Rochester Pride - RSC Lightning '96

To my Team, 22 October 2001 I want to take a moment to once again tell you how very proud I am of you. At the very beginning of the year I shared with you what I hoped we would accomplish this year. One thing I hoped to accomplish was to help you become very good soccer players. What does that mean? Well, to me it means: Ø Learning how to handle the ball. Being comfortable with it at your feet and being confident and skilled enough to take-on a player or keep possession without panicking and kicking it away blindly because you don’t know what else to do or you don’t feel like you have the skills to do anything significant with the ball. Ø Learning to see the field when you are on the ball and to see your options and being able to pick out the best option so that the cause of the team is advanced and the scoring of a goal is made more likely rather that less likely because of your choice. Ø Being able to execute that good option. It is one thing to know you should serve the ball toward far post, it is another to be able to do it. It is one thing to know the best choice is to take-on a player with a skilled move, it is another to be able to do it. It is one thing to know you must delay an attacker’s advance, it is another to be able to do it. Ø Learning how to play off the ball. Being able to create the good option for your teammate with the ball. Understanding your job and roll off the ball so that the team is working together. Ø Learning and understanding that every player on the field is a part of the defensive effort when the opponent has the ball. Learning what those defensive roles are and carrying them out. Ø Thinking the game. Not just running through the motions mindlessly but truly understanding why certain principles are important and knowing when and how to apply them. These are the things I wanted us to accomplish when we started together in August. These are things that most 10 & 11 year old players are not yet capable of. And these are things that are being accomplished and achieved by you. That is a plain fact. You know it is a fact because you can feel it in your play. I know you can feel it in your play because I can see it in your play. I can see the creativity and sense the intuition that only comes about with an understanding of the game and a command of the fundamentals. I can see it when, with every game that passes, I need less and less to be vocal from the sidelines – because you are doing the right thing on your own… without my “help”; because you understand. I can hear it every time a spectator behind me says “Wow! Can you believe that?” or “Oh my gosh! I didn’t even know she could do that!” or some other such thing. I can hear it when opposing coaches or parents of opposing players come up to me privately and tell me how impressed they are by your play. I can tell every time one of you makes an insightful observation to me about one of your teammates making a really good turn or run, or even an insightful observation on something we could have done better. I can see every time I read a game assessment that correctly and insightfully assesses a game. The other, more important thing I hoped to accomplish (or continue) this year, had much less to do with soccer and much more to do with effort, dedication, commitment, sportsmanship, grace and other such things that extend far beyond the painted lines of a soccer field. For our purposes the game of soccer is the vehicle by which to learn the value of these things. Given our dynamic, the game of soccer is where we, as a group and a team, can most readily see and feel the results of these traits. But the actual game itself is very much secondary to the point that these virtues be learned, understood and embraced. Because these are not soccer virtues, they are life virtues. In this, as well, you have succeeded brilliantly. Our goal and our focus are clearly set down on the home page of your website: Pride are a team of exceptional girls dedicated to sportsmanship and fair play and committed to full and honest effort in training and on the game field. Pride measure their success not by scores and record but on improved skill and increased understanding of the game from week to week and over the course of a season – knowing full well that if we focus on our own improvement and execution, the results will take care of themselves. In these things our season is clearly a success. There is still more to learn and much upon which to improve, no question – there always is. But your individual and team skills have improved markedly, and they have only done so because of the effort, dedication and commitment you have put into the season. Where we are today from where we were in August, and how & why we’ve got there, is how we measure ourselves. And in that there can be no disputing your tremendous growth & development – and therefore, your tremendous success. "How a man plays the game shows something of his character; how he loses shows it all." With regard to yesterday’s game, even that had it’s own silver lining. It is rather an easy thing to be gracious and generous as the victor. All season long, we have been fortunate and blessed to be put in that roll. It is something rather different to summon up the same graciousness in the midst of a bitter defeat. But you did. And for that I give you my highest praise, because it is a very difficult thing to do. Especially when you are of a driven and competitive nature… as you are… as I am. But the manner in which you accepted the difficult