Britney Spears Hits the Metroplex!

Tonight at the American Airlines Center Britney Spears hits the stage for her concert series, The Circus. Not sure any of the team is going, but I do know at least two of our graduating seniors, Caroline Starns and Sara Schneider, are excited to go!

TCU Makes Appearance on The Simpsons

On the way back from a hard fought match yesterday down at College Station, one of the girls mentioned that TCU would be making an appearance on the Simpson's. Turns out Reverend Lovejoy is a TCU Alum!

Check it out at the 3:47 point here:http://www.hulu.com/watch/64972/the-simpsons-wedding-for-disaster

Gave the team the day off today. Back at it tomorrow in preparation for Texas Tech this Saturday here at 7:00 PM.

Egg Toss Another Win for Purple Team

Another solid day of training as we took the team indoors to mix things up a bit. Tomorrow we head off to College Station for a match with Texas A&M. Will be a good test.

But yesterday we finished up the session with some fun, another Purple/White Competition. It was an egg toss and the Purple team had the last group standing. It definitely got a little messy as the winning toss was over 30 yards. So Purple continues the spring domination!

TCU Alum Bob Schieffer to host President Obama

TCU Alum and journalism school namesake Bob Schieffer will host President Obama this Sunday morning on CBS's Face the Nation. Having hosted the final Presidential Debate, the former anchor for CBS News Schieffer is still plays an influential role on the TCU Campus.

Schieffer actively works with TCU's Schieffer School of Journalism, frequently making appearances in classrooms and helping mentor students. He also hosts the annual Schieffer Symposium on TCU's campus, which brings together the top names in the journalism world. The fifth annual symposium will be held next week, April 1st.

For more information on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer click here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/ftn/main3460.shtml

Or to learn more about the fifth annual Schieffer Symposium click here:

http://www.newsevents.tcu.edu/1498.asp

Team Revs it up at Training Today in Prep for Sunday's Match

After a couple of decent training sessions on Monday and Tuesday, was really impressed with the energy the team brought out today. It's always tough to shake off the spring break blues after a week away, so I challenged the team on Tuesday to really ramp things up after a Wednesday day off. And man did they-it was great today-players sliding all over the place, great finishing, great goalkeeping-was one of our most enthusiastic sessions of the spring.

It started off on a great note when I showed up to the field and a group of players were already out working on some finishing and other things with Coach Mark and Michelle. Every coach always loves to see that and the culture here within our program is such that players always do extra work on their own.

Then we got after it with a bit of 1v1 and 2v2 work-the intensity was great!!!!! After that we finished with one of our favorite games 2 minutes/2 goals. The group gets broken into 3 teams and they play intense games where the team that scores 2 goals or is winning after 2 minutes stays on. Not even sure which team ended up winning, but the two losing teams had to jump in the goal for butts up, where Nikki Wilbur decided to smack coach Michelle (she was on one of the losing teams) 3 times!!! It was great.

Ft. Worth Quickly Becoming World Soccer Hot Spot

The Fort Worth area is quickly becoming the soccer hot spot for the world. Last month, CONCACAF announced the Gold Cup Quarterfinal match to be played at the new Cowboys Stadium, just 10 minutes from campus.

Then today it was announced that CHELSEA will play CLUB AMERICA in a July match this summer. Should be some great action right down the road.

Here's the link: http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/news.cfm?id=3A7CEDB1-0C35-EC6B-3B8B0AE5DF433A8A

Also it was announced last week that the metroplex will also host a US Women's National team match in May at Pizza Hut Park.

Lots of Purple outside DMC Today

So as all of you know (because you've been reading my blogs) our women's basketball team is heading to Lubbock to play this weekend in the first round of the NCAA tournament. What makes today so special, however, is how they left the coliseum. Super Frog, the TCU Band, the Frog Horn, and many Horned Frog fans were outside the DMC to wish the girls good luck and give them a proper goodbye before they got on the bus and headed west. It was great to see so many people out there cheering on the Lady Horned Frogs. Dan even brought his two little ones to join the festivities. Zak was a little disappointed to have to leave Super Frog but I think he'll be OK. Its so great to be a part of a community that supports one another and gets excited to see everyone achieve their goals.

Spring is HERE!

Sorry I wasn't able to post a blog yesterday. I unfortunately am spending my spring break sick but I hope everyone embraced their Irish side and had a great St. Patrick's Day!

It truly is spring here in Fort Worth. The temperatures are in the Mid 70's with a nice breeze and bright, sunny skies without a cloud in sight. This would be a perfect day to head on over to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens and check our their 25th annual Spring Festival in the Japanese Garden. Admission is only $4 for adults and $2 for children 4-12 yrs. There will be traditional Japanese dance, music, martial arts demonstrations, paper making, and tea ceremonies. For more information visit: www.fwbg.org

Frogs make the Dance

Great news! The TCU Women's basketball team is heading to the NCAA Tournament!
My roommate and I just watched as ESPN announced the tournament brackets and our 10th seed Lady Frogs will be competing against 7th seed South Dakota State Lady Jackrabbits. The game will be this Sunday in Lubbock, Texas. The match will tip off at 6 p.m., will be televised by ESPN2.

