Friday's game against Eastern Illinois, but when she played on Sunday, she scored a goal against Indiana State. JO will do anything to help her team, and she just keeps finding ways to help us and herself.

It takes an excellent attitude to embrace your role, like it or not, and find ways to help the team in your role. If a player can help the team within her role, then her role is more likely to change or grow.

One more thing. When we had our team meeting on Friday night, JO had some of the most important observations and said some meaningful things to her coaches and teammates. Probably the best thing she said was that it was a privilege to be on the team, to travel with the team, and to play in the games. She told her teammates to not take that privilege for granted, because there were other people who would do anything to earn that privilege and/or take a player's place.

I hope everyone can be as good a teammate to Jane Owen as she is to them.

Big Five Goals

When I played in college, my coach told us that the most crucial parts of the soccer game were the 1st 5 minutes of a half, the last 5 minutes of a half, and 5 minutes after a goal is scored. Those are the times when the most goals are scored.

Years later, I heard April Heinrichs call these Big 5 Goals. Her team would yell, "Big 5" during these times of the game, so everyone would focus.

Big 5 goals have played a huge role in our season so far. We have given up Big 5 goals in every game - SEMO-2, Clemson-1, Minnesota-3, Arkansas State-1, EIU-1, ISU-2. Even the game we won against Arkansas State, we gave up a goal in the first 5 minutes of the game. We did manage to score 2 Big 5 goals in that game.

The team knows how important the Big 5 is. We are working on it.

2009

One year ago our record was 1-4-1. In our last 14 games last season, we were 9-2-3.

game at Indiana State

Sunday's game at Indiana State was on turf. Just another unfamiliar environment for us.

It was a big challenge for us to regroup against a good attacking team. It was 0-0 at halftime, and I thought we would play even better in the 2nd half. I wish I could say it is uncharacteristic for us to give up a goal in the first 5 minutes of a half, but it's not this year. We gave up a goal in the first 2 minutes of the 2nd half.

We had the mentality and ability to tie the score and go into overtime (again). Still tied at the end of the first overtime, we gave up a corner kick in the 2nd minute of the 2nd overtime. They scored, and we lost our 5th game - the 3rd overtime loss.

I was not pleased with the quality of our play, but I have not been able to be very critical of the team after games. When the team wins, I can be much more critical of them. Even after losses, I am usually able to speak honestly about the game. The overtime losses, the penalty kick losses have been devastating, so I have had to choose my words and time my coaching very carefully.

Instead of saying too much right after a loss, I have been addressing weaknesses and correcting mistakes in individual meetings, practices, video sessions, etc.

Although we lost on Sunday, it was a step in the right direction. The girls played much harder. They fought for each other. They had more desire, discipline, and dedication. We're getting there.