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ATHLETE
October 14, 2008
Before a match, earlier in the season, Coach Hoffman read the excerpt below to the team. Looking back on this past weekend, then ahead to the games to come, I believe it is only fitting to revisit it now. The excerpt is taken from the book: Lords of Discipline which is written by Pat Conroy.
ATHLETE. The very word was beautiful to me. I looked up at the scoreboard and thought, Has there ever been a boy who loved this game as much as I have loved it? I had known the praise of crowds and knew nothing else on earth to equal it. When I played basketball, I was possessed by a nakedness of spirit, an absolute purity, a divine madness when I was let loose to ramble between the lines. Always, I was reckless and moving at full speed, and I never learned the potency of stillness, the craft of subtlety. I had moved about the court for four years without control, as though I were racing from basket to basket putting out fires or hurling myself on live grenades. I had played the game the best I could but was beaten time and time again. But I had willed myself to be, if not gifted, at least someone to be watched closely, and at times when the ball came my way and I came at my opponents in full flight, an athlete to be feared. I could hurt them only with recklessness. There were times when they knew I was a burning boy, a dancing, roaring, skipping, brawling boy – moments of pure empyrean magic when the demon of sport was born in the howl of my bloodstream, when my body and the flow of the game commingled in a wild and accidental mating and I turned into something I was never meant to be: an athlete who could not be stopped…
Powerful, is it not? As we go into the final games of the 2008 season, we hope to see the team playing each game with the same sort of divine madness of which Conroy speaks. Being driven only by the love they have for this amazing game burning in their hearts. To see 32 athletes flying around the pitch like little whirling dervishes with nothing on their minds but playing the game and enjoying this wonderful gift they have.
Sunday before our match with Hendrix, Coach Hoffman asked the team to take five minutes and focus on something that makes them happy. It did not have to be soccer related; he just wanted them to find something that would bring them joy in that moment. Then, with joy in their hearts they went down to the practice field to begin warming up for the game. Arriving at the field, they noticed the sprinklers were on at the far end. As they progressed through their warm-up, with the heat pressing down on them, one of the ladies commented that running through sprinklers made her happy . A few of her teammates smiled and nodded as they continued through the warm-up. It was only a matter of time before our student coach and I made our way to the sprinklers and weaved in and out of the four streams. Next came the goalkeepers – then, the rest of the team. The ladies skipped, ran, and screamed as they splashed their way through jets of water. With giant smiles on their face they were ready to play.
Though the team can't run through sprinklers before each game, they can certainly reflect on the joy they feel every time they put on their uniform, lace up their boots, and step on the pitch. They may hold tightly to those moments of empyrean magic and use them every moment of every game to fuel them. It is a state of mind, sense of spirit and emotion that Conroy captures so eloquently above. As we prepare for this weekend (and the rest of the season), we hope the ladies draw on the inspirational message of Pat Conroy to rediscover their own Inner-Athlete.
On a final note, we would like to congratulate our Reserves who defeated Asbury College on Wednesday, October 8 th . Junior, Katherine MacMurray earned a hat-trick on the evening and sophomore – Chelsea Stanley netted a goal as well. Freshman, Kelli Lenz earned a shut-out on the outing.
Next match-ups for Centre
We will continue conference play this weekend taking on Austin College in Texas, Friday – October 17 th at 2:00 pm. We will then play a non-conference game at the *University of Dallas on Saturday, Oct 18 th at 4:00 pm. Until next time...
GO CENTRE!
*The University of Dallas in not a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC). Games played against them will not count toward SCAC standings. They are competing within the SCAC as a travel partner to Austin College due to the fact that Colorado College's Women's Soccer is Division I.
This week in women's soccer archives:
Tuesday Sept 30, 2008
Tuesday Sept 23, 2008
Tuesday Sept 16, 2008
Tuesday Sept 9, 2008
Tuesday Sept 2, 2008
Tuesday Nov 7, 2007
Tuesday Oct 30, 2007
Tuesday Oct 23, 2007
Tuesday Oct 14, 2007
Tuesday Oct 9, 2007
Tuesday Oct 1, 2007
Tuesday Sept 25, 2007
Tuesday Sept 18, 2007
Tuesday Sept 11, 2007
Tuesday Sept 4, 2007
Tuesday April 24, 2007
Tuesday Jan 16, 2007
Tuesday Oct 31, 2006
Tuesday Oct 24, 2006
Tuesday Oct 17, 2006
Tuesday Oct 11, 2006
Tuesday Oct 3, 2006
Tuesday Sept 26, 2006
Tuesday Sept 19, 2006
Tuesday Sept 12, 2006
Tuesday Sept. 5, 2006
Monday Aug. 28, 2006 |
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