loss yesterday speak more highly of you and your character than any win possibly could. I told you at the beginning of the year about my coach’s meeting where 3 different coaches came up to me at different points and stated about the same thing, and basically it was this: "I really admire you team because they are extremely good – but more than that I really enjoyed playing against your girls because they display the best sportsmanship we came across all year/in years." Ladies, THAT is the legacy you are creating for yourself. I have told you before that class and dignity are never wasted efforts. And it makes me proud to see that you have learned that. So what are people, players, coaches and spectators alike, going to remember about you? A great team with a lot of class that’s almost impossible to beat, and if we do beat them we feel pretty lucky. You know what? I’ll take that any day of the year. And so, what does yesterday’s loss mean? Well, not that much, really. Certainly not as much as it may have felt right after the game. And here is why, ladies: Even if we had won yesterday’s match, do you think it is at all possible for me or your parents to have been any more proud of you for all your accomplishments on the season than we already are? No. You have nothing left to prove to me (or anybody for that matter) about this season’s success. Your accomplishments from throughout the season and your development over the season are not diminished in the least. And you cannot have pleased your parents even one tiny degree more for your season’s accomplishments than you already have. Because for all your work this season, what has it got you? What do you have? I’ll tell you what you have: Ø The delight and support of your spectators; Ø The respect and admiration of your opponents; Ø The love and pride of your parents; Ø Newly-forged & otherwise strengthened bonds of love, friendship and camaraderie in each other; Ø An enhanced understanding and first-hand experience of the fruits & rewards of hard work, honest effort and commitment; Ø Newly gained knowledge, improved skill and truly well-earned confidence in yourselves; Ø And so much of all those things bound up inside your coach that I can barely express it. And that’s a lot. In fact, it’s everything. These bonds of friendship I speak of, for example, are the sort that run strong and deep because they were forged of hard work, and pushing yourselves and each other, and sweating and working and learning together to accomplish a common end. That – sharing the effort together, sharing the work together, sharing the difficulty together and ultimately achieving your success together despite all the difficulty in getting there - is where the strength of these bonds are drawn from. And it is the kind of thing that is impossible to gain with out the effort that you have given. There are countless kids your age who will never have the privilege of being able to experience this sort of thing because they were never asked or urged or made to put in the sort of effort that is required to create these bonds – the effort I have asked of you, and the effort you have given each other. Those are the sorts of kids who will forget the names of their own teammates the day after the last match ends; because the effort was never ever there, so the value was never there, so nothing was ever truly gained because nothing was ever truly given. But when you work so hard together to accomplish something as you girls have, those things are not so easily forgot, and the people you shared it with are not so easily forgot either – nor should they be. These are the sorts of things that can, and often do, lead to unshakable, unbreakable, down-to-the-core-of-the-soul, life-long friendships. What an amazing and beautiful gift to give yourselves. What a precious return for your true and honest effort. And this self-confidence I speak of, again, this is a gift well and truly earned only by those who have put in the effort to make it real. I could, if I chose – and you could, if you chose – just throw you lip service and tell you “you are doing awesome” whether you are or not. But that is not confidence. That is feel-good silliness. Because if it were not true, both you would know and I would know, so whom would we be kidding? You cannot kid yourself. I cannot kid you either. You know the truth of whether you are truly doing well or not – regardless of what I say out loud, right? After all, if my instructor tells me I am a great musician, and I tell myself I am a great musician, and we both tell the world I am great musician, but I still cannot play a song – then what’s the point? So, my choice has been to try to guide you so that your development is real, that your improvement is tangible, so that it shows up on the field on game day. Game day is where we see it or where we don’t see it. That is OUR song. That is our concert recital. And you saw how you played. You felt how it feels to KNOW how to play this game… to understand this game. I don’t have to lie to you to try to convince you to feel good about the way you play soccer (I wouldn’t do that anyhow). I can say it truthfully. And you can feel it truthfully, too. You would know if you were just kidding yourselves. But you are not. That confidence you feel is true and well-earned because your play on the field is very smart and well-executed. That fulfillment you feel for have got to your current level of play from where you started is fully deserved – because if it wasn’t deserved you wouldn’t be feeling it in