Game Day - Home vs Whitewater

Here it is… Whitewater at home tonight!  In my mind, our biggest home game of the season.  To continue from yesterday’s theme, focus is key today.  Luckily, I planned my schedule that I only have one class on Wednesdays, which is when most of our mid-week games are but I still have to run into work for a little while.  Even so, all morning I will be hacking away at schoolwork that I will not have time to get to tonight.  I have a Human Resources exam tomorrow, and that is that last thing I want to be worrying about with such a big game right at my doorstep.  Most people might say, “Yeah, you only have one class… what’s the big deal?”  So many things go through my mind the day of a game.  I need to eat properly and at the right times, hydrate well, get as much as I can done for school before the game, then mentally prepare myself for the actual game itself.  Again, focus is key.  Being able to block out everything that is going on outside of soccer takes extreme of mental toughness.  So here I am, trying to get my studying taken care of so I can begin the mental preparation for the game.  I want to give a special shout-out to my best friend, Ses.  I love you like a brother but tonight I am going to score on you and it is going to be that much sweeter since you are the goalie.  Here goes nothing!

The Day Before Whitewater

*Note... this was written last night**  We have had a good, but not great, start to our season so far.  Being 5-1-2 and ranked 8^th in the nation is never a bad thing.  The next two weeks can make or break our season, with four extremely tough games.  We play UW-Whitewater tomorrow, our toughest rival.  This is the game I always look forward to most during the regular season.  Focus is key, but it is extremely difficult with such a packed schedule.  Wake up at 6:30am, 8:00class, work, two more classes, rush to at least get a salad and fruit snacks in before practice, a two hour training session, a good meal followed quickly by study tables and homework at the library.  Now, I don’t want to sound over dramatic but it is all extremely draining.  Even by training, my brain is fried.  Then at training, we have to go over some key aspects of what to try to exploit from Whitewater and afterwards… MORE schoolwork for a couple of hours.  If there is one thing to take from days like today, it is the importance of focus.  With what feels like a thousand things to do and non-stop commotion, it is important to lock in and focus on one thing at a time, so to not get overwhelmed.  Off to wind down now and attempt to get a good nights rest.

Introduction

This is my first ever blog post… pretty exciting!  I might as well tell you a little about myself and what this whole thing is about.  My name is Tony and I go to school at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh.  I am also on the Men’s soccer team here.  With a lot of hard work we made it all the way to the NCAA Division 3 Final Four last year! Most of the time student-athletes are portrayed as having a carefree lifestyle around school where everything is simply handed to them.  This is definitely not the case.  Follow my blog closely as we journey through our 2011 season and hopefully I can shed some light into the highs and lows of the life of a student-athlete.