University of Georgia Athletics
Day In The Life: Georgia Soccer
August 10, 2015 | Soccer
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By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
ATHENS, Ga. — To experience the joys of success during the season, you have to put in the work beforehand. That's what a lot of Georgia athletes are doing now as they prepare for their fall seasons.
Over the next few weeks, and hopefully throughout the year as new seasons come along, here at the Frierson Files we will be spending time with these teams and bringing you a "Day in the Life" for the Bulldogs. First up is the women's soccer team, which began practice last Wednesday and had its first of three two-a-days on Friday.
The Bulldogs went 10-8-2 in 2014 and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Last November, Georgia parted ways with coach Steve Holeman after five seasons. Longtime Duke associate head coach Billy Lesesne was hired in December and his Bulldogs will play their only exhibition game Friday against Furman (7 p.m. at the Turner Soccer Complex). Georgia opens its season with four straight road games, starting at High Point on Aug. 21.
What follows is a recap of a long, busy day for the Bulldogs:
8:56 a.m. — A thick layer of dew coats the grass on Georgia's practice field, interrupted only by the footsteps of Georgia's assistant coaches as they prepare for the day's first practice; cones, goals and dummies are placed all over the field, just waiting for an onslaught of balls sent in their direction.
It will be a two-hour session with a lot of high-intensity periods.
9:01 a.m. — Practice was scheduled to start at 9, but the field remains empty as Lesesne and assistants Katie Ely, Brian Moore and Enrique Rodriguez finish up pre-practice details with the team.
9:05 a.m. — The field is still empty. It's a different world from Mark Richt's football team, which recently had a practice that was scheduled to begin at 3:33. And would have had it not been rescheduled for 2:55. Details.
9:07 a.m. — The players arrive, most dressed in red shorts and white tops (the goalkeepers are in black shorts and red tops). They quickly get to work stretching. At the moment the dew is being cooked by the sun and even idle spectators are starting to sweat.
9:16 a.m. — The stretching continues with some Rockettes-like high kicks, followed by agility exercises. The only sound to be heard is from the guy using hedge trimmers outside the nearby softball stadium.
9:31 a.m. — Balls are finally being kicked as the first of many passing drills during the game commences. Moving the ball and maintaining possession are major points of emphasis for Lesesne and his staff.
9:55 a.m. — The passing drills continue for the field players. Lesesne and Moore repeatedly remind the Bulldogs to make the passes as smooth as possible. Just as a tight spiral from a quarterback is easier for a receiver to catch than a wobbly wounded duck, a ball rolling smoothly on the ground is much easier for a soccer player to handle than a ball bouncing toward its target.
Meanwhile, at the end of the practice field nearest the Dogs' stadium, Ely is working with the goalkeepers. There is much diving to one side or the other happening. Dives to the right are resulting in very muddy shoulders following the heavy rain Thursday.
10:01 a.m. — The players huddle up around their coaches and rehydrate before some scrimmaging begins. Lesesne reminds his players to stay energized and stay focused, even when mistakes happen. "This is what practice is about," he said. "You're going to make mistakes and you're going to get better."
10:15 a.m. — Two abbreviated fields are set up and on both teams of six players are going against teams with four players (some players are wearing green practice tops and others are in blue, which will be relevant later) and a goalkeeper.
"One team has an advantage and the other team has a disadvantage and we're playing to those strengths and weaknesses," Lesesne said after the morning practice. "We made them think a little bit, which is what we're always trying to do."
10:29 a.m. — As the 6-vs-4 continues, dark clouds and cool breezes arrive. Nobody is complaining.
10:31 a.m. — One of the days prettiest sequences happens as redshirt junior Mackin D'Amico sends a cross toward the middle from the left side toward senior Andie Fontanetta near the back post. It's a perfect pass right to Fontanetta's midsection and she does the only sensible thing she can, she lets it bounce off her abs and into the net.
"I was on the (goal) line so I just needed to make sure it hit something to go in," Fontanetta later said, giving all the credit to D'Amico for the on-the-money delivery.
It was a clever play in just the team's third practice of the preseason, but it's little things like that, stored away in the memory banks, that can make a difference down the road, Fontanetta said.
"What's really great about those goals in these little games is that it's not about, oh, I scored," she said. "It's about everyone laughing about how it just hit my stomach and went in. It's about you reaching for your teammates and going, 'Yeah!!!,' and just going crazy. It's just these little things that build up team chemistry and get you very excited to step on the field."