the first place. Take a moment to think on that. Feels pretty good, doesn’t it? Friendship, camaraderie, true self-confidence, real fulfillment, new skills and knowledge that you will now possess forever... like I said, that’s a lot. These things are priceless. And it’s much, much more than a great many players ever leave a season with. So what did you lose yesterday… very little I would say. In fact, to reflect on the matter, I would propose you even gained a great deal, because you learned something more about yourselves than you ever could have known without some sort of loss on the season – and that is: “How close am I to being a young woman rather than a little girl”. Yesterday, you showed the grace and dignity of young women. There is a very beautiful poem that I love by Rudyard Kipling titled “If”. That poem contemplates the very sort of thing I’m talking about here. I will enclose it with this letter. Read it and you will get a sense of what I am talking about, and perhaps understand even just a bit more of why I am so proud of you girls that it brings tears to my eyes sometimes. So there it is. Look the season over. Reflect on it. Think back on all you have learned, won, experienced and gained. Think about how, even as we have worked so hard, how much we’ve had a chance to laugh and joke and play around and take joy in each others’ company. Do that, and there can be no room for disappointment. Do that and there can be no question as to the value of all that you put into it. Do that, and you cannot help reach any conclusion but that you have, indeed, won. Because, as Jesse Owens, a great champion and a truly great man, once said “…extra effort… command of the fundamentals… desire, determination, discipline… self-sacrifice… a great deal of love, fairness and respect for your fellow man. Put all these together, and even if you don’t win, how can you lose?" I tell you that this season has been an unequivocal success. Don’t you doubt it for a moment. I love you all very much and I cannot wait to get back to it this spring. Coach K IF If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowances for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; If you can think – and not make thoughts you aim; If you can meet both triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build ‘em up with with wornout tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them “Hold on”; If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run – Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And – which is more – you’ll be a man my son! - Rudyard Kipling

Detailed summary to follow. Goalkeepers: Melissa Anderson, Jessica Munson Goals: Chelsea McGee (Lisa Zelenak) 19th minute

Detailed summary to follow. Goalkeepers: Melissa Anderson, Alyssa Zarski Goals: Lisa Zelenak (Mallory Parker-Zibel) 19th min Brittany Sparks (Mallory Parker-Zibel, Ali Vogt) 59th min

It was one of those days. The Screaming Egyptians dominated play in every aspect this afternoon. Possession, passing, use of space, corner kicks, shots. But in the end, with the opposing coach on the far sideline spending the last 3 minutes screaming and imploring the referee to call it a game, time finally did run out, and the opponent were able to manage a 0-0 tie. A little disappointing, perhaps – but not overly so. We had spent this past week extremely focused on using the full width of the field and switching from one side to the other when play got bogged down. We very clearly brought those lessons to the field today. The passing was exemplary. Pride made very good use of width and space. The result: we spent 52 minutes in the attacking half of the field vs. 18 in the defensive half 14 corner kicks earned; 1 corner kick conceded 16 crosses 10 significant serves into the red zone 11 shots vs. 4 against So why the scoreless result? One word: SHOTS. There were a number of shot opportunities passed up today. There were other shot opportunities missed because great serves and crosses went wasted because nobody got on the end of them. And rather than the 30+ shots that we strive for as a team goal, and generally achieve, we ended up taking just 11. That’s OK. We will make the adjustments and improve next week – just as we have every week thus far. And I want to make it clear the I am NOT disappointed in this result or this performance. On the contrary – I thought this was a stellar performance by you Screaming Egyptians. Why? Because that which we focused our training efforts on this past week (possession, width, switching) is what you brought to the match! EXCELLENT JOB! It’s just that in our days’ focus to look for the good passes from center, and to look for switches from one side to the other, we diverted our attention away from actually attacking goal when the opportunity presented itself. There were occasions when given and almost equal choice for a wide pass or goal, we chose the pass. Now all we need to do is balance that with other points of focus that we have brought to matches on other days. So, so may ask, why is it so hard to bring ALL points of focus to every game? Well, this is how development and growth work. We learn something new - then we apply it. Then we learn something else new – then we apply it. And so on. Eventually, given enough time, practice and experience, we learn the best times to apply one bit of knowledge rather than the other bits - which skill to use, which tactic to use, which choice to make. As I have taught you all season long - there are often several GOOD or acceptable choice (rarely in