Frogs Remain Undeafeated on the Season!

I was extremely proud of our squad today, as we fought back from a 2-0 deficit to tie Ole Miss 2-2. Defensively we played fairly well, but two youthful mistakes by our back line led to the Ole Miss scores. It was a great learning opportunity for our back line which features 3 freshman, 1 sophomore and a sophomore goalkeeper.

It was a solid and experienced Ole Miss squad, so the way our group responded was tremendous. Freshman Katie Runyon got us on the board in the second half with just a great follow up effort, where she just ran through the ball to get it in the net. Freshman Jordan Calhoun then got the equalizer a minute later scoring her 5th goal in 3 games.

A missed penalty would have secured the win for us and we also had another ball cleared off the line late in the game-so it could have easily been 4 goals on the day for the Frogs. Chelsea Cody and Kaylie Garcia both had great games in the middle of the park.

This was a great character game for us and what we want this early in the season-it will certainly pay off down the road!

Frogs Down Xavier 3-0!

We had another good performance last night in front of another packed house at Garvey-Rosenthal Stadium. We did a good job of getting out of the gates quick and really bringing an aggressive attacking mentality. Caroline Starns once again had a real solid game in setting the tone, while Lizzy Karoly and Jordan Calhoun were both dangerous all night. Xavier was strong and physical so it was a nice test.

I thought the timing and creativity of our runs were much better from the first game, as the midfield played much crisper balls into the final 3rd. The entire back line did a great job of organizing and keeping us connected-Cheryl Martin, Katie Taylor and Nikki Wilbur (both as a back and mid) communicated well and set a good tone aggressively. Freshman Lindsay Holmes improved tremendously on her positioning while Alex Meshalske was much more dangerous this game and is starting to show her creativity.

Overall, I was extremely impressed with how task oriented the team was in this game and their focus to finish the game off. They really managed the rhythm of play very well! Next one up is Ole Miss tomorrow.

Coach Mark Celebrates 40th Birthday!

Today was coach Mark Plakorus' 40th birthday, so the team decided to give him big surprise as a tribute to him. After stretching, the whole team went inside our locker room at the field and changed into honorary black t-shirts they had made. The shirts sported the letter "M" on the front and a big "40" on the back. It was awsome as they wore the t-shirts the training session in his honor. Great job ladies, not sure you know how much that meant, and happy birthday Mark!

Great News For The Frogs On The First Day Of Class!

Today is the first day of classes for the 2008 year here at TCU. Its an exciting day not only for the freshman, but I think the seniors as well. Actually, I think everyone on campus is somewhat excited as the 2008 school year brings the opening of a brand new student union and four new dorms as the center piece of TCU's campus. The Campus Commons, as its being called, is the center piece of $155 million in new construction finishing up.

In addition to the start of a new year, today also brought some good news to our program. Lizzy Karoly and Kelsey Walters were selected by the Mountain West Conference as Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week following our win on Friday night. Its the second time these two have swept this award from the conference. Its a great honor for our team and these two student-athletes to be selected in recognition of our team's and their individual efforts this past weekend. Last year Lizzy and Kelsey were given this same honor following our win over #22 Utah. Maybe they just like winning it together. We are happy for these two and look forward to getting back to practice tomorrow in preparations for our matches this weekend vs Xavier and 'Ole Miss.

Dr. Dan Freigang-Sports Psychologist for US Soccer, Bayern Munich & TCU Soccer

We had an easy day yesterday, with just individual meetings and then a great team dinner at famed Fort Worth restaurant, Joe T. Garcia's -- it was great and a nice way to finish up pre-season.

It was also great to have Dr. Dan Freigang come join us. This is the second year that Dr. Dan has been a part of our soccer staff as our team sports psychologist and it's been awesome to watch the impact he's made on our group in just a year. He's been integral in helping us build the foundation and expectations our players have for themselves and the program. It's fun to watch him interact with the returners like Lizzy Karoly and Michelle Nguyen, in helping them elevate the level of their game -- if you watch either of those two players from last fall to this year, they have taken things to a whole different level.

