Reb UT '70

I am terrible at estimating crowds, the official estimate is always between 150 and 200, but it looks like more than that at most games to me. We have been blessed by a snow cone vedor at the Sunday games this year, and I think he has done very well, aside from that I think there is a coke machine at the building where the restrooms are located. There is nothing else sold, although I think the Athletic's department could make a few bucks if they sold teeshirts or other stuff, these folks tend to be die hard fans. If you see RV, and he attendes most games, say hi for me. That's another reason I'm one of his fans. I appreciate his presence at the girls games.

I will not be able to make tonights game, there was a foul-up over the delivery of a new washing machine which was due this morning and instead was scheduled for this afternoon! I'm stuck and I will have to miss the game, but this should be one of the best home games all year. If you wanted to go to a soccer game you only have three choices left and Western Ky should be the better of the two this weekend. We are hurting on our defense, but we should be able to beat them. I will be at the MTSU game on Sunday, God willing and the creeks don't rise, and I plan to make the final home game with FIU on the 27th and I want to invite everyone to those games as well.

I didn't go, this was one of the semi-annual Kairos weekends. I spent four days in a maximum security prison and couldn't even find out the score. I did find out that North Texas is popular with a lot of the inmates. It seems that quite a few have made money on NT recently. I was able to get fairly detailed info on Sunday moring about the USF game. It sounded like a heart breaker. As for Denver, I picked them to beat us, they are currently ranked 19th nationally, and I think they deserve it. As for the score, I haven't talked to my daugther, but I have been told that we were working on a gameplan that was designed for Denver, part of the plan involved some playing style changes, and the day before we left for Denver we lost a key defender to an ACL. We were counting on her speed to match up with the Denver forward who killed us. I was also told that in addition to a starter lost to a red card we also had our Senior midfielder injured although she was able to score. On the positive side we are the first team to score on Denver in Denver in some very long record setting stretch. All I know about he Wy game is that it was supposed to snow and the field is at 7300 ft! I thought we would be able to beat that team, I'm interested it what happened. Anyone who has any details on either game, I love to hear what you have to say. If Georgas is out we will be hurting.

Be sure to wish her good luck. This is the game that will make the season, or be an almost impossible hurdle to winning another SBC championship. They will play Denver in Denver on Friday, and Denver is ranked as high as #20 nationally! If there were ever a chance of the brass band showing up to send the girls off this is the time they need it. I wish I was going to be able to make this game, but I have a commitment that takes priority and I won't even know who won the game until late Sunday night. If anyone on the board goes to the game please do a write up so I'll be able to read it when I get back. I'll be thinking about the Mean Green all weekend and I'll be very surprised if futbol and football teams don't have at least two wins this weekend. Go Mean Green Beat USF, Denver and Wyoming and any other schools are teams are playing!

I made no bones about my opinion of our fields last year. I thought we probably had the worst field in the country for a Div 1a program. I couldn't be happier with what we have this year and when you consider that it is a stop gap measure it is remarkable! The fee is at work and is making a difference. I just heard about what our girls faced at UALR, and it made what we had last year sound like heaven on earth. They played in a public park! If that wasn't bad enough, there was a 10 year olds game being played right next to them. I don't know if we had to run on to their field to get our ball or they on to ours, but it certainly reflects poorly on that university! Hard to believe!

team mates past and present. This is every parents greatest fear. Former FIU players killed in car accident

First let me thank you for using capital letters. I know that it's common among college kids to ignore them, but it does make a post much more difficult to read. I enjoy you insights, and your posts, and I find it much easier to read this way. The first thing that comes to my mind is that we played a large part of the UA-LR with ten men on the field. I didn't see the games, so I don't know if we have ironed out so of our "team play" problems. I know that Hedlund has not been happy with the way several of the players have played, and is working on getting this team to 'click.' There are only two teams we've played who have winning records at this point of the season Duquesne and U of Houston who has a pretty good record now. SWT is much better than their record of 3-4 and should finish with a good year but most of the rest of the teams aren't doing well. We have beaten them by a wider margin than most of their opponents, but that doesn't mean as much in soccer, I don't think, as it does in other sports. All of this is to say that if we play at the top of our game I think we can play with anyone. I wish I could say that I thought Denver might not be ready for us, but they will be. We will be playing at their house and that is a bigger advantage in soccer than in most sports. Koschmann will miss this game due to a red card and that might be a factor, we are still struggling at goalie but that is getting better every game. We miss Pina up front seem to have some depth at forward. We have had several players down with flue but they seem to be getting better. Bottom line... I think we'll do very well to tie. Denver has a great defense and we have a great offense, it should be a great game.