this game is anything perfectly right or perfectly wrong). The trick gets to be finding the BEST of those good choices and executing. The more we go along, the better choice we are able to make as to what to do at what point in time. At this stage of your development – you girls are still WAY into the learning HOW TO stage… still are learning the different things TO do (skills, tactics). And you still have and awful lot more to learn. So while so much of your time and energy are devoted and required to acquiring these new skills a tactics, most of the where, when and how to use these thing are still mostly down the road. As I say, this does not distress me at all. My job is to ensure your growth and development and THAT is being achieved. Anybody who watched this match can clearly see that. Last autumn and last spring, we worked very hard on applying principles of direct play. And you girls learned those principles quite well. At the beginning of this season I promised that I would strive to build on that foundation and strive to introduce a more mature style of play. This involves ball possession and ball handling. Not for it’s own sake but in order to wait for/create the opening so as to more efficiently attack with the force and effectiveness of direct play principles. The first step of that goal is being realized. You are getting better and better by the week in possession play this season. We have already seen that you can soundly execute direct play principles. Now comes the time to marry the two. We will strive to learn to recognize the openings and then exploit them. This is a process which requires time, experience and lots of play – both on the training field as well as the game field. As I say, most of the where, when and how to use each new skill and tactic are still mostly down the road. But, you girls have shown that you can find your way down that road pretty well! I have no doubt as to the ability of this team to find the balance. Why? Because every week, whatever we have worked on – Pride have brought to the game field. In the pre-season we stressed touch and passing, and all season long our hallmark has been possession and ball control. The week we emphasised and rehearsed set peices, we scored 2 goals off the corner kick. This past week we focused on maximizing the benefit of our ball control by using the entire width of the field, and so we did. In the same manner, I am sure we will continue this excellent pace of development. Pride, I am extremely proud of you for all that you have put into this season thus far. At one of the 1st practices of the season, you may recall, I spoke with you about the difference between “fun” and “fulfillment”. How they are both good and desirable things but how they are very different things – and how fulfillment doesn’t just come and go on the whim of a funny comment or playful antics like "fun" does but is something deeper and ultimately more gratifying that is built slowly and steadily through hard work and dedication. I promised you that if you gave yourselves the chance, you would come to know the difference by the end of the season. Well, right about now, you should be beginning to feel what I was talking about back then. Happily we’ve been having a lot of out right “fun” along the way as well – that’s because all you girls are such a blast and so full of personality, wit and mischief :). But take a look at where you are today from where you were 2 months ago. Think of what you’ve learned and how well you’ve applied that learning. Think of what a joy it is to realize that these thing you have learned are now always going to be a part of you – a part of thing you know how to do. Think of the confidence you've been able to walk onto the game field with because you KNOW what you are able to do together. That is confidence you have the right to feel… because it is confidence you have earned. It is the difference between (1) saying “you’re every bit as good as the next team” just because that’s what a coach is expected to say even if both you and he know that you have never really worked hard or learned much over the season or (2) me saying to you “you have everything you need to win this match” because you and I both know the work and practice you have put into making that statement true. That is what I’m talking about when I talk to you about fulfillment. But we are not done yet. There is plenty left to learn and accomplish. So let’s take stock of where we are now, look at where we can go down this last stretch of the season, and re-commit ourselves to get there together. Let’s show everybody who’s seen us so far that “they ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.

NOTABLE: TWO THUMBS UP for Rebecca Heck who stood tall and performed admirably as the defensive line was left with a big hole in the absence of Tenealle. TWO THUMBS WAY UP for our goalkeeping duo of Melissa & Jessica. Each keeper made excellent saves today to keep their amazing shutout streak intact. I don’t know if a scoreless tie is officially counted as a shutout when keeping track of such things, but around here, we are going to count it as one anyhow. These girls have not been scored on this year! 5 games into the season – that’s just amazing. A HARDY ROUND OF APPLAUSE for the defensive effort of captain Lisa Zelenak, newly-named tri-captain Mallory Parker-Zibel, Jessica Munson, Rebecca Heck, and Lindita Ivezaj. The success of our goalkeepers is in no small part thanks to you! Full Summary to follow. Goalkeepers: Melissa Anderson, Jessica Munson