MMI Women's Soccer: Preseason Diaries
Charon Steele - Preseason Diary
Charon Steele- Today's practice was a little less intense. Coach Jones led both sessions from nine to eleven and three to five. Our first training session started of course with the daily warmup. We started the morning session off with an activity that helped the team pick up intensity by shooting balls into the nets. This activity helped us build our skills so when we are in the position to score goals we will not be afraid because shooting takes practice. The next activity forced us to split up into two teams practicing what we learned in the first activity only this time neither team could not go into the center circle. This activity was difficult because you could only pass the ball to the neutral player meaning that only the goalie and the neutral player were the only ones allowed into the center circle. Both teams had to run around the center circle for the team to shoot into the net. The object of this activity maked us work harder on trying to get the ball plus helped us speed up the process of organized soccer. We ended on a great note and I could tell that everyone was pretty happy about what we were taught this morning. Training Session 2. This session started off with our session warmup as usual. WE NEED IT EVERY SESSION TO MAKE IT!!! AT LEAST I DO!!! LOL. After the warmup, we split up into two teams where we used the same activity from the morning session but this time only used half of the field with cones into a semi-circle around the goal. Also, Heather (our goalie) got practice with blocking shots that were attempted. With this activity we got an idea of what Coach Jones was pointing out about when we get the opportunity to shoot the ball especially if we are wide-open to attempt to shoot a goal, because this method could add points to the score as we saw today in practice and using this technique if done correctly or done wrong could make the team or hurt the team. Meanwhile, Coach Hampton took an opportunity to talk to all of the players and make sure that everyone is doing well on and off the field. I believe that is great coaching because most coaches play to win and could care less what concerns the players. Their coaching technique is truly needed to help build our team and it's working. Coach Jones and Coach Hampton are truly what we need to be a success and with that being said should take our team to victory.
Thursday, August 13
Carole Garcia - Preseason Diary
Practice 1
Today’s morning practice was helpful. While the center row of defenders tried to keep the “v” shape form, the two outside rows, on offense, tried to find the holes to score. This kept us focused and moving as a team. In my opinion, it helped us work and move as one unit.
Practice 2
Today’s afternoon practice was a little different. Both coaches were on the same team, which made it more difficult for the opposing team to score. Two boys from Charlie Company also joined in the scrimmage. Although they were not much to compare to the coaches they helped quite a bit. Given the comparison of the teams, the opposing team did a good job of keeping the ball away from the coaches.
I also wanted to thank Brandi for the new warm up. It’s good to change things up a bit.
Wednesday, August 12
Karlin Joh - Preseason Diary
Wednesday, August 12, 2009- Karlin Joh
Session 1- Because we had some difficulty with our offensive and defensive formations during drills yesterday, Coach Hampton developed an interesting drill for our morning session. He made a human foosball "table" with cones for each team to line up in the rows. The offense (the team in control of the ball who is trying to score) would try to pass the ball past the defense (the team protecting their goal and trying to get the ball back) to their team. The object was to get offense to make good passes and the defense to have good formations preventing offense from making passes. Both Coaches have been emphasizing using our heads to outsmart the other team with tactics; I think the drill helped us get the point. We still need to work on playing the ball while looking up at our options but we know that will come with practice and direction. Coach Hampton then intensified the drill by putting us in a larger area while challenging us to maintain our formations. Both teams also played two men down so that we could all see from a different perspective what we actually look like in play! That was an eye opener because you see how messed up your formation can get if you are not extremely careful. I believe it helped all of us when we were in the field to stay in our respective fields of operation.
Today we fully started using our home locker room! Yay! Coach Hampton and Coach Jones have encouraged us to make it our own and we will! We will probably place motivational posters up with encouraging quotes and maybe even have each team member personalize her own space for the team. We started cleaning up and keeping our gear in the locker room today.
