Eager Kats open anticipated preseason practice
8/5/2015 2:05:00 PM | Soccer
The Sam Houston State soccer program reported for preseason camp early Wednesday morning, taking in the first official practice from Pritchett Field as the squad prepares for its 18-match schedule, beginning on Aug. 21 at Louisiana-Lafayette.
“I think everybody, staff and players, were eager to get out and play,” eighth-year head coach Tom Brown said. “I thought there was a good spirit within the group as far as playing and training. You could tell a lot of the players had been in working together during Summer 2. From a playing perspective and understanding of teammates, we're way ahead of where we were before.”
The unit returns 18 players and welcomes in three transfers and seven freshmen to a program seeking its first Southland Conference championship.
“There will be some good battles,” Brown said. “There are a lot of question marks as we bring in freshmen and transfers that are trying to get positions or returners that were not starters last year who had a very good spring and are trying to earn more minutes now. There will be a lot more debate within the staff about who those first 11 in that first game will be than in previous years.”
The Bearkats placed an emphasis on being technically sound during their first practice, a skillset that Brown was impressed with from his newcomers as he begins to figure out the new team.
“For us, we've obviously seen them in their environment so it was good now to have them in our environment,” Brown said. “We're trying to figure out how they fit in with our returning players. I know Whitney Woodward and Bailey Strong looked very good and I think that's consistent with how they've been all summer long. I thought all of them did a good job technically.”
The squad will spend its next practice, scheduled for Thursday evening to avoid conflicts with Summer 2 final exams, focusing on endurance and togetherness on the field, something Brown said has been pleased with through one practice.
“Normally the first sessions are not the best because there is so much nervous energy and players aren't used to each other but I didn't feel that we had today,” Brown said. “I think we were beyond that stage but today was about getting out and playing and re-emphasizing some of the things we've done.”
Brown expects intensity to improve with an upcoming emphasis on fitness, including during seven-on-seven and 11-on-11 scrimmages, but said the goal is not to find the 11 best players.
“What we spoke to our players about yesterday is that we don't really want to go in saying 'these are our starting 11,'” Brown said. “We want to have a starting 16 or 17, where when we go into a normal weekend of the season and have Friday night starters and have other players that start on Sunday. We want to have more players that see themselves have starters and spread the minutes.”
“We want to be the best we can at the end of October and early November. If we spend a lot of time only focused on 11, we'll only build fatigue in those players and we really want to spread that out.”
Sam Houston will host scrimmages against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 5:30 p.m. next Monday and Texas Southern at 6:30 p.m. next Friday. Stay tuned to GoBearkats.com and follow @SHSUSoccer on Twitter for the latest Sam Houston soccer updates and practice reports.