Dr. Dan has also been an important part of our team in our leadership development class. We have a group of our players that we meet with once a week and have different tasks they are responsible for. They get the opportunity to lead, delegate, and evaluate within their peer group. Has been a lot of fun and again the results have been huge and very apparent.

Dano, as the team affectionately calls him, has become a great member of our family and last year his son, Will, even gave a Taekwondo lesson to the girls before a big match! So we're happy to have Dr. Dan as a part of our staff and count ourselves among the soccer powerhouses he works with -- Bayern Munich, US Soccer and TCU Soccer!

Frogs Win Opener 5-0!

We got a nice result tonight in a 5-0 win versus Stephen F. Austin, a team that went to the NCAA tournament last year. Junior Lizzy Karoly had 2 goals and an assist, while Freshman Jordan Calhoun chipped in with 2 goals. Senior Caroline Starns came away with two fantastic assists, Sophomore Jackie Torda had two assists and Sophomore Nikki Wilbur finished the game off with a great goal off a corner late. The team played well and committed to the attack in the final 3rd -- it was definitely a great starting point for the season. We were happy with the overall effort, but it was also good to see some of the things we need to improve upon.

We had a great atmosphere with over 1200 great Frog Fans in attendance. Thank you to all of you that came out! And a special shout out to Matt Hoover, Bryce Sandivall and Alex Cunninghum for putting together what was the best introduction in college soccer -- I'll try to get it up on-line in the next week, as it is truly something special!

On the to the next game -- Friday versus Xavier!

TCU Indoor Facility Comes in Handy!

One of the unique things about Texas is that a thunderstorm can roll into town in a matter of minutes and can be gone just as quick. The last couple of days that's been the case and it's always a time that we sit back and are thankful we've got such great facilities here at TCU.

The first part is our field, which is so good that even in a torrential downpour we've got a pitch that you'd have no idea it's been raining. So with rain we've got no problem's with training, lightning on the other hand is one we don't mess with.

While we were on the field warming up yesterday at 6:00 PM our lightning siren went off, but instead of having to cancel practice or wait out the 30 minutes for an all clear we were able to continue practice indoors at the Sam Baugh Indoor Training Facility here at TCU by 6:15 PM. The set up is great with a full size field and goals that allows us to not have to miss a beat.

When I talk to other coaches around the country that are having to cancel training sessions because of weather, I definitely realize how lucky we are here at TCU.

OSU Recap and Off to the Lake!

We returned back into Ft. Worth late last night after our exhibition match at Oklahoma State. Overall the game served its purpose as we played 19 different players, got to see some different combinations and try a few other things. With as young of a group as we had it was important for them to see the pace and level and I was happy with how we adjusted. This game will serve us well in the early parts of our season.

So today we're taking the day off and headed out to the lake for a day of R&R! We'll camp overnight and then hang out in the water tomorrow. Should be a great experience and a well deserved bit of fun!

Frogs Take to the Road!

We left today for Stillwater, Oklahoma and an exhibition match versus Oklahoma State tomorrow night. After a quick ride up with a couple of movies, we jumped out for a short training session to loosen up the legs.

We've talked a lot with the team about understanding the preparation needed on the road so it was great to see so many Gatorade bottles being carried around.

We had dinner at a local steakhouse, which was a nice change from our pre-season training table. It was also great for our 3 of our players, Kaylie Garcia, Kelsey Walters and Jordan Calhoun, who all hail from Oklahoma, to see their parents. Their parents joined us for dinner and the highlight was definitely when birthday girl Kaylie Garcia, got Coach Adam to jump on a saddle, for what should have been her birthday song- trust me pictures on this will be posted!

We finished up the evening with some quick position meetings to just tie up some loose ends and make sure we're ready for tomorrow!

This Week In TCU Soccer!

Our Sports Information Director, Matt Hoover (we're lucky enough to have the best guy in college soccer), is putting together a weekly highlight and interview show that we wanted to share with you as we get prepared for our Saturday match with Oklahoma State.

Oh yeah and by the way-yes that is U2 on the intro song!

It's a Beautiful Day!

