VARSITY ATHLETICS

August 26, 2009

Last Preseason For Case's Cottington

By Senior Midfielder/Forward Jordan Cottington (Glenview, IL)

It’s that time of year again. The summer has come to an end and life as a soccer player begins. On August 17th I began my last preseason as a varsity athlete. This is a bittersweet time because I do not wish for my collegiate career to come to an end, but I am also excited for what the future holds beyond soccer. This past summer I trained very hard to enter preseason in top form and also worked very hard as an investment management intern for the Sloan Kettering endowment in New York City. I was working directly with the Chief Information Officer on projects dealing with emerging market investments and hedge fund analysis. As a banking and finance major, this internship gave me the opportunity to see what I may be doing in the world of finance after I am done with my collegiate career. At times it was tough to balance both work and training for soccer, but I was able to get in great shape before preseason.

Preseason begins every year with the much anticipated fitness measure: The Beep Test. This test requires one to run continuously between cones at the sound of a beep. The time in between the beeps becomes progressively shorter. The test allows Coach Palmer to see if you put in some hard work over the summer months. Field players have to reach a certain level, as do goalkeepers, and the team must reach a certain average. This year the team came in very fit and everyone did well on this test.

The rest of the week consists of two-a-days. We usually have a training session in the morning followed by an afternoon training session coupled with a pool workout. The training sessions are very demanding of a player and the coaches make sure we are working hard at all times. The training sessions are comprised of various drills focusing on the technical and tactical aspects of the game. These drills are especially important for the new players, so that they can become accustomed to the style of play that we try to utilize. We usually end the training sessions with small-sided games or scrimmages to put into practice the technical and tactical ideas we have worked on. Following the afternoon training session, the team heads into the pool for some workouts. I usually look forward to the pool workouts after spending hours in the August heat. The pool workouts are a great way to increase our fitness levels in a low impact environment. They are very tiring but your body usually feels pretty good when you get out of the pool. We finished pre-season with a 2-1 loss in a scrimmage against Notre Dame College, a very good NAIA team. Even though we lost, we came away with some valuable insight into what we need to work on as a team to continue to get better.

Now that pre-season is over, our focus shifts to coming together as a team. A large group of seniors graduated last year and we are looking for younger players to fill their shoes. The team is made up of a solid group of players, who strive to get better every time they step on the field. With this type of attitude, the season will be a definite success.

Posted by: Creg Jantz August 26, 2009 04:25 PM | Category: Men's Soccer

Posted by: cnj4 (Creg Jantz) August 26, 2009 04:25 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback