Aug. 21, 2006

I have three words for you - preseason is over. And I can tell you now that this season is going to be a good one.

Practice has been going well. We are all working hard, looking forward to Utah State Friday at 5 pm and Southern Utah Sunday at 1 pm. Even though we are still sorting some things out (like my position, for example...I'm back in the midfield), things are looking much better. People are starting to understand what the coaches are saying, and then putting that information into play on the field. We are definitely starting to click in our system of play. There's also a lot of competition, with fitness for the losing team and playing time on the line. Unfortunately, we suffered another blow to our numbers, losing a player to illness. Hopefully, she'll be back soon (feel better, J).

We've also done a lot of team building exercises the past few days, starting with a team dinner and scavenger hunt. We spent an hour driving around Pocatello with digital cameras, doing some of the most random things...washing windshields and pumping gas, delivering food at Sonic, doing bicep curls with milk gallons...it was craziness but so much fun. We split into 4 teams, and the sophomore team won. Their prize: 1 of 2 "not share" prizes or 1 "share" prize...they chose to share and the team got the morning off.

ISU soccer players on their hike at City Creek on a Sunday morning.

Saturday night, we went out to Tia Burns' home in Blackfoot. We had dinner and made s'mores and roasted Starbursts. Then, Sunday morning we hiked City Creek before practice. I won't tell you exactly what we did either day, but it definitely brought us closer together. We learned things about the coaches and Jodi, each other and ourselves. We know we spend too much time together to not be there for one another in everything we do, whether it's related to soccer or not. We're just like a family - sure, there are some people we know better than others and, okay, we sometimes get annoyed with each other. But it's nice to always have a shoulder to lean on.

Well, school starts today so we have the day off. Then, we get back down to business.

Only 4 more days `til Utah State!