The Frogs posted a 20-10 overall record this season and finished third in the Mountain West Conference with a 12-4 mark in league play. Let's Go Horned Frogs!!!

The first knockout round of the UEFA Champions League games finished up this past week and here are the results.

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/fixturesresults/round=15277/index.html

The quarter finals begin in about 3 weeks and I know Associate Head Coach Mark Plakorus will be rooting for Man U but we will see.....

Today, I am actually in Plano, Texas for a wedding! (It's about an hour northeast of Fort Worth.) I promised the mother of the bride I would give them a little shout out on here because she is a TCU alumni :o) A lot of former Horned Frogs will be in attendance...aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, parents and friends who are all TCU graduates. Even the former TCU football stand out, David Hawthorne, (who now plays for the Seattle Seahawks!) will there. It'll be a lot of fun and of course we will take the classic "horned frog" wedding picture to submit to the TCU Magazine. The reception is going to be held at the famous Southfork Ranch, which is where the legendary '80s TV series Dallas was filmed. "Who shot J.R.?"

Back over in Funky town, Rifle has their second day of the national championships at the DMC and our nationally ranked #11 baseball team starts their home series against Minnesota.
Hope everyone is having a great Spring Break!!
~ANJ~

Hold Your Fire!

Be careful where you are walking this weekend in Fort Worth; TCU is hosting the NCAA Rifle Championships Friday and Saturday.

There are two events for this competition; small bore and air rifle. Friday is the small bore competition which will be held all day in the TCU rifle range, located in the ROTC building. The air rifle events will be on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. However, make sure you get there on time because the DMC will be on lock down, only letting people in and out at certain times to prevent wind blowing in and effecting the competition. CRAZY!

TCU is the only all-female squad competing. The other schools are Alaska Fairbanks, Army, Jacksonville State, Kentucky, Navy, Nevada and West Virginia. The Horned Frogs finished fifth nationally in 2007 and were third last season. Good news, TCU returned its entire squad this year so hopes are high for the Lady Horned Frogs.

Everyone is invited to come watch Saturday's air rifle competition at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. Adult general admission tickets are $5 while youth (ages 3-17) and university student tickets are $3.

Testing Update

Hello Bloggers,

Today was our last day of training before spring break. The girls have worked their tails off this spring season and earned tomorrow afternoon off. Good work ladies! Even though it was rainy and the field was quite wet, practice must go on...we were able to use the Game On Arena to do our mid-off-season testing and have our Weekly match.

The girls were testing their T-test and 40 yard dash times. It's really cool because here at TCU we're High Tech. Who needs hand held stopwatches when you can use Digital Laser Timers!!

The main focus this spring has been to improve the players' initial 5-15 yard times and their mechanics. I spoke with Dr. Upton, our Strength and Conditioning coach, after all the testing and he said that on the T-Tests the players' turns were sharp and cleaner, which helped improve times. He was pleased to see the 40 times were faster as well. "The attitude is phenomenal. Their willingness to do the work makes my job easier," explained Upton.

After testing the team was divided in two and the players got to play an indoor game. Every week two new players are chosen to be captain and draft teams. Then those captains lead the team and are in charge of making any adjustments at half. Today we had a VERY close and high scoring game. The final was 11-9. Players on the winning teams get points, which are added up through out the entire season. I know there were a couple of players who were very happy to be receiving their first point of the season Hahaha!

~ANJ~

Pictionary Result

Well, I know I left y'all (official Texas term) hanging on the result of the epic Pictionary game on the trip to Austin, but you won't need to bite your nails anymore.

The White team was able to pull out a victory! According to my inside sources (juniors Kelly Faerber and Michelle Nguyen) they owe their victory to freshmen goalkeeper, Lauren Wysoski, on the Purple team and her ability to make everyone on the bus laugh uncontrollably!

Apparently her efforts to draw pictures that would lead her teammates to say "Sylvester Stallone" created too many laughs and ultimately led to the Purple team's down fall. (The pictures included the skunk Pepe Le Pew and a horse/stallion.)

I have also been informed that the White team had a slight advantage of "alertness". Players on the purple team were using their time on the bus to nap (dreaming of soccer I'm sure) before pictionary began. I guess its true what they say, "You snooze. You lose." That was cheesy...I know :0)
~ANJ~

International Soccer Comes to TCU's Backyard!

It was exciting to see the announcement yesterday that the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, just 15 minutes from TCU's Campus, will become home to some of the best soccer matches around. With the Gold Cup, featuring national teams from our region, including the United States and Mexico, playing a quarterfinal game in the new stadium July 19, soccer will be the FIRST sporting event to be held at the billion dollar venue.