Session 2- In the afternoon session, we scrimmaged with Coach Hampton on Gray and Coach Jones on Yellow. This drill challenged us to work on our communication, to pass the ball with accuracy under pressure, control the ball, and maintain our formations. Scrimmages are always the culmination of everything we have learned in action. We love to scrimmage, especially when the coaches play! Sometimes the coaches will "freeze" us and point out different plays or give us advice, which is always a big help. Overall, I believe today we stayed motivated, encouraged one another and maintained our intensity throughout the different drills. As Coach Hampton says, "We're better than we were yesterday but not as good as we will be tomorrow!" Go Tigers!! -Cadet Karlin Joh
Tuesday, August 11
Chelsea Emmons - Preseason Diary
Today was my 2nd day of soccer at MMI. I came in a bit late because I am a Service Academy Prep for the Coast Guard Academy. So far I have really, really enjoyed playing soccer. The team and Coaches have been very welcoming...I already feel comfortable with everyone. I'm really looking forward to spending the rest of this year with the MMI women's soccer team!!
SESSION 1 - This morning the team started off with some drills with tennis balls. This came as kind of a surprise to most of us...we didn't quite know what to think about it. We basically did the same drills as usual, just with tennis balls. This made it much more difficult, and many of us were getting frustrated. However, I believe it taught us some important control and handling skiills. After that, we split up and worked on some passing. This did not work out so well...we were not motivated as a team and we were not giving as much effort as we could have been. Coach Hampton and Coach Jones tried to correct us multiple times, but it just didn't quite sink in. We ended up being dismissed early, but it was not a good feeling. We all knew we weren't working as a team, so it kind of affected the mood.
SESSION 2 - This afternoon, we had a rough start as well. Coach Hampton was very put out, so Coach Jones ran the entire practice. We did some fitness drills to start off, but we still did not give 100% . That is one thing we definitely need to work on as a team. We had to take a break 30 minutes in due to bad weather, but it gave us a little bit of time to bond and think. We had a team meeting with Coach Jones, which was really helpful. It pretty much turned the day around for the team. We came out of that meeting a little bit more unified. Our performance picked up after that...we were communicating better and making more effective passes. Most importantly, we put more effort into the game. Towards the end we scrimmaged, and as a team, I believe we improved dramatically. Even though I've only been here 2 days, I definitely noticed a difference. There was a lot more encouragement and support.
Today definitely had its ups and downs, but I believe that we came out stronger as a team.
Chelsea Emmons
Monday, August 10
Brandi Neeley - Preseason Diary
8-10-09 Today is the day we move from three-days to two-a-days. The first session was from 9:00 – 11:00 in the morning and the second was from 3:00 – 5:00 in the afternoon. The morning session was pretty intense. Coach Hampton pushed us to better ourselves each drill. After every drill we did, he asked us if we could’ve done better. We did certain stuff like toe touches on the ball, pendulums, volleys, and trapping.In the second session, we had another player arrive on campus. Her name’s Chelsea in case you wanted to know and she’s really cool. The drills we did during the second session were very similar to ones we did earlier that morning; in the sense that we were forced to push ourselves and improve. After practice we took it upon ourselves to meet in the day room of the barracks to give Chelsea a chance to get to know us and us to know her. Don’t ask how or why, but somehow the meeting ended with Taryn and I wrestling, which eventually led to a massive yet very painful dog pile (with me at the bottom…ouch!)Anyways, in my opinion the team is slowly but surely growing as a whole. We’ve had bumps in the road and I’m sure there’s more to come, but everyday seems to get better and better.~Brandi Neeley #9
Sunday, August 9
Brandi Neeley - Preseason Diary
8-9-09Luckily we only had one session today and it was with Dr. Huckaby, our sports psychologist. Many of us thought it would be a peaceful and relaxing day off but it was the exact opposite. We started the morning off pretty rough by arguing with each other in front of officers. The fight was a silly squabble about what shirt to wear to our first session. It was so embarrassing…Still feeling a little hot-headed about the argument, we made our way to the gym where we had our session. There we learned how to calmly work out our differences and be civil with each other. Dr. Huckaby did a fantastic job of bringing us together by explaining that we’re a team and how we think about each other is just as important as how we talk with each other. Throughout the session we talked about attitude and how it affects us on and off the field. Positive thinking leads to positive results. After our first session we made our way back to the barracks and set team goals as well as individual goals. Later that day, we had plans to get some boys together and play soccer. Unfortunately, they were being lame and didn’t even show up…boys are stupid sometimes. Anyways, the rest of the day was pretty peaceful...YAY!! To make the day a little brighter, Hannah (one of the girls on the team) made a music video. She lip-synced the song “Every Girl” by Lil Wayne. It was entertaining and it helped us forget the drama that took place earlier that day. Hopefully it’ll be on Facebook soon…~ Brandi Neeley #9
Saturday, August 8
Heather Banks - Preseason Diary
Session 1: This morning, first off, we partnered up and worked on our shots. Then split up into two lines and volleyed into the goal, if we missed to the side posts we had to do ten push-ups, and if we kicked it over the goal then we had to do twenty-five push-ups. Then they had us play a game, a very lame game. We split into two groups again and one side had to play goalkeeper and the other had to take shots on them, if the goalkeeper stopped the shot then she had to punt it across the field and the shooter had to SHAG it! If the goalkeeper did not stop the shot then the ball was just returned to coach to serve to the next shooter. Session 2: Coach Hampton had his brother and some other guy came to do team building psychology stuff with us. First they had us take a survey and put us in a category of either Helper, Challenger, Explorer, or Maintainer, which explained how our personalities work together. Then they had us write 7 facts about ourselves, one of which had to be a lie, then we read the facts out loud and had to choose which we thought was the lie. Session 3: We went back to the Ireland Center and had to play little games that helped us grow and think better as a team. The first game we played we had three tennis balls and had to pass them to each player as quickly as possible, our best time being 1.44 seconds!!! The next game we played we had to dump cereal from one bucket into another bucket only using ropes and not crossing over a circle that surrounded both. We lost that game :[. But then we had the rest of the day off! ~ Heather Banks
Friday, August 7
Anisa Kennedy - Preseason Diary
Well, today's sessions were very different from the usual ones. To start the morning off we didn't have a morning session. Some girls had to take the placement test so others got to sleep in. Woot Woot!!!! I slept til 11:00a.m., it was AMAZING!!! Haha. I definitely felt very refreshed. But, my legs were still a little sore. The second session:Coach Hampton brought in two new recruits for next year. They were both very nice and awesome goalies. They did the training session with us. We did a drill that was very challenging for me. We learned how to do a crossover with an outside change in direction for example and some other things I haven't done before. But, it taught me how to do some things to get around a defender and to change directions.. It also taught me to how to keep my head up and how to handle getting into a place that is crowded. After this we scrimmaged and we didn't start off very good. Coach got pretty mad at us. He told us we were playing like garbage. But, to be honest we really were. And, I can understand where his frustration comes in because I got very frustrated myself! They called me over there and helped me not get so aggravated and explained to me that Coach Hampton is more frustrated than we will ever be because our schooling is paid for and he gets paid and keeps his job depending on how we play. SO, therefore, he has a reason to get frustrated! Haha. The third session:I think this session was the funnest practice we have had so far. When we first got there our water boys had brought Coach Hampton and Coach Jones their 8-cornered juice boxes. They both chugged 4 each just like they were in college again! It was pretty funny. Coach Jones definitely whooped Coach Hampton's butt! Well, the time came to start practice and they tell us that we get to run the training session and they have to do any kind of drill we want, except fitness. So we thought well there has got to be some kind of catch to it, but there wasn't. SO, we decided to scrimmage and the coaches had to be players, not lazy midfielders, real players that participated! It was a lot of fun. The word of the game was "Ole!" Coach tried to get everyone on the other team in the 5-hole as he said, which is a term used in hockey and it means between the legs. He got everyone except for Steele.. It was great! By the end of that practice everyone was all hot and sweaty. It was a great workout but also a lot of fun for both the coaches and ourselves! I got a lovely hug from Coach Hampton after, when he was all sweaty and gross, It was AWESOME!!!! ~Anisa Kennedy~
Thursday, August 6
Hannah Purvis - Preseason Diary
August 6th 2009 3rd day of practice-#9-#11 training sessions:1st session of the day...For the morning training session we started out with running 8 out of 10 80 yard sprints, only if we had enough points we could stop at 8 but if not you had to do 10 and if you do not know about the point system then you will find out about it later. It is actually a very helpful way to stay in shape. But after we finished with that we did a drill with a circle IN a circle and practiced on our touches both on the ground and in the air. It was a very helpful drill also because it's all about control. You have to have full control of the ball in the game of soccer. We ended with a cooldown by jogging as a team together to gather all the scattered soccer balls. Then I had to find out a joke because coach said he wanted to hear a joke from me so I told him one...don't ask me why...but this is my joke i came up with. Why aren't there any wal-marts in Iraq? Because they are all TARGETS. Get it?? hahaha. 2nd session of the day...We just scrimaged against each other, with each team consisting of 5 players along with a neutral player. It always helps to scrimage because then we can figure out how each other plays and how we can improve to be able to fit together and play as ONE TEAM. We ended it with a cooldown of stretching. 3rd session of the day...We had pool therapy!! That had to be the most fun I've had so far with the girls. We got the job done along with having fun as a team. We seem like a family already and it's only the 3rd day. If you ever get a doubt about coming here because you're scared, just remember that all the girls that come when you do are in the same boat as you. It helped me. -Hannah Purvis
Wednesday, August 5
Amanda Mark - Preseason Diary
August 5th 2009 #1 training session: 8 - 10Today during our first practice, it was kind of hard to run 300 meters in 64 seconds three times but it really tested our endurance. I also like how the team encouraged the girls that were falling behind and that actually helped a few people to keep pushing. After we ran, we got into groups of threes; two girls were defending their own goal while trying to score into the other goal inside the cones. The player that was standing outside the cones had to kick the balls into play. After about three minutes, the player with the most points had to stay inside the cones and the loser would go outside the cones and kick balls into play. When we were done with this drill, coach had a couple of balls spread out on the field, and where ever he told us to sprint, we had to sprint and the last person had to pick up the ball. This was a little easier then the 300 meters and I enjoyed this drill a little better. #2 training session: 2 - 4After lunch, we played against our teammates for 30 min. halves and we had to defend our goal while communicating to our teammates. This was difficult because a lot of us were not talking to our teammates but after a while, we figured out what coach was talking about. I think that overall, we did a better job as a team then we did the first day when we came to practice.
Amanda Mark
Tuesday, August 4
Taryn McWhirter - Preseason Diary
August 4th 2009 #1 training session: 8 - 10For the first training session we started off with the 80 yd. sprint test, which we had to make 10 out of 12 in 16 secs. or less. I was feeling the pain after about the 4th or 5th but I passed…yay! I think we did really good as a team with our first real challenge together. We kept the pep talk up mostly the whole time and we pushed each other to finish. After we all finished we went to ball touch. We did a bunch of different foot-work drills such as the pull back, step over, and some other one I can’t remember. #2 training session: 2 - 4Well this session did not go as well as planned I’m sure. I think we were all pretty much exhausted from the morning practice, there for we played pretty sucky. While Banks was doing her Keeper stuff the rest of us were split up into 4 different teams. We had 6 balls in the middle first and the object was for your team to get all 6 ball …well that didn’t work out at all. So coach took 2 away but we still couldn’t get it right. Then he was like “I’ll make it as simple as possible, lets just use 3.” We still couldn’t do it. He asked us what was wrong and we all came to the conclusion the heat was just too much. So coach being the awesome guy he is let us leave early to rest-up for the final session of the day. #3 training session: 6 - 7:30This session was my favorite of the day. We played a fun game of 3 vs. 3 with a twist. There were 2 more ppl on the outside that if passed to could dribble in and play the game too. So at some points of the game it was 4 vs. 3 and other times it was 5 vs. 5. But once your team lost the ball the players that came on have to come back off. It was a lot of fun and I think we all enjoyed it. I’m still happy with my decision to play here. My teammates are awesome and the coaches are pretty chill (so far) and all the other ppl here seem nice too. I’m just kinda nervous about tomorrow cause oh my gosh I am soo sore!!!! Taryn McWhirter