So I'm a huge U2 fan-I actually missed my junior prom to attend a U2 concert, have flown across the country just for a night show, took my wife to a U2 concert for our first date, and our wedding song is "The Sweetest Thing"; so the song "It's a Beautiful Day" takes on special meaning to me.

The reason I bring this up, is the Dallas Cowboys, who's new $1 billion stadium is just 10 minutes down the road from us, just left Oxnard, California where they held training camp. They go to Oxnard because of the weather, but the funny thing is yesterday while all of the sports anchors were getting back into the metroplex, all you heard was how the weather was exactly the same here as in Oxnard.

Just thought that was kind of funny as we trained in 85 degree weather today!

Lizzy Karoly returns to America!

We're excited today as junior forward Lizzy Karoly rejoins us from her summer long adventure in Iceland. We'll give her a couple of days to get back into the swing of things and catch up on sleep, but the team is really excited to have her back home (as I'm sure she is as well).

After 2 intense training sessions yesterday and a great one this morning, we'll take the team over to my house for a pool workout this afternoon to take a break on their legs -- plus it will be a lot of fun!

My wife and little guy Zak (2 years old), snuck out to California for a couple of days to visit family, so I'm starting to miss them a bit. Zak is becoming such a character and so funny. The other night I had him in bed watching the Olympics with me and he got all excited and started yelling Michael, Michael, cheering on Michael Phelps. My wife told me he did it again last night and his grandfather gave him an American flag, that he just kept waving.

Pre-Season-Day 7!

Was an intense training session this morning. Dr. Upton got the group going for about 30 minutes with his famous obstacle course. We took advantage of talking to the girls about not just doing it, but doing it all out- - taking the pace to another level. It was fun to watch as it was just contagious, 1 person stepped up to a new level, then another tried to match it, then someone tried to one up it. Man was it great.

That competitiveness continued as we focused a ton on our 1v1 defending. It started off with a game to cones, but then we quickly took it to goal as the team was buzzing. We ended up spending the rest of training in 1v1 flying changes, with every player not leaving a thing on the field.

By the end, it was one of those sessions that you are absolutely dog tired because you have worked so hard, but loved every minute of it!

Pre-Season-Day 6!

The team earned a well deserved day off today with an intense past 4 days of training! A good breakfast at our local favorite eatery, Yogi's, followed by a photo shoot, treatments and then a fun adventure in beautiful downtown Ft. Worth for dinner (We'll make sure to post some of the pictures as the team learns their way around).

Yesterday's scrimmage finished up strong, with Mark's White team edging Michelle's Purple group 2-1 in 3-mini games. We played a bunch of different formations and combinations of players to just see where players fit in. We'll continue with that this week as we settle into things.

While the team rests today, we'll be evaluating the video from yesterday and breaking it down, preparing for another great week!

Pre-Season-Day 5!

The team bounced back great after an intense fitness session with Dr. Upton for the second half of training last night. Dr. Upton is our strength & conditioning coach, who also happens to be in the kinesiology department here at TCU. Dr. Upton has a background of working with MLS and NFL teams, as well as a long list of professional athletes. He develops our fitness program based on the specifics of every one of our players and the positions. It is so soccer specific, the girls love it. It's demanding, but the results are unbelievable.

This morning, we jumped into more of an offensive mindset, working on combinations and committing to the attack. Even as the 7th training session in 4 day's, the level was extremely good. I've never had a group that could slide into 1 touch possession as well as this. We ask all of our players to be involved in the attack, so our backs have to be as comfortable getting forward as our strikers. For some of our freshman this is still a tough concept, but they started to adjust very well.

We'll finish up today with an inter squad game. Coach Mark and Coach Michelle drafted teams last night and will coach them. We'll turn on the scoreboard and the music-the whole production, which is unlike any other college soccer atmosphere-our scoreboard is a huge jumbotron that we can show replays or movies on! (Tomorrow the girls get to video their player introductions-it's like your at an NBA game for that) The only thing missing tonight will be the 1500 people we usually have in the stands. Should be fun though and give the girls a taste of the atmosphere.

Pre-Season-Day 4!

Another, great morning session this morning! We continued our focus on team defending, which was proved to be a competitive battlefield. Even though we're 3 day's into field training, haven't heard one player complain about the soreness and bumps and bruises.

