2013 Campaign: The Beginning

Back to Brown at last, back to Brown at last. We, the Men of Brown Soccer returned to campus in the August heat, itching to get back out on Stevenson Field and start our 2013 campaign. However, first of course: the formalities. As always, the first day of preseason begins on a scale and with each player on his tippy toes under a measuring tape, attempting to make himself as tall as possible. Then, the infamous “body composition pincers” which have been known to make even the strong at heart shutter. After a slew of meetings each player retires to his respective bed to a sweaty night of sleeplessness while having either dreams or nightmares about the 3-mile fitness test that will take place the next morning.

It seems as if it is before sunrise the next morning when we head down to the football stadium for our 12 laps around the track, with the seniors hoping that it will be our last one of these mornings ever. Through sweat and some tears and excessive screaming and shouting, we remarkably get 20 of our 24 players who were able to run across the line in under 18 minutes, which has to be some sort of record for the first attempt at this test, a definite boost for the team’s morale, sending us to the v-dub with our chins held high, knowing that this afternoon we will be finally able to convert our group of track stars into a soccer team.

The first practice every year goes relatively the same way. Happy faces and tired legs from the 3-mile lead to an adrenaline filled session full of extremely hard and late tackles followed by a long time spent in the training room full of rollers and ice baths.

After this day of firsts we fall into the routine of two a days, which consist solely of: sleeping, lots of television, eating, meetings, soccer and time spent in the locker and training rooms. Much time at meals is spent discussing what shows everyone is watching and getting on guys for not being up to date on their TV. This gives us a great opportunity to get close with all of the new guys and catch up with all the others and recap our summers’ festivities.

We are allowed to play a couple exhibition games during preseason against a school from Canada and local D-II school, both of which are learning experiences and greatly help us to improve our young team. The freshmen are able to see this type of “dress rehearsal” and hopefully be a little bit more prepared for when we come out of the gates on Friday night for the real thing.

We are all looking forward to Friday night against Bryant, and will be working hard over these next couple days in order to prepare for our first test. We hope to see many of you out there supporting us!

Signing out,

                        Josh Weiner