Four former women's soccer players from the 2009 roster are currently in the midst of their first professional season in the Women's Professional Soccer league. Jordan Angeli and Katherine Reynolds are trying to join the Boston Breakers roster, which features former SCU All-American Leslie Osborne, while Kiki Bosio hopes to continue to the next level with the Bay Area Gold Pride after being acquired from the Los Angeles Sol's dispersal draft. Amanda Poach is also fighting for a spot on the Atlanta Beat.
The girls will be giving periodic updates on how their WPS season is progressing. This week we hear from three of the players on their training camp experiences.
FIRST ENTRIES, MARCH 8, 2010
Katherine
Reynolds, Boston Breakers
So far Boston has been great. It is fun to be in a completely new
city. It is freezing here and everything seems really old. Jordan
and I took the T into downtown Boston today and did some exploring.
It was a lot of fun even though we had some difficulties trying to
find our way around!
Right now I am living with my host grandma. Her name is Christiane. She lives in a town called Belmont which is about 20 minutes away from Harvard where we play. It is definitely a new experience living in someone's home. Christiane is really kind and funny and a big soccer fan. She plays on an over 60 team!
Training has been fun but very intense and competitive so far. There are a lot of amazing players here and we are all fighting to get one of the 22 spots on the roster. This makes the level of play very high. This past week we have been playing a lot, both 11 v 11 and small sided. The coaches haven't said much so far, they are mostly just evaluating all the players. Yesterday I got into a huge collision. I was defending and a cross came in the air, I was going up for the header and I collided in the air with a girl on the other team while getting punched in the face by my own goalie. I had to get some x-rays on my elbow, but luckily nothing was broken. Other than that I feel that I had a good first week of training and I hoping I will get to stick around for a while longer!
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Jordan
Angeli, Boston Breakers
After many threats of not being able to make it to Boston due to
bad weather on the East Coast, I made a rather uneventful (in a
good way) trip across the country to a whole new place. The first
two days here were pretty slow as we got settled and cleared for
action.
I am staying with a host family in Newton, a suburb from Boston about a 15-minute drive from Harvard. The family is great and I have got to know them over the past few weeks by sharing some wonderful meals with them.
This weekend was really nice, 50's, and I had a chance to explore the city a little. Katherine and I took the T (the metro system here) into Boston on Saturday where we saw Boston Common, Faneuil Hall, and other random parts of Boston. Today I walked my host family's dog then walked into Newton Center, a main strip of our town, to meet Leslie for our favorite, Peet's Coffee. So far I have done a fair amount of exploring but there are only three things I am for sure of about Boston: the drivers are crazy, I have no sense of direction or how to get somewhere, and it is beautiful. Hopefully practice makes perfect and I will get many more days to figure all of Boston out!
As far as soccer goes, I have been having so much fun. Most of us are all in a "try out" period where we are trying to earn a contract. Since we are technically trying out, we have been playing a lot of games. Practices have essentially included the beep test, two 7v7 tournaments and two intrasquad games. The level of play has been fairly high but will get even better now that our international players and national team players are officially in camp. I can't wait to see how the level of play increases again this week with the addition of these five girls (some are still coming).
Tomorrow we are set for another intrasquad game and we play Boston College in our first game on Wednesday. After Wednesday there will be another cut narrowing the roster down to 24 people. Everyday is important so I better get to bed to make sure I perform well in our game tomorrow. Until next update, wish Katherine and I luck and goodnight!
Kiki
Bosio, FC Gold Pride
Well, it has been one week since camp has started and it has
definitely been quite tiring. Five days straight of double days
really takes a toll on your body, especially when playing on a turf
field every day. Luckily we've had this past weekend completely off
to rest up for when the rest of the contracted players join us in
camp. I am really excited to start playing with players like Marta,
the best player in the world, and Camille Abily from France, among
many other foreign and national team players.
I have been lucky as to not have to adjust to a new area or a new time zone. The Bay Area is somewhere that I am very familiar with, obviously, and I've been able to stay right by school and make the forty-five minute commute to Danville every day. I am hoping that in the near future I will be earn a contract and find an apartment closer to Danville with some teammates.
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We start our testing tomorrow, although we do not actually do much fitness testing. We will do speed testing, vertical jump, and a 1000-meter test, as well as a few others. I am definitely ready to get those tests over with and starting playing with some of the best players in the world. This will only bring the level of play up even more.
I am very nervous for our cuts to start as most people do not have contracts and are fighting for a small number of them. All of the 31 players in camp are extremely good and playing my best will only get harder when going against some of the best players in the world. We are going to be doing more 11 v 11 scrimmages which will be a true test of who can really play and deserves to be on the team. I am extremely excited for the opportunity to show what I can do. We have a scrimmage against a Japanese team on Wednesday so I am excited to see what our team has to offer. Gold Pride is going to have a huge year ahead of them and I hope that I can be a part of it! Wish me luck!
