It’s Been Real, It’s Been Fun… But Not Really Fun

Over the past few months I’ve chronicled my Final Season, Brett Favre’s resurgence and other news-worthy information on your favorite athletes that won’t give up the profession they love. I learned a lot about blogging and myself as well as how hard it would have been for me to go through my final season without ranting and raving to you guys about it. 

I really  feel that this blog has helped become a therapeutic way to get my feelings out and let the whole process of being a retired college athlete out without having a mental breakdown. So thank you for that MBG and Online Journalism. 

That being said, like my soccer career, this blog is done. I used it primarily to interview people who had already gone through the process of graduating or those that were seniors like me. Now that soccer is over I feel like my blog won’t be relevant anymore and I will no longer have anything to write about. 

Here are a few of my posts if you want to check them out: 

Five Stages of Grief 

Indescribable Letdown 

and just because I couldn’t help myself: On a Completely Unrelated Note 

Hope you enjoyed my blog. I know at times I did. It’s been real. It’s been fun. But who am I kidding? It hasn’t been really fun. 

Photo Courtesy of Kate Bower

Senior Moment with the Members of Rowan University’s Women’s Soccer Team

The senior class of Rowan University’s women’s soccer team has been through a lot the past few months. They went to Costa Rica in August to play four games on the trip of a lifetime. Together they swam in some of the most beautiful beaches and played with monkeys in the rain forest. Then pre-season began where 100 degree weather complimented three practices a day. At the end of August, as classes were starting, so was the first tournament of the season which the Profs won for the second year in a row.

At the end of the regular season Rowan stood atop the New Jersey Athletic Conference with a record of 9-0 and a national ranking of fourth. Then the unthinkable happened; they lost, dashing their hopes for another conference championship and a blow to their confidence.

As a group, this senior class is the most decorated in the history of Rowan’s women’s soccer program. In four years they have one NJAC championship, four NCAA appearances and over 7o wins.

Their season is over now, as are their college careers. Three of the team’s seniors are Krista Verzi, Caitlin Toomey and Ashley Schaffer. Here I interviewed them on their thoughts about the end of their career and what their soccer season means to them now that it is over.

                                         Krista Verzi, senior mid-fielder

                                   Caitlin Toomey, senior back

                                       Ashley Schaffer, senior stopper

All photos Courtesy of Mat Boyle

So there you have it. Final seasons are devastating, exhilarating, time-consuming and full of expectations. They can be at times impossible to describe, even though you think you have the words on the tip of your tongue. While they may be all of these things and more, I think the most important part of a final season is appreciating and respecting the sport you’ve loved for so long. Getting the chance to play and appreciating it is what final seasons are all about. It’s just a shame you don’t realize it untill it’s almost over for good.

Q & A with Jenna Lombardo

Jenna Lombardo is a senior Health and Exercise Science major at Rowan University. She just finished her last season as a member of Rowan’s field hockey team where she played mid-field and was named captain her final season. Lombardo helped the team to its first NJAC championship since 2005, was named NJAC mid-fielder of the year at the end of the 2009 season and was recently given the honor of being named an All-American.   

Photo Courtesy of Mat Boyle

What is the main difference between your senior season and the rest of your time competing in college athletics?
There is nothing like your last season of college athletics because it really is the end. I mean there are still summer leagues and adult leagues, but nothing will compare. As time winds down you know that this really is your last shot and when you know that, you really will give it all you can. I feel that there is a mental difference knowing that it is almost over.
 

 

Do you think there is a way to convey the difference to underclassmen?
Honestly, I do not think there is a way to get underclassmen to fully understand this feeling until they experience it. I have tried, but it really is unexplainable and that is unfortunate because if they could know how this really feels while still having the opportunity to play, it would absolutely make a difference in a lot of players.

 

Do you intend on using field hockey in the future? Do you anticipate coaching or will you just use your experiences and apply them to other scenarios?
 I do plan on coaching and I originally hoped to at the high school level, but after this year I would even like to coach college.  

What is the best thing about competing in college sports? How about the worst?
The best thing about college sports that was different from high school and the past is traveling. Overnights in a hotel are so much fun with your team and are a great experience.  I would also add the great dinners we sometimes get courtesy of Rowan athletics. I don’t think I can say much about the worst part of college sports besides maybe how time-consuming it is and making room for school work, but most athletes have good time management anyway because we are used to this, so I don’t think it is a big deal. 

  

Do you have any regrets?
 The only regret I have is not making it as far as we should of this year. I’m still getting over it and probably will be for a while.

  

What is the best moment of your collegiate career?
The best moment of my college career was winning the New Jersey Athletic Conference our senior year because the seniors have never won it before.

    

What is one thing you would tell an underclassmen now that you know how it feels when it is all over?

I have told the underclassmen to not take being apart of rowan field hockey for granted. I know that they have heard it before, but it goes so fast and they can not let opportunities pass them by.

The Five Stages of Grief

In case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been for the past week and haven’t figured it out yet, this post is for you.

We lost.

Season over. Career over. I’m done.

That would have been the post on this blog had I written something last week. See like any other important loss in your life, I’m grieving. Granted it’s not for a loved one, but rather a thing. A sport even.

But when you’ve done something your entire life, since I was four thank you very much, it becomes a part of you. And once it becomes a part of you, it is just a tough to let go of as a loved one or a pet. Soccer wasn’t just something I did, rather something I identified myself with.

