Mid Season Report 2011

CU Women’s Soccer  2011

A Mid-Season Report

It’s October already! Halloween is around the corner and then snow! Yikes… CU Soccer is roughly half way through its 2011 Fall Championship Season and here is a report on where we are ’at’, what we have done, what’s next  and what we are hoping to achieve over the next month or so.

What have we done so far:

Team Yoga with Core Power Instructors, Camping Trip ( Yep…25 Princess’s, Camp fires, scavenger hunts and more), Pool Party at the Hoofs, Talked with a Nutrition expert, Team Dinners, Ice baths, Waiting staff at the New Presidents Inauguration, Started a new Strength and Conditioning program with Mike Morris (CU’s new Strength guy), Watched a St. Paul Saints game, heard a few jokes & raps, watched some game film and also……some soccer!

Games to highlight:

1^st win of the year 5-0 Vs Northwestern – Good possession soccer and 5 different goal scorers                                                                           1-0 Loss to Mankato State – Defensively we showed we had steel and only gave up one goal to a team highly ranked in the country.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3-0 home win Vs Moorhead. A Comprehensive performance and 3 great goals Vs a team on the rise.                                                 2-1 road trip win Vs Bemidji. A goal down, showed spirit and the battle to go get the result we deserved.                                                                                                                                               

Awards so far:

 We started an Offensive and Defensive player of the game award at CU – The Ming Ming & Linny awards ( Wonder Pets), leading so far –Kim Sauberlich & Arielle Stimson.              

NSIC Offensive Player of the Week – Amanda Olsen

CU Athlete of the Week – Amanda Olsen                                                                                                            

Practices:

Our recent focus has been on improving possession as a team, decision making in the final third , team shape as a whole, set pieces and constantly improving our ball skills/technical work. Speed and Agility work is now a regular part of our warm up’s with some fitness work. We are striving (not always succeeding!) to find the correct levels of intensity for our players to develop as individuals and a team. We are also taking time to acclimatize to each other’s expectations, coaching styles and philosophies – It’s a 2-wat street.

We are also working hard with 24 players who all want to play and are all very competitive – finding the ‘correct’ playing time and keeping the team competitive in all games is also uppermost in our thoughts. It’s a challenge and something we are constantly discussing. Extra practices are available and we are getting more and more players take those opportunities to improve their level of play.

Parent/Family Support:

It’s refreshing to see and hear so many of the player’s parents, families and friends at our games, both home and away.  I know our players feel that this is a huge part of being on the team, having the support from home and the encouragement they are getting is fantastic – Thank you. This year’s coaching staff all have spouses and kids who have gotten out to the games also, I know we all appreciate their understanding when we are away from home and focused on soccer when we are at home!

Alumni game:

August 20^th saw our Alumni game under the lights at the CU stadium. The Alum team was composed of 15+ younger  and older grads who had clearly been awaiting this chance to play again! They even brought a coach – Thanks Scott! It was an exciting game with current CU team just edging the win. Thanks so much to those players who came back to campus and have also come out to games to cheer us on.

What’s coming up next?

2 big road games (UIU & Winona), October 14^th is a charity night when we play SCSU – We will be holding a raffle and other events to raise funds for St. Jude’s Children’s hospital, Senior day is October 23^rd and we will be collecting used soccer gear that weekend to donate to the Sannah Foundation. On the horizon is a winter season with Strength coach Mike Morris and Spring soccer in our Dome.

Team goals:

Everyone needs goals, and I am finding that it is increasingly important for me to have someone to whom I am accountable – even if it’s a note pad and pen. Goals keep us moving in a direction toward what we want to achieve. We asked our team to set goals that were realistic, achievable and specific. We found some common goals and some that were very individual. We re-visit these occasionally to keep us on task as a group.

The Future:

Our focus is certainly on the now at CU and achieving all that we can in year 1 as a staff and team. However, like most other good program’s  we have an eye on the future as we recruit the state’s top soccer players and work with other players who have played at the very top levels of club soccer in other states. The future is bright and we will build positively upon the foundations that clearly exist.

CU Player quote:

Question- “What direction is your career taking you at CU? “

Answer – “ Super stardom Steve, Super stardom!”

Why CU for me? ......By 1st year Emily E

I chose Concordia University for two main reasons.  First reason being because of the amount of interest I had in their great soccer program. The new coach, Steve Bellis, did an amazing job at recruiting me and once I found out it was division II I was even more interested in the school. Another reason was because of when I first got on campus I immediately noticed the smaller size along with the short distance from home. Being close to home was a great attribute for me. Overall, I feel perfect at Concordia so far and on the soccer team also. I am excited for the activities I will be getting involved with and for our season to start!

Pre- Season at CU as a 1st year.....By Kallie M

                Going into college can be a frightening experience, but add the nerves from being an athlete having to go thorough pre-season and it can be terrifying.  I have known quite a few athletes who have gone on to play sports in college and have gone through their own pre-seasons. Most of the time all I hear about the pre-seasons are how horrible and exhausting they are. So naturally I was extremely nervous going into my own college pre-season.

                The day to leave for college arrived a lot faster than I expected it and after 13 hours we pulled onto campus.  My family and I arrived on campus a day before the rest of my new teammates would move-in.  After we moved all of my stuff in, I waited anxiously for the next day to arrive.  Finally everyone else moved in and pre-season officially began that night with our first of many team meetings. In this meeting we went through basic rules and expectations for the new season. Then we were released back to our dorm rooms in Luther Hall (we all roomed with another teammate). The next day two-a-days began with our first practice at 8am and afterwards we had another practice at 2pm. This continued for a week and a half. The first few days of pre-season began with us mostly scrimmaging allowing our coaches to get a feel for how we play. Practices then increased by having drills and fitness tests incorporated. During the most intense workouts that spanned over the week and a half our coaches encouraged us to hydrate and ice a lot to avoid dehydration and injury. The hardest thing about pre-season was having practice twice a day, but it was not as horrible as what I had imagined.

My favorite part about pre-season was getting to know all of my new teammates. During this week and a half the team spent almost the whole day every day together, so we got to know each other pretty quickly. We did quite a lot of team bonding during our week and a half together, such as, a baseball game and camping overnight. I hope know that now our pre-season has ended, we will continue to grow closer and become a strong team for our coming season.

CU Vs St. Cloud 04/17/2011

Today we beat St. Cloud 1-0!! The game started off very  frantic with a lot of balls in the air with no direction. After Cu started to relax a little bit more things started working out in the offensive half. We started to quickly distribute the ball through the middle to a target forward who would turn and use the outside midfielders who were making run on the outside. Once we started doing this we had a couple chance on net with balls sent in from the outside. There was some opportunities on our offensive half but we did not finish. The majority of the first half was spent on our half of the field which didn't necessarily mean they were in control. Throughout the whole game we struggled to win balls in the air from goal kicks which kept us locked in our half. The second half both teams started to slow down and became less aggressive making the game very slow. With 15 minutes left in the game, Junior Savannah Nolen sent a through ball to Sophomore Arielle Stimson and the St. Cloud defender and goalie miscommunicated and collided leaving Arielle with an open net which she shot and scored. The last five minutes were very frantic but the defense managed to hold the back line and keep anyone from getting any chances. The back line and goalies did an exceptional job at maintaining great positioning, communication and played smart overall. The midfield also did a great job at positioning and communication. The forwards worked together very well along with pressuring the defenders out wide. We as a team need to work on winning balls in the air, movement and communication when someone has the ball, checking to, and making quicker decisions. It felt good to win against this team and showed us how well we can do as a team when we relax, look up, work hard and work for each other. Today's game showed that Concordia has a lot of potential.

CU vs Farmington U17 Premier

This past Saturday(April 9th) CU played the Farmington U17 Premier club team at the new Farmington high school. The opposing team was being coached by CU's assistant coach last year named Bulut Ozturk along with the new goalie coach for CU. The game started off a little rough with either team able to connect their passes. Farmington started off very aggressive along with the natural speed the younger team had. About 25 minutes into the game freshman midfielder Kay Smith made a pass to Sophmore forward Arielle Stimson where she shot and scored. The Second half was cleaned up much better with more connected passing and winning 50/50 balls. CU scored off of a penalty kick then was quickly countered by a break away from a fast Farmington forward. The last goal was scored by  Freshman forward Brittany Kapala from the top of the box taken by herself. It was overall a good match but CU needs to work on playing quicker and more decisive in their passing. We also need to work on taking care of the ball first touch and better delivery to each other. Next Sunday CU will be playing St. Cloud at St. Cloud at 10:00 AM.

Spring season 2011

Mar. 15 - SAINT PAUL, Minn. - Head Coach Steve Bellis has announced that Concordia University will be hosting a soccer camp this summer from July 11-14. The camp is for girl's age U15-U18 looking to improve their skills both on the pitch and also includes a camp for goalie training. Over four days Monday-Thursday from 9:30-12:00 campers will learn a high level of soccer skills that will help campers who have aspirations to play in college. For more information contact Coach Bellis himself at bellis@csp.edu