10:47 a.m. — After a quick break for water, the players are back at it for 10 more hard minutes. In the end, the blue sides beat the green sides, which means the players in green had to do some extra running.
11:02 a.m. — The players are covered in sweat as the gather around in a circle for post-practice stretching. While they've obviously been through a hard workout, they look far from gassed. It turns out there's a good reason for that.
Most of the team spent May, June and July in Athens preparing for this season, Fontanetta said, and all that work is already paying off in August.
"I know this is going to sound crazy, but we're sleeping in this preseason," she said, laughing. "Because over the summer we were all up at 6:15 for morning workouts. So we've been grinding for a while.
"What's really special is that Billy and Brian (Moore) and all the coaches know how much heart we've put in to get ready, so they're being smart with us. They're not going to push us until we die; they're not going to push us until we drop on the ground. They're pushing us physically to our max, but they're also pushing us mentally."
Those mental tests will continue in the late afternoon, following a break for ice baths, lunch, some rest and then another meal. Practice No. 2 begins at 6 p.m.
6:01 p.m. — Balls are placed in clumps of four in a row across the field. Lesesne, who was mostly pleased with the morning session, said the two-hour afternoon workout will be "more cerebral," and not quite as physically demanding. Whether the pun was intended or not, this practice will be heavy on remembering assignments on corner kicks and also heavy on work heading balls in the air.
6:09 p.m. — The players take the field, dressed in black shorts and red shirts this time, and begin jogging and stretching. No dead legs in sight.
6:29 p.m. — Short passing drills commence. This is the epitome of focusing on the fundamentals, but it's important. Communicate to your teammate and send her a smooth crisp pass.
6:37 p.m. — Short passes have now stretched out to long passes of about 35 yards. The intent is to keep up the communication and keep the passes as smooth as possible. Easier said than done on the latter from this distance.
6:43 p.m. — The header drills begin. Headers is an area in need of a lot of work, Lesesne said before the afternoon practice began. Part of heading well is aggressively going after the ball and heading it despite, at least on longer kicks, the knowledge that it might not feel very good.
6:57 p.m. — Players are, wait for it, going head to head competing for position to head the ball. It's like a one-on-one rebounding drill, except the goal for the offensive and defensive player is to flick a header pass toward a teammate. The loser has to do pushups and reticence to go up and head the ball from both players results in pushups and sit-ups for both.
The goalkeepers are again off doing their own thing. This time they're defender crosses into the box. This involves a different type of aggression, and confidence. The keeper has to know and let everyone else know in the box that she's going after the ball, and then make it happen.
7:03 p.m. — Lesesne lets loose with a mighty finger whistle (seemingly a requirement for every coach) and brings the team together. The heading has ended for the day. Lesesne stresses again the importance of winning the ball in the air. It's "not easy, not fun," he told the Dogs, "but it's very important."
7:07 — The next 30-plus minutes will be spent practicing defending corner kicks. Every player back defending has a responsibility and defending a corner, or any free kick, can involve a lot of moving parts. It's easy for assignments to get missed and offensive players to get free, so this is time very well spent.
And for the players it's not physically demanding which is surely welcome after three hours on the field already for the day.
7:37 p.m. — Corner work continues. Like any ball in the air, to win the corner kick means going up and getting it. Aggression and confidence carry a lot of weight; fortunately, they can be developed.
"You've just got to have that mentality and we've talked about how it's not the size or height or that kind of thing; it's about the desire to go win balls," Lesesne said after practice. "On corners, it's so important for your team. ... It's something we'll continue to work on. It's something that is controllable as far as your focus and attention to detail and desire. It's in us and we control whether we do it or not."
7:42 p.m. — The final stretch of practice is an 11-on-11 scrimmage on an abbreviated field. The legs are still fresh and the play is fairly sharp. Accurate passes are pivotal here as each time a side puts six straight passes together it earns a corner kick.
It was a spirited end to a long day. This is a team with six newcomers among the players, in addition to the coaching staff.
"We're learning a lot about them and they're learning about us, as well; new players and older players alike," Lesesne said. "It's all part of the process. It was a good day overall, I think."
John Frierson is a staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Hall of Fame at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. You can follow him on Twitter: @TheFrierson and @ITAHallofFame.