This is the first of many great opportunities to watch games at the highest level right here at TCU.

Check out the article at: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/story/1248191.html

Great Weather, Great Wins!

The weekend proved to be absolutely beautiful with temperatures in the high 70's, low 80's. Perfect for our match on Saturday versus UNT. Girls came out strong with a 3-1 win. I was especially happy, because we talked about being more aggressive on offensive corners and ended up with 2 goals off them!

After our match got the chance to jump on the train up to downtown Dallas to take my wife and son to a Mav's game. A great game for them as well with a big win over Washington. Zak loved the quick train ride up, but the highlight was his picture with Champ!

Fort Worth Zoo-One of the Best in the Country!

One of the hidden gems of TCU is the the Fort Worth Zoo, less than 1 mile from campus. It's ranked as the #1 attraction in the entire Fort Worth/Dallas area and the #19 attraction in the entire county-yes it is that good! It's also ranked as the #5 Zoo in the entire country. It's a great place to just go relax for lunch or spend an entire day.

I love taking my son Zak over for lunch to check out the monkey's-you might actually catch a monkey wearing a TCU Soccer hat that Zak decided to donate off the top of my head!

Career Development Plays A Huge Role In TCU Soccer Experience

Our Sophomores will attend a Career Development seminar tonight at 6:00 pm here on campus. “Networking: A Guide to Careers in Athletics” will address ways student-athletes can use their experience to get involved in various careers within professional athletics (marketing, operations, etc.).

TCU graduates Reid Ryan, President & CEO of Ryan Sanders Baseball, and Reese Ryan, CFO for the Round Rock Express Baseball Club, will present. Yes these are the son's of baseball hall of famer and current Texas Rangers President Nolan Ryan.

These type of events play a very important role in a TCU Soccer Player's life, as we want to make sure every player is ready to hit the real world after they get that diploma.

Junior Striker Lizzy Karoly Writes For the Daily Skiff

Junior Striker Lizzy Karoly, a communications major out of San Diego, has been spending her spring not only on the soccer pitch, but in the newsroom as well. She's been getting a ton of experience in the Schieffer School of Journalism, as a writer for our daily campus newspaper, The Daily Skiff.

Check out her latest article here:

http://media.www.tcudailyskiff.com/media/storage/paper792/news/2009/03/03/News/Nonprofit.Visits.Campus.To.Raise.Awareness.About.Widows.Plight-3656331.shtml

TCU's Neeley Business School Ranked #34 in the Country!

Coming back from a weekend that saw the team get a 2-0 win over the University of Miami, I was able to read that our business program continues to be one of the top business schools in the country! Check out this article from BusinessWeeks rankings:

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/02/0226_best_undergrad_bschools/18.htm

Here's the article from TCU on the ranking:
February 27, 2009

BUSINESSWEEK RANKS NEELEY SCHOOL #34 FOR 2009 BEST UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS SCHOOLS

The Neeley School of Business at TCU is No. 34 in the country in BusinessWeek’s fourth annual ranking of U.S. undergraduate business programs. Neeley also ranked 27th in the country for Internships, higher than all other Texas schools except #14 University of Texas, and received an “A” for Job Placement.

Like the Neeley School, the schools that excelled in the survey focus intensely on helping students land jobs. Other BusinessWeek national rankings for the Neeley School of Business at TCU are:
9th in Student Survey
18th for Hardest Working Students based on hours spent on class work each week
A+ in Teaching Quality
A+ in Facilities and Service
“In any economy, a keen knowledge of business is crucial, but especially so in an unstable economy. If anything, business schools are even more in demand today as smart students invest in their personal and professional future,” said Dr. Bill Moncrief, Senior Associate Dean for undergraduate programs. The Neeley School of Business makes up about one-third of TCU’s undergraduate population.

BusinessWeek surveyed 85,000 senior business majors and nearly 600 corporate recruiters. The magazine also looked at median starting salaries for graduates and the number of graduates sent to top MBA programs. BusinessWeek also calculated an academic quality rating for each school by combining SAT scores, student-faculty ratios, class size, the percentage of students with internships, and the number of hours students devote to class work.

The full ranking and methodology, interactive tables, and a discussion forum are available at

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/undergraduate.

The nationally ranked Neeley School of Business (http://www.neeley.tcu.edu/) at TCU focuses on personal development, vital connections and real experiences. High functioning classrooms and calculated career development give students the platform to succeed. Renowned faculty, major corporations and leading executives connect to share winning business practices. Students work for real clients to solve critical challenges. Neeley is consistently recognized among the best business schools in the country by The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, US News & World Report and The Princeton Review. From skills and strategies to team dynamics and global expeditions, we make sure Neeley graduates are trailblazing business leaders – each in their own individual way.