Indiana University Athletics
O'Rourke Diary: Entry #1 (09-18-03)
9/18/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- This season, junior co-captain Danny O'Rouke has agreed to keep a keep a journal of sorts for IUHOOSIERS.COM, giving IU fans an inside look at the Hoosiers' 2003 soccer season. O'Rourke is in his third year as a starter as the Hoosiers' defensive midfielder. A native of Columbus, Ohio, where he attended Worthington Kilbourne, O'Rourke was a first-team All-Big Ten selection in 2002 and was selected to College Soccer News' All-Freshman team in 2001.
Every two weeks or so, O'Rourke will submit a new entry.
This team is a very young team with nearly five or six new players in thestarting lineup. How is that different than last season? What are you early impressions of the newcomers?
I think that the new players in the starting line up are young,however they don't play like freshman and sophomores. They are very mature notonly on the field as players, but as guys as well. I feel that Drew (Moor), Julian (Dieterle), and Jed (Zayner) in the back compliment each other very well and they will keep getting better as the year progresses. John Michael (Hayden) and (Josh) Tudella also have stepped up big since their red-shirt seasons and are looking very prominent this year. I think that there aren't too many teams this year that are full of senior talent, so with the young talent we have, I feel that we have just a good of a chance if not better than the rest of the teams in the country. This season is different from last season only in the amount of upperclassman. I feel that even though we lost some really talented players, everyone has stepped up and fulfilled their roles to keep Indiana soccer rolling.
As a co-captain, do you feel added responsibilty for leading such a young team?
Yes, very much so. This team not only has a lot of young players, but a lot of talent as well. I sometimes feel myself trying to fulfill my own role to help the team and forget to help others. Being a captain in college is a greater responsibility, especially in my position. I hope that I can keep learning and as I learn how to communicate better, our team should be better off. The guys are great though and sometimes I get caught ball-watching at some of the amazing things they can do with the ball.
The team is off to a 1-1-2 start. That's the same record last year's team
had through four games before reeling off 11 straight wins. The three years
before that, IU teams began with 2-2-0 records. Obviously those teams ended
up doing extremely well and advancing to the College Cup. Do you feel like
it's just been a matter of working out the kinks early on?
Everyone's been comparing us to previous teams due to our record. Idon't really think that is possible. No one knows how successful this team can be because we're the only ones holding each other back. Coach (Yeagley) always has put the harder teams first (on the schedule) so that we can test ourselves. I mean we could play schedules like many teams in the country do and go undefeated, feeling good about ourselves, and then lose to a good team in the (NCAA) tourney cause we weren't tested. We really don't want to peak too early. It gets frustrating sometimes when we lose at first, but it will only make us a better team in the end. And if you look at how long Coach Yeagley has been doing this and how successful he's been, I feel pretty comfortable right now.
Talk about what it was like finding out that Ned, your fellow co-captain,would be back for this season at IU.
Ned and I have been playing together for many years and there isn't a player I've played against that I respect more. He is an incredible talent and a definite relief to have him back. He has the potential to have a breakout year, but that only depends if all of us come together as a unit. I always had a gut feeling that Ned would come back because he likes it here and has a bright future, but when he came back it was a great addition to a team that was already showing promise in preseason.
