THE Royal Wedding: Pittsburgh Style

Last weekend my wife Susan and I had the honor and privilege of attending the wedding of Maggie Sutherland 10’ and Ryan Castle in Pittsburgh, PA. I am truly humbled to have shared the experience and I am glad someone had the good sense to not get married in the fall so I could attend J

Maggie looked absolutely beautiful on her wedding day escorted by her proud father Bill. Mom Kate was radiant and Roz Klann as a bridesmaid was surprisingly serious. Even with our best efforts we could not get her to make eye contact with us or her former teammates. Just as well because I know she would have lost it in a fit of laughter.

It was also a great time for me as a coach to catch up with some “old” players at the wedding and reception afterwards. Happy memories, at least for me. It is funny when you see former players they always want to talk about pre-season and fitness tests. They make college soccer sound terrible. Hopefully there was the occasional good time.

I know I enjoyed the day and I wish Maggie and Ryan a life of happiness.

 

A short tribute to Maggie: (for those that do not know her.)

Maggie was an extremely fierce competitor and made no apologies for it. She was one of the most funny and mischievous players I have coached and there was never a dull moment when Maggie and fellow teammate Roz got together. She blessed this program with 4 stellar years of selflessness and always put the team and the program ahead of her own personal ambitions and agenda. As a senior Maggie was Captain and led the team to an ODAC conference crown: a fitting end to an amazing soccer career. Maggie was an absolute joy to coach and the mere mention of your name makes me laugh thinking you are behind me waiting to play a prank on someone. Long live # 16 in the memory of the Gennies.

Much Love

Coach

 

Players from left to right- Kat Lawson 12′, Caroline Lamberti 11′, Page Minton 12′, Maggie Sutherland 10′, Taylor Joosten 11′, Roz Klann 10′ and Heather Rogers 06′

Picture taken by Kathryn Rogers. See her website: http://www.kathrynwrogers.com

 

 

LAST PRACTICE…..JUST FOR YOU, COACH

It is not a secret that I have a few pet peeves in our program and let’s just not get into all of them right now. If you can remember any that I have missed feel free to comment. Some as you get older you learn to tolerate but others never change.

A few of mine revolve around appropriate soccer clothing to wear. I do not pretend to be a fashionista in any way but there are certain items of soccer clothing that just stop working when you are older than 12.

Here is my list:

1. Ribbons in the hair.

2. Camo gear

3. Tie dye anything

4. Neon clothing of any kind

5. Tee shirts that are home made with various paints, eg Bubble paint designs.

NO, NO, NO!!

Of course for the last practice my team decided to have a little fun. Not sure why these things are so readily available in their wardrobe and why they even packed them when going off to college but as you can see they are just classic. Kudos to Kingsley Schroeder for having two polka dot uniforms of equal ghastly nature.

Enjoy the picture show. We all need a good laugh every now and again.

“Spring” Season- Week 3

The following blog post is written by the first year class.

So far the “spring” season has been very much enjoyed by the Gennies. But with an average high of -4 degrees, the Gennies have had to bundle up almost every practice. However, the Four Freshpants have yet to wear Coach-approved attire to practice (despite the spring policy of “wear whatever you want, as long as you can function”). On colder days, you can often see Dunny strutting her stuff in a pair of capri-leggings (complete with a pink stripe running down the side, and an awkward bare midriff between where the pants end and her shin-guards begin. So stylish!!!!). Next, there’s Addie’s infamous vintage green jacket, complete with a broken zipper and deteriorating lining. In an exclusive interview, Addie said that, in her defense: “It’s the perfect blend of fashion and function!”  With Meaghan sporting a shirt emblazoned with “WILTON LACROSSE” on the front and Erin flaunting her sparkly Rec-Specs, it’s safe to say that the Freshpants are one good-lookin’ crew.

In other fashion news, many of the Gennies opted to purchase a pair of new soccer socks from Suze; however, most people have yet to pay Suze back, mainly because they can not figure out how much they owe her. Was it pushups? Or money? No wait,  it was 50 cents per late day, but because no one wants to handle a plethora of loose change, Suze converted this to ten push-ups for every ten cents, or five push ups in total. For example: one day late equates to five push-ups. A week late, thirty-five push-ups. Haven’t turned in your money because you still can’t figure this out? No worries.  As of today, you owe 85 push-ups. We sure hope Dunny isn’t in debt, because no one wants to see those push-ups.  Suze may end up paying Dunny just to stop her.

Wednesday’s practice actually had some sunshine, and the Gennies were enjoying working on some shooting. Led by Holley and KJ, the Gennies set the world record for doing the most skip-a-dees in a single practice. No one will be sore after THAT cool down! It may snow Thursday, and sadly the Gennies may not be able to practice. The good news is, the Freshpants may get the opportunity to replicate their one-of-a-kind snowman!

XoXo,

The Fashionable First-Years

Week 2 Spring Practice:

The following blog article is written by the sophomore class.

After a long, brutal winter in hiding, our dear friend the Gnome has reemerged for spring season. Amidst many Gennies, unrecognizable in their many layers of Under Armor, (anyone seen Katie Rossi?) the Gnome has shed his winter coat. No longer sporting Aretha-attire, he was ready to take on another week of practice.

While many Generals had difficulty getting over ten juggles, (Taylor and Addie over three) the Gnome was proudly accepting his “100-Juggle Club Member” tee.

The seniors, oblivious to their missing friend, decided to again showcase their “skills.” After each senior wiped-out and whiffed the ball, they retreated again into retirement.

Just as our possession of the ball has improved significantly this week, our possession of the Gnome has trumped that.  Now that he has resurfaced, where will our dear friend show up next? He has been “gnome” to enjoy long walks on the Colonnade, sunrise sandwiches at co-op, and late night practices on Wilson Field.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuzyODgWRp4

See ya during back-to-back goals!

The still red-hot sophomores

Ainsley Daigle and Hannah Sackfield Inducted into Honors Society

Seniors Ainsley Daigle (Lafayette, La. / Episcopal School of Acadiana) and Hannah Sackfield (Louisville, Ky. / DuPont Manual) were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society today. Click the link below to read about this honor and the 13 W&L student-athletes receiving this recognition. Congrats to both of you!

http://www.generalssports.com/information/sports_information/2012-13_Releases/phibetakappa

Hannah Sackfield

Ainsley Daigle

 

Spring Clinic Highlight Film

Below is a highlight film from our recent one-day clinic. Washington and Lee held its soccer clinic March 2^nd and had prospective student-athletes from 10 different states. It was a day packed with activities to give someone a sneak peek into life as a General both in the classroom and on the field. Join us for our next two recruiting opportunities:

Soccer Camp: June 16-20

Fall Clinic: Sunday September 22^nd

http://www.generalssports.com/video/Recruiting_Videos/Spring_Clinic_2

Dawn of a New Age: The 2013 Generals

The blog article below is written by the juniors-  Kingsley Schroeder, Jasmine Soo and Alexis Blight.

Spring season has begun for the Generals bringing back memories of when soccer had more to do with being with friends than running 150s (except for KHow, who came out of the womb running 150s).

Starting off with the Recruiting Clinic was a snap back to reality after Wardy got nutmegged by a high school sophomore… perhaps she was focusing too hard on not smiling. Suze fully embraced her role as warm up supervisor, requiring all players to understand that they will be performing each stretch TWO TIMES!!!!!!!! Shout out to all the players who came to the clinic even though it was freezing and muddy.

 

Day 1:

As we bundled up and braved the cold for our first practice, the Gennies rolled up in layers of trident laden gear. Most people decided to be more conservative in their layering, while Kings thought practice was moved to Antarctica and sported six shirts. Thankfully, none of them were tie-dye, so kangaroo court was suspended until further notice. Actually, Wardy’s Capri pants may have added a new case to the docket (more updates on that to follow). In a shocking turn of events, JSoo, Kings, and Abe were found to have soccer ball magnets implanted in their brains, causing many awkward delays of game as passes were redirected to their faces. Wise words of wisdom came from the one and only Alexis Blight who encouraged all players to “stay on their feet!”… as if they were doing anything else.

