The following is a blog written by senior soccer players, Amber Bloem and Lauren King.
June 8, 2009
Hey all!
Well, it is finally summer time. School and exams have been done for over a month now, and many of us have gone back home for the summer. It's time for summer jobs, relaxing, and of course lots of beach time. Lake Michigan is only a half hour away from here! A handful of girls stayed back to take spring classes, but those only go through the middle of June, so they have plenty of summer left for them.
Our spring season ended on a great note. Our last few games we were able to play here at GVSU, and we won both games! 8-0 against Oakland University, and 7-0 against Ferris State University. It was just the way we wanted to wrap things up for the spring before we all left.
Summer is kind of a time for our team to get a break for a few weeks mentally and physically in April and May, and a time to recharge, refocus and get in tip-top shape in June and July for the fall season. Before we left school, we had a meeting where our coaches gave us a summer workout packet that was put together by the one and only Erica Demers, A.K.A. the Queen of Workouts. Erica is our assistant coach and we swear she knows every workout known to man. She laid everything out for us day to day, which is a really big help, because then we know what we are supposed to do on which day, and she makes sure everything is evenly spread out so we don't get burnt out over the summer. The workouts include things like plyometrics, long runs for our aerobic fitness, short sprint workouts for our anaerobic fitness, and a lifting program for those of us who need to build a little muscle. (Which we have a sneaking suspicion probably applies directly to us, Amber and Lauren. Thanks a lot Erica!!) In the end though, the packet is a big help, and it gets us right where we need to be before the season starts. Getting in shape before we come in is really important to our team and coaching staff. If we come in fit, this allows us to get right to work on important things, instead of spending our entire preseason worrying about getting in game shape.
Something else new is that our garage/shed, which we used as a "locker room" on the field for the past years, is getting a face lift! We can't wait; it is going to be pretty sweet. They painted the whole inside of it, built new lockers, and put up hooks and name plates on each individual locker. The girls who are around campus this summer have been helping a little with it, and get to help finish painting it. Our coach is actually going to trust us with a bucket of paint and a brush! But really...how hard can it be? :)
Well, that's it for now. Hope everyone is having a great summer! We hope to see you this fall for our 2009 season. Should be a pretty exciting one with lots of goals and shutouts!
Until next time....
-Amber and Lauren
April 13, 2009
Time flies! We can't believe that next year we will already be seniors. Our team has had numerous success in the past couple years, being GLIAC champs, going to the National Championship game, making it back to the Final Four the following year, and enjoying undefeated regular seasons. It's crazy to think that next season will be our last chance to wear a Laker uniform.
But it's also incredibly exciting considering our potential for next fall.
After this past season, we lost 7 seniors who were such an integral part of our program. Everyone who had a chance to play with those girls learned from them, respected them, and appreciated them. We will miss them greatly! Losing them was tough, but it also opened up an awesome opportunity for us to create our own identity as a team. This spring season was our chance to get back to the drawing board and work towards unfinished business we left in the fall. For us, the spring is all about regrouping and working each day to get better as a team. We wanted to focus on small daily goals getting better as individuals in the first part of the winter. We worked in small groups with our position which really helped us get better on all the basics. Not being able to practice as a whole team for a couple of weeks made the team that much more eager to finally get together and train as a whole! Spring practice is always a challenge, from doing hard drills and fitness but we stuck together as a team and really succeeded. Going through the hard practices really brought us all closer together, for the first time since we were freshman we can truly say that there is no division in class (even the soon to be seniors help move the heavy goals!). Not seeing that division has really helped us this spring come together as a core, we all respect each other that much more to know we are all giving it our best. For most of the off season we have been focusing on possession, keeping the ball, and creating opportunities to get forward and score. Although Michigan "spring" weather is not always the most promising, we were spared from the snow and were able to practice on our new indoor turf field--which has been an awesome addition to our athletic facilities.
Our coaches have stressed to us that each day is an opportunity to get better and play better as a team and that our part of our success this spring would be based on that fact. So far, every game we have played we have started coming together more and more and playing well. Even though we have been battling injuries, (at one point we only had 2 subs!) everyone has been stepping up, doing their part, and playing hard for one another as a team. This Saturday we play our last 2 games of the spring season against Oakland University and Ferris State University. It's exciting because we finally get to play on our home field! All of the games we have played up until this point we have had to make road trips for, including Western Michigan, Michigan, Michigan State and Bowling Green State. There is just something about being able to play a game at home that puts a little extra excitement into the equation. This past week we have been working on quick transitions and looking to get forward. We hope to finish off a strong spring this weekend with some wins!
Until next time....
Lauren & Amber
