Day 7 Preseason

The morning session plan to play an intrasquad scrimmage was almost in jeopardy as Coach Irizarry took the pre game warm up to a mini half marathon before finally realizing he was slightly over his 12 minute routine by 12 minutes.  Maybe a new Nike watch is needed with an alarm but he has tomorrow to redeem himself.  Luckily the players still had some reserves left in the tank to get the game going after a quick water break.  After 1 minute we had our first injury scare which made me leave the comfort of the bench to enter the field and after a brisk 40 meter walk I was relieved to return to the bench with our player back on his feet and ready to play.  Just goes to show the effort and intensity the players showed as there was no holding back in an action packed game.

A visit to our foggy bottom campus between sessions took me on a trip down memory lane.  After stopping in on our GW Athletics Communication staff (who are great) I found myself looking through some old GW Men's soccer photographs.

Yes its me! I know, much younger, much leaner and much fitter.  In both pics theres no ball but I swear its near me somewhere.  For you kids out there that's the perfect technique for striking a ball. (so I was told by the photographer back in the day).  For you GW people that gentleman in the background in the second pic with the blue polo is the one and only, Chris Hennelly.  Back then our Athletic Trainer, today Asst. Athletics Director/Sports Medicine and Training.  Wow, we've known each other a long time.

Back to the lads. The evening session saw Ripperger-Suhler striking the ball so well it could only hit the back of the net during shooting.  There were too many great goals to single anyone out and I have to say there would have been even more goals if not for Lopez, Almodovar and Farrell who looked like they are all pushing for a start on Thursday.

Tomorrow I will have some more video and the announcement of our Team Captains and this Thursday is our first scrimmage v Lehigh at the Mount Vernon Athletic Complex 4pm kick off.  

Magic Moment of the day

The return to practice of Ripperger-Suhler. Enough said.