Since my competitive soccer career has been over 9 days I thought it would be fun(?) and therapeutic to chronicle the five stages of grief  as taken  from Elisabeth Kubler Ross and David Kessler’s website. I picked the site for no particular reason other than the fact that I liked it and thought what they had to say was insightful if only a little bit pretentious.

 Denial – This was felt as Ithaca scored the goal in overtime, to the entire bus ride home and arguably when I got home late that night. It was a strange sensation because although I knew it was over, being around the girls and on a bus still made it seem like there was still some season left.

Anger – The stage I did the best, by far. The next few days my roommates and I anguished over the smallest details, reliving every moment of the game. We shot Nerf guns at signs to make ourselves feel better and threw bottles off our balcony onto the pavement. I’m not sure how long the anger lasted but it was fierce while it was there.

Bargaining- I went over and over everything that happened in overtime. My roommates and I kept saying ‘What If’ this and ‘What If’ that. We went as far back as pre-season to try to figure out what could have changed the outcome of the game. Obviously we realize this was all in vain, but we truly couldn’t help ourselves.

Depression- While at one point depression coincided with anger and heavy drinking, depression did not fully happen until our end of season meeting with the team. Coach talked about this year and what he hopes for the future. Then he went around the room and asked the seniors to speak. That was the moment depression finally hit me hard, it was like I was an alumni coming back to my school to speak. We all gave the whole appreciate it now because it is going to be over soon speech and I think it was those words coming out of our mouths that made us the saddest.

Acceptance- I’m not sure if I have quite fully accepted it yet, but the closest I got to acceptance was talking to my teammates/friends during dinner at the caf. We joked around and realized that we still have another semester together and a spring season before we are leaving Rowan Soccer entirely.

This realization alerted us that we will be going over the five stages of grief all over again once next year’s pre-season rolls around in August. I don’t know if I have it in me.

A picture of my soccer team when I was 8. I'm the one in the front row, to the left, with the bob.Photo Courtesy of Kelly Godfrey

The Big Day Has Arrived

Tomorrow Rowan Women’s Soccer leaves for Williams College in Massachusetts. We are there for the third round of  the NCAA tournament and will be playing Ithaca College on Saturday at 1:30 pm. It’s the first time in school history that we have made the round of Sixteen in the tournament. There are approximately 425 Division III Women’s Soccer Teams in the nation. We are one of 16 left.  

It’s going to be a battle, but I think we’re ready.

Photo Courtesy of Evvyn Wright

On a Completely Unrelated Note…

I know for the past few posts I’ve been solely talking about soccer and my remaining time left on Rowan University Women’s Soccer Team, but I would like to take this time to talk about Brett Favre.

I haven’t talked about Favre since one of the first few posts, but now that the NFL’s season is halfway done I felt the need to bring him up again. 

I mean have you looked at his statistics lately?

He leads the  quarterbacks in qb rating with 107.5 and almost has amasses 3,000 yards passing. His touchdown to interception ratio is 17/3 and the Vikings have a 8-1 record. Basically, he is the Brett Favre of old and I couldn’t be happier.

I mean, here’s a guy that obviously loves the game so much that he retired twice and came back. It’s nice to see someone succeed at something they love. It’s even better when it’s a 40-year-old guy who still acts like a Pop Warner player when his team scores a touchdown. Right now, I think that Brett Favre is what’s right with professional sports.

Picture courtesy of Bjorn Hanson from creative commons

My Time as a Rowan University Soccer Player

With the help of dipity I made a timeline chronicling my time on RUWS. I’ve come a long way since freshman year, and I’m not just talking about my haircut. In four years there have been tough times, really tough times, good times and some really, really great times. I’ve played many positions and I’ve also sat the bench. In four years my senior class has won 70 games and an NJAC title. I wouldn’t trade my four years for anything and I’m going to miss it every day once it’s over.

Here’s the timeline.

Sweet Sixteen Here We Come!

We did it, we won.

Photo Courtesy of Linda Sierra

After beating MIT 3-0 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, we beat the host, University of Rochester 1-0. It is the first time in team history we have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Our next game is this Saturday against Ithaca. Let’s hope we continue making history.

Last Road Trip Ever? Let’s Hope Not.

This week practice was hell. We did all the hard running drills, sprinted after each session and did the Circle of Death three times. My body was exhausted and I walked with a limp for a few days.

I hate the Circle of Death; have bad dreams about it, but I hope we do it again next week. That’ll mean that we won Saturday against MIT in the NCAA Tournament. It will also mean that we won on Sunday too, which would advance us to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in school history.

The bus ride to Rochester, NY, where this round of being held, is 7 hours long. It will be full of crude movies, excellent music, a lot of laughing and screaming. The hotel won’t know what hit them once they hear our rowdy behavior and there is no doubt in my mind that pranks will be done.

It’s the stuff like this that makes me wish I wasn’t a senior. As much as we complain about traveling or the freshman, I know that we will miss them once they are gone.  It also makes me want to keep winning so we can do this again next weekend, at a different school, in a different hotel.

I would do the Circle of Death dozens of times to be able to continue my season. Let’s hope the rest of my team feels that way too.

NCAA Tournament

I know that last week I may have confused people with my very emo post about Rowan’s loss to Stockton in the NJAC semi-finals. Reading that post it may have seemed like my season was done for good. In fact it isn’t, we have at least one more game left.

On Saturday we will travel to Rochester, NY to play MIT. The game is at 7:30 pm and if we win we will play the winner of University of Rochester and Westfield State College.

Here is the full bracket of 64 teams.