"ONE ... TEAM! ONE … GOAL! ONE … HEART! AU!" Go past the soccer training field on the Athletic Campus weekday evenings (or early A.M.) and hear this declaration rising from a tight circle of sweaty jerseys
… more than once if the first attempt is too weak. Preseason 2011 begins at 10:30am on Friday, August 12 for seventeen veteran players and five freshmen, led by new Head Coach Samar Azem, returning assistant coach and goalkeeper trainer Andy Barth, and perhaps most importantly our athletic trainer Ryan Kroskie.
At our first team meeting we welcome the clean slate of an untouched season and commit to newfound team values, that will define who we are as individuals, as a unit and as a family. We will be a Unified team. We will be a Disciplined team. We will be a team of Integrity. And, we will each be held accountable to these standards. If all members are not utterly committed to giving one hundred percent in every moment and every controllable situation, then none of us can honorably place a hand on the sharp, black and gold ball we designed to represent "The Heart" of our family. Once we have each touched the "The Heart," we then line up and step as one unit, onto the field.
So begins three-a-day preseason sessions: train, ice bath, eat, rest. Train, ice bath, eat, rest. Mornings we run fitness tests; some of us pass, most of us fall short. Afternoons and evenings, we work on tactics, skill work, and scrimmage. Our aching legs turn to rubber in the stifling heat, but are shocked back to life in a frigid ice-bath after every practice. From the get-go our team values of Unity, Discipline, and Integrity are integrated into every aspect of the day. We are ready to go fifteen minutes before practice. Cones, balls and bibs are organized into neat piles beside the bench, our training outfit is coordinated head to toe, no trash is left on the bench, and the only times we walk are to and from the parking lot. Coach speaks. We are silent. She asks, "What are our team values?" We respond immediately and with confidence. "The Heart" watches from the sidelines every single practice. Wherever we go, it goes, or we run until it gets there. Once a ball goes up in the air, it better not hit the ground before a foot, head, knee or face wins it, or we run. If one of us doesn't go in for a tackle, then we run. If a goalkeeper doesn't dive after every ball, then we run. If we don't jog when Coach says, "Step in," then we run. We run a lot the first few days, but we realize this is what it looks like to truly be held accountable for situations we can control!
Drawing towards the end of preseason, our team starts to embrace what it means to live out our values, because we are committed to our teammates and family, not because we are trying to remember a list of rules to avoid running.
During fitness, members of the team who finish first jog back out to make sure every teammate is pushed to finish, and does finish. Together, we expand our list of team values, which now hangs on the wall of a freshly painted and organized locker room. Our locker room now holds more than just equipment. It holds meaning.
The level of intensity in training is going up every day. We have not hit a consistent one hundred percent from everyone, but the level is much higher than several weeks ago. We are moving forward. When we run through set pieces, we more closely resemble a well-oiled machine than a train wreck, and communication is a steady buzz, no longer just an occasional "My ball!" We want to come alongside each other and push ourselves to the breaking point. Our goal is to make the person going in for the tackle against us the best possible player she could be. We may knock her to the ground, but we immediately pull her back up and slap her on the back. Now when we touch "The Heart," and step together onto the field, we can go nowhere but forward … we only look back to double-check that the piles of cones and bibs are color-coordinated.
