I find it funny when someone uses a phrase involving “good things.” Everyone knows the phrases I am talking about; we all use them in our everyday language. For example, “good things don’t die hard.” Or “all good things must come to an end.” Regardless, I honestly have never understood what the big deal was with all of these “good things?” Furthermore, what constitutes a “good thing”? If it’s actually that “good,” I personally believe that it is impossible to ever completely be over.
So, this is the first blog post of the official year, YAY! It’s been a long time coming, I know, but for whatever reason, I decided it would be advantageous to further my knowledge at Centre College by taking Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Organic Chemistry II, Government: An Introduction to Politics, and Anatomy and Physiology all during soccer season while maintaining active roles within my sorority and my parish community. So, three science classes and a six hour lab day every week on top of a Gen Ed, soccer practice, chapter meetings, etc, etc, here I type today. Fortunately, I am alive and well enough to be writing this. Unfortunately, in the process of my academic and social endeavors, I have lost many of my faithful followers to the blog. As this does sadden me, I promise now to set aside a procrastination hour every Monday dedicated solely to the blog.
So, since not everyone is aware and may not been keeping track on us this year, let me be the first to summarize what an incredible ride we have had thus far. Our season started off strong as we went 6-0. We were ranked as high as #8 in the nation and #1 in the Great Lakes Region. We won games that some people thought were impossible. Since then, we have also won games that we thought should have had different outcomes. We have backed 8 shut outs led by our fearless goalie, Kelli Lenz and we sit today as 9-3-1 overall and 2-2-1 in conference play.
A bad record? I would not say that. When you compare our schedule to our stats, never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that we would have scored over 27 goals, 9 of them being off of dead balls, at this point in the year. Overall, only four goals and one penalty kick have been scored on us in 13 games. At the end of the day, we have shaped up to be a very, very good team, and we are just now settling in.
“Where has all of this success come from” is a common question asked around school. With the loss of a very precedent senior class, how did we make such a quick turnaround? Honestly, there is not one thing that can be pin-pointed as our reason of success. Sure, we have all put in hard work and dedication over the summer and that showed during pre-season. Yeah, we have had some lucky finishes and stops, but I would not say that all of our success has come from luck alone. Luck would never be able to happen if we didn’t first put ourselves in a position for the luck to pay off. What does this mean? I don’t care what anyone says, if someone “luckily scored off of a header” then it had to have come from a good cross. Or if someone on the other team had “luckily missed that goal” it was because our defense settled down and was directed well enough by our goalie and didn’t give proper angles. Plus, luck doesn’t happen over and over and over no matter how good of a person you are. Case closed, luck is not what it has come down to this year. This year has come down to straight up inspiration.
Our very first game against Transy started off our season. It was a mid-week game and we had been going non-stop for all of pre-season. Before the game, Jay read us a letter from a former player. Her words of encouragement inspired us to leave it all on the field and to play every day as if it were our last game. That game was a nice 4-1 victory. Inspiration carried us through our next 5 games. Were we expected to beat Otterbein #2 in the nation at a field that was smaller than what we are used to playing? No. Did that stop us? No. Jay simply looked at us all and said, “We have nothing to lose, they have everything to lose. Go out there, and play the game you love with your best friends.” We won 1-0. Being led by underclassmen, we scored 19 goals in the first six games. Not only that, but 7 of those goals were off of corner kicks, which previously have always been a struggle for Centre Women’s Soccer. That is not luck, that is inspiration.
Our first loss was a hard in-region game, but we did not go down without a fight. Our second loss was our very first conference game. We played Trinity at home, and it was not by a lack of inspiration there. Our fans, known as the “Centre bros and babes” came out and painted up to spell out “Centre Soccer” and they cheered until they could cheer no more. As far as our play went, we played some of our best soccer, afraid of nothing, playing for everyone in white. We scored in the first twenty minutes and controlled most of the game. With 6 minutes left in the game, through some controversial officiating, Trinity scored. They ended up winning in double overtime. We won the next conference game versus Southwestern 2-0. We went the next week down to Texas and played Austin for our third conference game. We ended up losing 1-0 due to a PK. We as a team couldn’t find the back of the net. It was here where we saw a lack of focus. In an effort to change that around, Coach Jay and Coach Chis decided to change our warm up for field players and keepers alike. This did, in fact, inspire us to perform at a level we had previously forgotten as we went on to win 3-0. Over Fall Break, we went on to play at Sewanee and after controlling the entire first half got scored on in the second half. Within the next 2 minutes, senior Chloe Toohey decided she had enough and found the back of the net to try and inspire the rest of the team to follow. Although we all worked hard, unfortunately, the game ended in a drawl.
This leads us back to last night. We have been in the need for a good win for the past couple of weeks. We also had been in the need for a little inspiration, you know, just a little reminder of who we are as CWS and what we want to accomplish. Our seniors, without any kind of hint from the coaches, went out and bought us ribbon. They had each of us tie a piece of ribbon to our left cleat. This ribbon reminds us every time we hang our head low that even at the lowest of times, we are here for each other. We have to find and dig deep when all else fails. When we seem to come up short, we have to find a way to persevere. If one girl next to us is working hard, we need to have the mentality to work harder to push each other to the best of our abilities. That is what Centre Women’s Soccer means to the senior class and therefore that is what CWS means to all of us.
So, where does that leave me? Well, I’m still in my classes, and I’m still having a rough time figuring out what I want to do with my life. I am still trying to keep my head above the water, and I pray to succeed. But, now, I also realize how much inspiration is around me. One time, I had a test from 3-4 before a game on game day, and a team mate ran to my dorm, got everything I forgot and got me Subway so that way I could have 20 extra minutes to take a nap before focusing on the game. Then, there are those times I look out on the field at the first year girls who have made an immediate impact to this team, and to those who have so much to learn and continue to share with us. I look around at those girls who bring so much to the team in areas other than just soccer. I look out at the girls who are injured, who are rehabilitating, or those who have just come back from a serious injury and I cannot even imagine the type of dedication and hard work that it took them to be where they are today and what they have to give. Those people, along with the players we always hear about who can score off will or prevent a goal without a second thought, are the people who inspire me most at Centre College.
Inspiration is not something that can be said, only something that can be seen through actions or felt. It’s the reason that I play with reckless abandonment. It is the reason that I don’t want to stop in the 89th minute because I’m too tired to make that last tackle or that one last sprint. It’s the reason that at the end of the game, there is always a piece inside of me that hopes that we could play for just 5 more minutes. Inspiration is the reason that good things don’t die hard, and a definite reason to why good things never truly come to an end.
Our run for the 2011 season began on October 18 with a huge in region win over Maryville in overtime 1-0. Our run won’t end for another 3-4 weeks. Although I haven’t been on much yet this year, this news is definitely blog worthy, so I thought I’d share. Until Monday, Centre Women still Rock!
