Tweet

While everyone else continues to vacation, we have returned to Blacksburg Tuesday, July 31^st for the 2012 season. After a successful season in 2011, making it all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, we are looking to build off of that success.

We had our first team meeting on Tuesday to officially kickoff the season and it was great to have the entire team back along with the new freshmen! After our meeting we had “Christmas in July.” This has become one of my favorite “holidays” thanks to Virginia Tech, our coaching staff, and Nike as we receive all of our new gear for the season.

Once our meetings were all complete, we headed out to the River Course for a team dinner at Bull and Bones. We had a beautiful view out of our dining room, overlooking the golf course and New River. Dr. Bennett, our sports psychologist, joined us for dinner and also held a couple activities to “break the ice” with our team. We had to pair up with a teammate and find out a couple life events that have made them who they are today.

Instead of our usual Midnight Madness, which usually starts the season off at 12:01 a.m., we had the beep test Wednesday at 7 a.m. It was an early start to the first actual day of practice. We headed out to the turf to run the beep test, followed by a light practice. It was a good start to the season and great to see everyone back out on the field!

Our second session of the day wasn’t until 6 p.m., so it was nice to get a long break during the day. We headed back out Wednesday evening for our first inter-squad scrimmage! This is always a great way to start practice and get everyone back into playing right away. There were some nice goals scored and some great moments that I’m sure are just the start of a successful season. After a 90-minute scrimmage and hopping in the cold tub, we headed home for the night to try and recover for the next day.

The next morning came quickly at 7 a.m. again, but we all welcomed it, since it meant just another step closer to our first scrimmage against JMU on August 9^th. After another hard practice we headed back home to rest up for the next session at 4 p.m.

Yesterday wasn’t just August 2^nd, it was senior Kelsey Mitchell’s birthday! She turned 22 and I personally cannot think of a better way to celebrate than with a two-a-day, but at least she was with 26 of her closest friends! Practice was followed by a team dinner at D2 on campus. Kelly Conheeney was able to get the entire cafeteria to join in on a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Kelsey. She was a bit embarrassed to say the least. We caught some great voices in the video.

Well now back to catch some Olympics before tomorrow morning!

Yours truly,

Anne

For updates on Virginia Tech women's soccer, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_WSoccer).