End of January 2010
The 2010 spring semester is now fully underway here at Texas A&M. Classes are in full swing, and our students are back to attending games and fulfilling their “fun duties” as members of the 12th Man at Aggie basketball games, tennis matches, swim and indoor track meets. And, soon we’ll open up the gates to the stadium for them to stand and yell during our non-traditional soccer season.
We’ve unpacked and inflated the soccer balls, lined the pitch, and have started our spring soccer season workouts!
Our student-soccer players are currently in an eight-hour per week workout cycle, which is mostly occupied by early morning weight lifting and speed development exercises with our strength and speed coach Paul Sealey. But we have been able to squeeze in about 90 minutes of ball work per week, which we’ve all been looking forward to. This Wednesday was our first training session out on the field, and it was GREAT!
Last week our players performed their first fitness challenge of the year and most made it through with flying colors. I was especially impressed by the incredible recovery of Beth West and Amber Gnatzig; both are doing fantastic at this stage of their rehabilitation from knee surgery in the fall, and both are running very well!
Camp Time!
We have been working hard for the past month in the aggie soccer office getting things ready for the start of our 2010 Texas A&M Soccer Camp season. And, we are very excited about some of the new additions we’re making to this summer’s camp line-up.
It looks like all of our top coaches will be back this summer.
I was recently with Rich Hartis of Manchester United and he is again committed to being here to work with our goalkeepers. Additionally I know that Billy Stewart is planning to be here too – Billy has been the head goalkeeper coach for Liverpool FCs Academy program and has also been the Irish U21 National Team goalkeeper coach this past year.
Our field player staff will again be highlighted by some top college coaches from men’s and women’s programs all around the country. Plus, we’ll have Mitch Whellens (Sunderland FC) and John McGlasson (Royal Navy) here again.
The big additions to this summer’s camp line-up are some new abbreviated camps; we’re offering a 4-day Camp for boys and girls ages 11-18 and a new 3-day Camp for Academy aged boys and girls (9 & 10 year olds). We understand that the current economic climate is not great, so these camps offer a “Wow Soccer Experience” for less money. All of our camps offer most of the same great features of our 5-day Camp, which is widely known as The Best Soccer Camp in America.
You can get lots of information and register online now at our camp website; www.AggieSoccerCamp.com
Rachel is Here!
Last week I mentioned in this journal that we’d be announcing the addition of our newest Aggie soccer player – Rachel Lenz. You can click HERE to get the full press release from our team website.
Rachel made her commitment to be an Aggie several years ago, when she was still a sophomore at Round Rock High School. So, it seems like forever that we’ve been awaiting her arrival on the team.
She is a great addition to our soccer family. The only negative is in the name… I now have “3 Rachels” (Rachel Shipley, Rachael Balaguer, and Rachel Lenz) and “3 Cats” (Cat Clavijo, Kat Bartley, and Kat Armstrong) on the team.
FYI – I’m notorious for looking at a person, knowing exactly who they are and everything about them, and then calling them by the wrong name (I catch myself calling my dog by one of my son’s names, too).
So, this just makes a silly situation even more laughable.
“Bali” – Our Newest Captain
This week we announced a new Aggie Soccer team captain – Rachael Balaguer. Rachel joins our 3 returning senior captains (Kristin Arnold, Nicole Ketchum, and Amber Gnatzig) as one of our most recognized team leaders.
We have lots of great leaders on this team, from senior to freshman. But, I’m very excited for Rachael to be our newest captain. She is a hard working leader on this team. She leads by her own great example and has a burning desire to see this team win every day.
We have had some incredible leaders and captains represent Texas A&M Soccer over the 17 years that I’ve been here. That’s a long and impressive list, which I’ll comment on at a later time.
In soccer, the team capatins play a very importnat role. They help organize, motivate, inspire, and to keep their teammates relaxed and focused, on and off the field.
In a sport without timeouts, it’s very important that the capatins are true leaders and that they help to project the consistant messages we need communicated to their teammates.
I’m very proud of this group of captains and look forward to what this team can accomplish in 2010.
NLI Signing Day is next Wednesday
Next Wednesday (Feb 3rd) is National Signing Day for high school seniors in Soccer, American Football and Track/Field. Actually it’s just the first day that kids can sign their National Letter of Intent (NLI) and could sign anytime up until August 1st.
This will be a quiet signing day for Aggie soccer. We have been very cautious in our recruitment of players in this class, simply because we already have a terrific team with 27 players on the roster. I’m not interested in adding players just to have another on the bench. We’re only looking to add players who’ll make us better in 2010 and beyond.
This is also an interesting year since we actually have 2 senior classes. That’s because 3 players who have already been here for 4 NCAA Soccer Seasons still have 1 more season of eligibility due to red-shirting one of those past years; Kristin Arnold, Amber Gnatzig, and Nicole Ketchum. Then we have our traditional seniors to add to that; Whitney Hooper, Rachel Shipley, Alyssa Mautz, and Kelly Dyer.
So, you can expect to see a more traditional sized signing class in 2011 due to the non-traditional senior class that will graduate following the 2010 season.
Big 12 Soccer Notes
Two weeks ago I was up in Irving, Texas for our annual Big 12 Soccer Coaches meeting. Depending on the year, this meeting can sometimes have some fireworks attached, and often has seen new rules enacted against the school with the best soccer fans in the conference (and nation), i.e. the Aggies. But, this year was different…This year there were no new “anti-Aggie” rules, just some positive work for the conference’s future.
First, we have a new referee assignor – Manual Ortiz Jr. I have known Manny since our playing days, growing up in Dallas in the 70s/80s. He’s a really good guy and a terrific referee with a great network of refs around the nation. I am confident that he will be making MAJOR improvements in the way Big 12 soccer games are officiated, and all the Big 12 coaches received this info very well.
Second, a new “Fair Play” clause was quietly added into the tie-breaking policy for determining who gets into the Big 12 Tournament and the seedings for the tourney. As you might know, there was some controversy this past season when Baylor, Kansas, and Texas Tech all tied for 7th place in the final regular season standings. I’m not going to comment on that fiasco, but will say that in 2010 the tiebreaking order of things is now the following:
* If two Big 12 teams are tied:
1. Head to head results between tied teams
2. Goal differential from all 10 Conference games using goals scored minus goals scored against. GS-GA= Goal Differential.
3. Goals scored in the 10 Conference games combined.
4. Goals scored against in the 10 Conference games combined.
5. If two teams remain tied, the new “Fair Play” point system would decide who’s seeded higher – the team with the fewest number of points by an accumulation of yellow and red cards throughout the Conference season would be the higher seeded team. A team would accumulate one point for each yellow card and two points for each red card.
6. If two teams remain tied, the higher seed would be chosen by coin flip by Conference personnel.
* If three or more teams are tied, steps (2) through (5) will be followed to determine the seeds of the tied teams.
* Also, In the event all Conference games cannot be completed, steps (2) through (5) would be used, only including games against common Conference opponents. ”
That makes sense, right? I really like the new “Fair Play” wrinkle. By the way, here were the yellow card stats (in conference games only) for 2009:
Total YELLOW CARDS and FOULS COMMITTED in 10 Big 12 Games (2009)
# Team Total Cards Cards Per match Fouls
1. Missouri 12 1.2 151
2. Oklahoma 10 1.00 98
3. Nebraska 8 0.80 115
4. Baylor 7 0.70 125
Texas Tech 7 0.70 102
6. Kansas 6 0.60 97
7. OK State 5 0.50 102
8. Texas 4 0.40 79
Iowa State 4 0.40 88
Texas A&M 4 0.40 89
11. Colorado 1 0.10 81
So, you can see a few trends in those statistics above. But, for the issue of using accumulated yellow and red cards, it could add an interesting wrinkle to the seedings of the Big 12 Tourney, and potentially who does and does not get into that event. I like it, since our Aggie teams are always near the bottom of the list for cards/fouls committed, and are traditionally the kids being kicked, tugged on, and tripped.
One Spring Game Addition
Last week, I commented on the opponents we’d be hosting at The Aggie Soccer Stadium during our non-traditional season this February, March, and April.
Well, I’m pleased to announce that I have added 1 more game to the schedule. Marquette University (another NCAA Tournament team in 2009) will be travelling to College Station for 2 matches on Saturday March 27th. That day we’ll do a little round robin event between A&M, Baylor, and Marquette.
So, our spring schedule looks like this:
Feb 20th – 7v7 games vs. Rice, UTSA, Sam Houston State, and Houston Baptist
March 6th – North Texas and Utah
March 27th – Baylor and Marquette
April 2nd – BYU
April 10th – Houston and SMU
*I’ll have kickoff times listed for these games soon – you can expect to see a press release on these sometime after National Signing Day, and then they will be up on www.aggiesoccer.com
I hope you have a great week! The weather in Aggieland has been spectacular lately; high 60s to mid 70s, no clouds, or wind. It just makes us that much more excited to get outside and play some soccer.
Gig ‘em! –Coach G