Last night we had birthday cake for Michelle Nguyen-which was great by the way-I think I ate half of it.

Also, got a nice phone call today from our one player still missing from camp, Lizzy Karoly, who played her last game in Iceland this evening before she heads back to join us. Can't wait to get her back early next week.

Busy day today, so more details tomorrow, as we'll break out some uniforms and play a purple/white scrimmage!

Pre-Season- Day 3!

After a spirited session last night, that concluded with a full field scrimmage, the team was back at it this morning. We focused on just a refresher course in 1v1 defending-which is one of the main focuses for our program. An intense match of a game we call "the moat", where 2 teams battle back and forth in 1v1 matches, trying to get across the moat to their teammates brought out a tremendous competition level. It was great to see the defensive toughness of 4 of our sophomores-Katie Taylor, Nicki Wilbur, Cheryl Martin and Julia Slater-start to come out!

We followed that up with one of our teams favorite games: 2 minutes, 2 goals. We break the group into 3 teams and 2 teams play for 2 minutes or 2 goals-whoever wins stays on. What was great was to see the players starting to get to know we each other and combinations starting to arise-a couple of players really stood out-Sophomore Transfer Emma Geyer, Junior Kelly Faerber and Freshman Chelsey Wilgenburg.

We then finished up with a finishing game I stole from good buddy, KC Crabb, called "30 seconds". We play 2v2 inside the 18 yard box with goals on each end line. The object is score as many goals as you can, with a whistle blown every 30 seconds to switch all 4 players off the field. It's fast, intense, and competitive-one of the best finishing games ever. It was actually all tied up until in the very end when Junior Michelle Nguyen-whose 20th birthday is today-bent a quick shot around a defender and into the upper 90 to win it!

Was a great morning, and we get back at it this evening with a classroom session to start sharing our system and then a field session where we'll cover zonal defending!

Pre-Season-Day 2!

After a great team dinner last night, we finally were able to get on the field for the first time this morning. Was a great session! The team did extremely well in our fitness-most everyone had been here working out already, so this wasn't a surprise!

We then got into things a bit with the ball, where we just wanted to give them a chance to play and settle in. I was extremely pleased with the technical ability in possession and then we got going to goal, had some great finishes.

What I was most impressed with was the leadership and communication on the field-this group has matured quite a bit in that area and it was apparent.

Some of the highlights from today's training included:
A great flank service from senior Caroline Starns, who found freshman Chelsey Wilgenburg on the back post for a great finish from her head...

Freshman Alex Mechalske's work rate in the fitness...

Sophomore Chelsea Cody-never giving the ball away and hooking up with old club teammate Jordan Calhoun, for a couple of great goals...

Sophomore goalkeeper Kelsey Walters two point blank saves...

There were a ton more and even more ahead!

Day 1-Meeting Day!

It's always an exciting day, the first day of a new season. We welcomed 10 new freshman onto campus this morning and got them settled into Moncrief dorm prior to our 10 am start. Dorms here at TCU are definitely different than when I was in school, besides being immaculate, the size of the rooms is unbelievable. They're also all suites, so the girls just have 2 rooms that share a bathroom-which I found out today they don't even have to clean-TCU Housing Services comes through once a week to clean them. I certainly could have used that with my roommates back in the day!

Then it's off to meetings-a welcome meeting where we learned we have 2 players that can lick their elbows; a compliance meeting to make sure we don't break any NCAA rules; A meeting with our athletic trainer, Lauren Crawford, so everyone can stay healthy and then the fun ones-equipment-it's like Christmas in August-and team pictures. A team dinner tonight at my house, where all of the new girls get meet my wife and Zak, my 2-year-old little boy.

Training starts tomorrow 8:00 AM where we get down to the business of winning a championship!

Pre-Season Right Around The Corner!

Well our countdown to pre-season has started, as the girls report for camp next Tuesday. It's always fun and exciting to be on the brink of a new year. We spent the day dealing with all of the little things making sure we're ready to kick off next week. So balls were pumped, signs were hung, nets put on goals, equipment laid out.

The field is cut perfectly and ready to go!