After 4 days of tryouts and training, we named our final roster and played 3 games in 3 days. As always, there were some nice surprises and disappointments throughout the week.
I will return to give more details about the games themselves but I will say that for the most part, the team looks much improved over last year and we should be quite competitive this fall. While we didn't add many new players, those we did will certainly have an impact on our style of play and our success. As always you can track the results via the Stingers website at www.stingers.ca but I will summarize to say that our results were.... vs Guelph, tie 3-3 vs Trent win 1-0 vs Trant loss 1-0 Most importantly, we were able to get many players on teh field during these games and it allowed us to evaluate where we are starting from. This week, we are off to Hamilton for 3 games vs Ontario based teams. W
0 Comments
The first of preseason games are now upon us. As has become the custom, we after the completion of the open tryouts portion of our training camp, we try and welcome a few out of province teams at Concordia for some preseason play. Back a few years ago, we actually formalized the event calling it the Stinger Challenge and had quite a number of teams.. with a peak of 9 women's teams and 6 men's teams in 2006. However it just go too complicated to run that I was busier organizing the event than actually getting to coach my team.
So after downsizing we try and bring a couple of teams for the games. Tonight (Friday) we play Guelph and then Saturday / Sunday we play back to back vs Trent. This will gives us a chance to see how the team can compete against live opposition, especially vs teams who like us are preparing for their seasons and therefore might have players fighting for spots. I just enjoy the start of games, as before we actually getting started, all is possible. to follow...... Well here we are on Aug. 16th and the start of a new soccer season. When I coaches club I always enjoyed the arrival of spring, the smell of freshly cut grass as we got the soccer season underway. Well now, I coach in the late summer and fall so I look forward to no rain and above normal temperatures, plus we most of my soccer coaching now done on turf, the whole nice smell of grass is no longer relevant.
In any case, as I enter my 9th season at Concordia, I still get the optimistic feeling that anything is possible. I enjoy looking forward to the first few training sessions, watching how our new recruits react to starting university soccer and how our returning players might have improved since the last season. Looking beyond the results, last year was a very positive experience as I watched a group of players really come together of the course of the fall season and into the winter semester. The quality of play was an upgrade but more importantly everyone seemed to be committed to the process of building somewhat significant for Stingers soccer. Of course, like happens every year, there will be changes to the squad, some graduated, some left and some...well will be asked to look for something else to fill their time with...harsh I know but such is reality of varsity sport. The biggest change will be in nets, both goalies, both 4th year players have graduated and moved on and as such comes the close of one era. Both brought something to the program in their 4 years but Fanny's contribution's went far beyond the soccer with all that she accomplished. She proved that you can be very successful in both school and athletics at the university level and even went beyond that. A new year starts and with it, a whole new set of stories, experiences, joys and disappointments. |
AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
January 2023
Categories
All
|