Indiana University Athletics
Preseason Diary - Natalie O'Bryan
8/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Aug. 23, 2006
Throughout the 2006 preseason, IUHOOSIERS.com has taken an insider's look at the women's soccer team. Each day from Aug. 8-23, a different member of the team has kept a diary of the day's events. The final entry of the preseason is by freshman Natalie O'Bryan:
The light at the end of the tunnel is finally here. Today was the last day of pre-season! The morning started out with a slammin' good breakfast. At first, many of us questioned why we should walk six blocks to get a bowl of cereal, but after glancing over the many choices of cereal and combos you could make, everyone was happy. I myself ordered a delightful combination of cereal and strawberries. After topping it off with some skim milk I grabbed a yogurt and a juice and met my teammates outside for an enjoyable breakfast.
The afternoon began with a meeting with Rob Kehoe. He is a performance coach here to help us with, yes you guessed it, our performance. Every time I have a wide-open goal in front of me with the ball at my feet, I will think of Rob K. and his sneaky tactics to stay focused and win the small battles. He even brought his high-tech television to show us some footage of gnarly goal scoring.
By the time afternoon practice rolled around it was a sauna outside. I myself felt bad for all of the freshmen who were moving into the dorms all day. Today was the big move-in day for students down here in Bloomington. I saw enough sweaty dads on the elevators of Foster-Harper to last me a lifetime.
Practice ran quite smoothly. We worked on combinations to warm up, then moved on to a unique drill complete with makeshift defenders. At first glance one might have thought we were slalom skiing, but you would be wrong, we were working on making the right runs to receive the ball when it is coming from our defense. We finished up practice with a full-sided 11-v-11 scrimmage. I think everyone is mentally and physically prepared for the trip to Wisconsin tomorrow.
HOO HOO HOO HOOOOOSIERS!!!
-Natalie O.