Day 2:

Back to back practices proved to be a struggle with the addition of a new lifting workout courtesy of Coach Schall. In fact, the Generals were so gnome-like that Coach and Suze had to step in to improve the level of play. Even though Coach attempted to set us up for **brilliant** shots just like a Manchester City player, the Gennies decided to go in a different direction using our newly learned passing combinations. Regardless, many goals (joals) were scored.

Looking back on the week as rising seniors, we’ve noted many successes. We finally remembered the correct order of the stretches, and with Suze’s help, I’m sure we’ll figure out how many times to do them (is it two times?). Overall, this is our best start yet, and on the emergence of our third spring season (except for Kings who was a late recruit) we’re hoping that the third luck’s a charm!

Juniors Out,

The Three Musketeers

P.S. Be on the lookout for the all-black Gennies’ ninja clothing line, coming soon to a department store near you.

A Look into the Life of a General- The Christmas Special

This blog article is written by junior Jasmine Soo from Charleston, WV.

Many of you readers must be wondering what the Gennies do during breaks. Even more of you must be wondering what Papa Soo does with his life out of season. So here it is: Christmas break with the Soo Family!

We started our adventure at the crack of dawn on December and completed a 26 hour commute to Taipei, Taiwan. We spent a few days in Taipei running errands with my grandma and ate at the famous Din Tai Feng restaurant. Naturally, after stuffing our faces, my grandma turned to my dad and told him (in Chinese) “you guys eat too fast for me, I can’t keep up!” Cleary my parents raised me to eat like a General.

Although Taipei is great, the main event was traveling to Hualien, a coastal city in Taiwan and home of Taroko National Park. This park is famous throughout Taiwan for its beautiful mountainous scenery and marble lined riverbanks. We spent our short trip completely outdoors hiking and enjoying the view. I even got to go on a hotel sponsored jog with a small Taiwanese boy who could not speak English…or really run for that matter. He looked like he had run 29 150’s after we finished our 40 minute jog…Coach would not be pleased.

After Taiwan we flew to Naga City in the Philippines to visit Mama Soo’s side of the family. Eight of her total 11 siblings all flocked to their hometown in Bicol for a family reunion and to celebrate the holidays. Even the Australian cousins came! It was an action packed trip complete with wake boarding, rock climbing, and zip lining. Some people even called me spider woman. No big deal. We also ate some ridiculous fear factor things like purple yams and halo halo. Pretty weird looking but definitely delicious!

We returned to Taiwan for a few days before we headed back to good ol’ America. Unfortunately during our commute home we encountered some plane problems (missing phalanges perhaps? All you Friends fans out there know what I’m talking about!) and sprinted through the Tokyo Airport to make our connecting flight to Detroit…just some casual airport fitness during break. Typical JSoo move.

Overall the trip was a great success in reuniting (or uniting for the first time really) my family. It was a great way to spend break and I came back ready to come back and start winter workouts and spring season. I’m sure I can speak for all of the Gennies and say that spring season is one of the best parts of the year and I’m sure the blog will be updated with off-season shenanigans very soon!

Santa’s Little Helpers

The Generals got into the Christmas spirit early this month by volunteering their time with the MOMS club in our community. Thanks to Ainsley Daigle for coordinating the team effort with the Santa Secret Shoppe on December 1st. Money raised by the charity helps purchase gifts for foster children in Lexington and Rockbridge County

DeVoe and Rossi Named to the NSCAA All-Region Team

Sophomore forward Katie Rossi (Wyoming, Del./Caesar Rodney) and sophomore defender Taylor DeVoe (Landenberg, Pa./Kennett) were recognized by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America on the 2012 Division III All-South Atlantic Region Team.

Here is the link to the release from Washington and Lee. http://www.generalssports.com/sports/wsoc/2012-13/releases/20121206r2vw7u

Sophomore Katie Rossi

Sophomore Taylor Devoe