TCU Football Goes Bowling Tonight Live on ESPN!

Tonight at 7:00 Central the #11 ranked TCU Horned Frog Football team will take on the #9 ranked Boise State Broncos in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. The team will be visited by former TCU star and current NFL Star San Diego Charger Ladanian Tomlinson.

This is sure to be one of the best bowl games of the year and can be watched live on ESPN.

U2 Christmas Song

I'm a huge U2 fan going way back to junior high-yes that's a long time, in fact it came up with the team this past year that I actually saw Flavor Flav, performing with Public Enemy opening at a U2 concert-not one of our players had any idea who Public Enemy was and only new Flavor Flav from his Flavor of Love show-so I guess I am starting to get dated. But the beauty of U2 is they are the greatest band of all time and transcend generations.

So to get you into the holiday Spirit here's a link for the greatest Christmas song of all time :http://www.u2.com/highlights/?hid=507&utm_source=Publicaster&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EMLU2OS_DecUpdate_Free_121808

I've got this in the loop of U2 songs that play for my son Zak in his room and have convinced him that Santa Claus only comes for TCU Horned Frog fans and U2 fans!

TCU Loses a Legend

One of the great things about the college experience is the atmosphere created on a campus with Big Time Athletics. We're lucky here at TCU that we've got one of the top college football programs in the country, currently ranked #11 in the nation, with a long list of greats. This morning we learned that we lost one of the all-time TCU and College Football greats with the passing of Sam Baugh. Baugh stared for the Frogs in the 30's and led to TCU to a National Championship, before moving on to revolutionize the NFL in a career with the Washington Redskins.

Any list of college football greats always has Baugh right on top. Last year TCU honored Baugh with the dedication and opening of the Sam Baugh Indoor Practice Facility. So every time you step into one of those electric Saturday afternoons in Amon Carter Stadium, you'll know that Sam Baugh is one of the greats that paved the way for that experience.

WPS Combine

This past weekend I had the opportunity to help out the Los Angeles Sol of the newly formed Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league at their west coast combine. In all, 72 players were invited in for the weekend at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego. The level was extremely high and included players that had just finished up their college careers in the final four, all the way to players that stared for the US National Team in the 90's. It was a great event and certainly an encouraging pulse for women's soccer. I'm looking forward to seeing the league kick off this March with a game in LA versus Washington at the Home Depot Center. The opportunity that now exists for players to continue their career is an exciting one and I'm looking forward to seeing some of our current Horned Frogs in a WPS uniform in the near future!

Finals Week

This week is a pretty important week for the Frogs. The team has worked hard this semester to put themselves in a good position in the classroom. And now with classes behind them for the fall semester, all the focus for the team has been on preparation for finals which start today and run through Friday. Through study hall sessions, tutor sessions, review sessions, writing papers in the computer lab, and group study sessions, the team is ready to do its best this finals week to make sure we reach the goal the team set for an overall team GPA of 3.3.

Good luck ladies!!

Christmas Party 2008

Last night was our party for Christmas 2008! The girls all showed up in Christmas sweaters and ready to exchange gifts. Every year we do a white elephant gift exchange that the girls buy gifts for. However, this year the team decided to put their money towards gifts for others. Each of the classes donated two gifts for Toys for Tots. They also raised money to adopt two families in order for each family to have a wonderful Christmas! Toys for Tots is something that we have always participated in at TCU and we thought it was a wonderful gesture for them to also raise the money for two deserving families!

Nevertheless, the girls still didn’t miss out on the gift exchange; they brought a gift that was something they had laying around the house! There was a wide range of gifts from the interesting to the creative. Ideas were things like homemade cookies, whoopee cushions, Dallas Maverick souvenirs, socks, athletic tape, self made paintings and many many more! Now the girls are off getting ready for finals next week and then they will be home for the Holidays!!!

Awards Continue to Roll In!

Freshman Jordan Calhoun was honored on Saturday by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America as a third-team NCAA Division I All-Central Region selection, while the TCU women's soccer program received word that for the third-consecutive year the squad was recognized with the NSCAA Team Academic Award.

Calhoun, who was named Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year in 2008, was recently selected to Top Drawer Soccer's second-team All-Rookie squad. The Norman, Okla., native, netted 15 goals during the 2008 season, while dishing out two assists. With her 15 goals, the first-team all-conference selection, who became TCU's all-time leader in goals scored during a single-season, helped lead the Horned Frogs to a 14-4-2 record and season-high national ranking of No. 28.

Last month, Calhoun was recognized as one of the top-32 players in the nation by Soccer News Net. She is currently a finalist for the Soccer News Net Player of the Year Award.
Overall, Calhoun netted six game-winning goals on the season, while also scoring the equalizing goal in matches against Texas, Texas Tech and Ole Miss. Finally, she finished the 2008 season ranked first in the Mountain West Conference in points, points per game, goals, goals per game and game-winning goals during her freshman campaign.

To be eligible for the NSCAA Team Academic Award a team must have a team GPA of at least 3.0 for the 2007-08 academic year.

New Baby, New Champion

It's been a bit of a crazy 7 days as last Tuesday, my wife and I welcomed our second child, with the birth of Kloe Anne Abdalla. Mom, Kloe and our 2 year old Zak are all doing great and it's been unbelievable.

This past weekend brought the final four and congratulations to the University of North Carolina for their championship. I enjoyed watching so many players who I have had the opportunity to coach in the past that played for all 4 teams in the final four. It was a great atmosphere, despite the bitter cold and great for women's soccer in this country.

This week here on campus, our girls will get prepared for finals next week. Thursday and Friday are off from classes, as study days and then finals start next Monday.

Coming the rest of the week-tomorrow night we've got our team Christmas party, this weekend I'm headed out to the WPS Player Combine and I'll get a picture of little baby Kloe up!

A New Season

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed the time with your family and friends. We welcomed the team back from Thanksgiving break this week as the semester is winding down. Only a week and a half left of class, and then finals time. Its an important time of the year for the team. Everyone is working hard to finish up the semester strong in their classes and reach their team goal of a 3.3 team GPA. This is also an important time of year on the field as we start our preparations for next season. Its exciting for us as we look at the future of TCU Soccer. Our team is even more determined than ever to take the next step in our growth as a team and a program. We will keep you updated on everything that goes on as we strive to continue towards our goals of a conference championship and a National Championship.