Day 10

The weather for this mornings session was perfect the chance of rain took the humidity of last night away and the sun had not yet come through those clouds to heat up the Mount Vernon Field.  With our final scrimmage on the road against James Madison tomorrow at 5pm the AM session would put the players through their paces.  Trying to put everything together from the past 2 days we needed to get some sharpness back in the legs ready for the game.  A fun warm up with Coach Ouimet followed by some technical work and we were ready to go into the meat of the session and continuing our attacking theme from yesterday.  After practice it was a lifting day so the players did an extra 45 minutes in the gym hopefully not working too hard with the game tomorrow.

For me, the last 2 days have seen me meet with players individually to discuss their progress, how they're feeling and address any questions and concerns they have.  I enjoy these meetings as it gives me a chance to chat with everyone and learn a little more about their personalities.  After completing the last of my meetings between sessions we moved the pm session forward so we could watch the womens team and get our guys out early to rest up.

The PM session was back to the dry erase board briefly and then onto the field to walk through some attacking set plays for tomorrows game.  Getting out early the whole team took the short trip to American University to watch the Womens team open their regular season.  A light drizzle didn't spoil the game and the team would eventually win a close encounter 1-0.  Its a result we will be looking to emulate as we open our regular season next Friday August 30 at 5pm v American in the DC College Cup hosted by George Mason our new A10 rivals.  Congrats Coach Barnes and the team on a winning start for the team and GW Sports.  Go Colonials!!  I was happy to see most of the GW athletic department staff at the game showing their support I only hope that no one called the department as there couldn't have been anyone left at work.  I take that back Chandra Beirwirth called me at 5.30 from the office so she must have been holding down the fort.

James Madison will be a difficult encounter for a team tomorrow and our last test before we open the season next week.

Raise High Moment of the Day
I'll give it to Womens Soccer on their opening game win today.