the smell of soccer

The air is crisp and grass is green. I feel a change in seasons and smell…soccer! One can only know what I mean if you are a soccer player/parent/referee, etc. It is a feeling within that takes you back to the days that you played, as a kid for fun and a young adult competitively. The way you felt when you laced up your boots and made sure your guards were straight, the way the air smelled and the sky looked, the green grass and painted white lines; the feeling as if you were unstoppable; focused – it just brings you back.

I have such an excitement for this fall/soccer season despite being somewhat uninvolved on the collegiate front this year. It stems from a combination of things: 1) the Messiah College women are at the top (again) and a strong contender for another national title http://www.messiah.edu/athletics/sports/womens_soccer/; 2) I am not coaching this season, which gives me the liberty and flexibility to watch great soccer anytime I want, train for a marathon www.thebaltimoremarathon.com/ and play some soccer for myself; 3) There are many great matchups this season in the local Baltimore area, which include Navy Men’s soccer and top ranked Johns Hopkins University Women. Hopkins has a great schedule, with many competitions played on their home turf against nationally ranked teams (TCNJ, Washington Mo, and Lynchburg), http://www.hopkinssports.com/sports/w-soccer/sched/jhop-w-soccer-sched.html (not to mention playing #1 Messiah in Grantham early on in the season). Participating in the Hopkins tournament, William Smith also plays in town Labor Day weekend. Brandt’s Navy team plays at Loyola MD 10/6 http://www.navysports.com/sports/m-soccer/sched/navy-m-soccer-sched.html and of course, there is my former College of Notre Dame of MD gators who also play a significant amount of home games this year http://www.ndm.edu/Athletics/Soccer/Schedule.cfm (all fields within running distance from my house) …and yes, I do check the official online scoreboard on a daily basis, color code games and schedules on my outlook calendar, and update my online bookmarks to the team sites in order by rankings (d3-w) – awesome.

So my goals are several for this season: 1) keep an updated blog here; 2) attend two or three Messiah women’s games, including Homecoming (my first!) and hopefully playoffs; and, 3) attend as many local D3 games that I am able this fall. Further, I am running a marathon on 10/10 and play an average of 2 times per week with various teams, varying in competitive level. To all players and coaches, good luck this season and know that it is always just a great day to play.