Women’s soccer prepares for season
Video training program helps coaches focus all efforts on women’s team
By Blake Williams
Skiff Staff

The 2003 soccer season is going to be a very different one from the last 21 years in head coach David Rubinson’s career at TCU. This year, Rubinson and his staff have only one team to concentrate on.

With the elimination of the men’s program last year, the women’s team is the hope for a Conference USA soccer title this year. A reworked training schedule, which better optimizes the additional time the coaches now have, has proven to be beneficial, Rubinson said. A preseason record of 2-0 has the team on its way.

“The addition of scholarships for players this year has allowed my staff and I to scout better players and increase the quality of the players for the team,” Rubinson said.

Rubinson said the team still needs to make many improvements but that it is a potentially better team than in previous years.

One of the many new improvements to the training system this year is a video guide. Senior midfielder Jenny Swanson, a speech communication major, said she is excited about working with this new system.

“The video system cuts and splices existing footage together to help the players understand their strengths and weaknesses and to see where we need improvements,” Swanson said.

Freshman forward Ashley Fortune, a kinesiology major, and junior forward Laura Greenberg, an English major, also said the new system works.

“It really helps the quality of play-making and strategy,” Fortune said.

“The video system helps to form more realistic game situations for overall team practice,” Greenberg said.

Another key aspect to the redone training schedule is that it yields more time for individual player development and also better prepares the team for upcoming matches, Rubinson said. He said this helps the coaches interact better with the players and also builds a better team dynamic.

“This is important because it helps to personalize game strategies and makes sure everyone is doing as well as they can,” Rubinson said.

With the elimination of the men’s program, many wondered if the women’s team would survive. Rubinson said fan interest and student support are both key to the program’s success.

“We definitely think support will go up this year,” he said. “We have already sold students season passes, so we have high hopes for this year. The key to fan support, though, is if we win or not, because in the end that’s what gets the support.”

Another noticeable change to the team this season will be a greater number of freshman participants, he said.

Rubinson said many of the freshmen have already incorporated themselves into the group.

Fortune said she is looking forward to her first year of playing in C-USA. She said scoring four goals in two pre-season matches has helped her gain college playing experience.

Fortune also said she thinks she has earned the respect from her coaches and teammates, and that she can be a significant contributor to the team, even as a freshman.

“It’s about ten times harder, but you’ve got to keep going,” she said.

Greenberg said being the sole representative for the university’s soccer program this season, has not intimidated the players at all. Instead, she said, it has made the team focus harder on accomplishing their goals.

“We have confidence, because I feel the goal of making conference motivates us,” Greenberg said. “I don’t feel pressure.”

While the elimination of the men’s soccer program dealt a blow to TCU athletics, the women’s team is thriving on the added attention from the coaching department.

If the preseason is any indication of what’s to come for the team, then their predicted 12th place Conference standing could be a faint memory once the season begins.

Blake Williams