NT 80 I guess you can find anything on the web. There used to be a link on the official UNT web page that had the words and the tune, I know that's were I first heard it, if it is no longer there it should be.

Our lost to Houston has lost us our votes in the central region standing, but I think our grils continue to improve. We still look a little rough on teamwork, but we have a lot of talent on the squad. I should also point out that Tulsa's recruiting class was ranked 4th in the central region, well ahead of soccer powers SMU (12) Vanderbilt (11) OU (9) and Colorado (6). Our reserves were able to defend the lead and still move offensively against them. By the Way, Houston's class was ranked 7th in the region, but I still don't think they are in our class at all. The biggest problem that we have is that we have not played the quality of teams that we need to be playing early in the season. We should not have any serious problems this weekend with the two AK team in the SBC then we have to face Denver who is now ranked in the top 25 in all the polls. When you play the best you grow as a team and as a player, and Denver has had that experience and we have not. I do wish we were playing them down here instead of there.

I think it is only fair to point out here that a band member should not be judged by the kind of 'shape' they are in. Frankly I don't think that being in shape has much bearing on heat stroke. Certainly to judge from the athletes who have had problems, hydration is a bigger issue than condition. For me the measure of a band member is the music. I love to watch the bands march, I admire the skill it takes to play while following a complex marching pattern, but I've seen Formal Retreat at the Marine Barracks at 8th and I. Marching doesn't get any better, but the music does. The only group of people I know that spend as much time in practice as athletes are musicans. I enjoy the efforts of both, and I don't want to see any band member injured because fashion or tradition says they should wear wool outfits.

I know that there are a lot folks who make fun of the "Show Band of the Southwest" for the uniforms they wear, but they are suited to this climate. I asked a fellow longhorn about the Texas 'air conditioned practice field' the other day and I learned something interesting. It seems that Texans can tolerate the heat less well than we could 50 years ago when most homes and buildings were not air conditioned. I was told that it takes about 3 weeks for the human body to acclimate to the heat. That the reason that Texas has the air conditioned practice field is that they can work harder and longer without health problems because football players aren't acclimated either. The point to this is that I think it is silly to have wool band uniforms in Texas. They might be nice for one game a year, but I think it is high time to have uniforms that don't put our students at risk.

I remember seeing a movie where the guys shaved their heads and smeared bear grease on the scalp. It got rid of that bald condition in just a few weeks.

FIU has been having a tough year, they have now lost 5 in a row. USA is starting to look better each week, and La La has had some good games as well. The Tulsa game might be better than I had thought. The series with the two schools is 2-2 and they are looking stronger than I thougth they would. I plan on making the trip and will report on the game Sunday night or Monday. 9/18 Tulsa d. Arkansas-Little Rock, 5-2 North Texas d. Southwest Texas State, 4-2 9/20 #11 Duke d. Florida International, 5-0 #12 Tennessee d. South Alabama, 2-1 (OT) #21 Denver d. Maine, 2-0 Centenary d. Arkansas-Little Rock, 1-0 Middle Tennessee d. Alabama A&M, 2-0 Northwestern State d. Arkansas State, 1-0 Western Kentucky d. Oral Roberts, 2-1

and are better this year. We went up 2-0 early then let them tie us before putting the game away at 4-2. I'll give more details tomorrow.

I do think that wider fields have a greater effect on women than men, but it more a case of leg strength than speed. Speed is a factor as well, but it is relative, the close speed is less, but so is the breakaway speed so it tends to offset. The length of the pass is a bigger problem. On the play that we scored, Marin took the kick and the ball was still high at the far post. One of our player used her height and vertical ability to head it in. I don't know that any other player on our team could have made that kick. What I saw on offense was that we set up several breakaway situations for Marin, but they were just too far from the goal. A player with the ball is slowed by the need to control the ball and with the amount of ground that had to be covered U of H was able to get people back, especially once they had a lead and packed their defense. As for formations, I love the 4-4-2 but I know that it's hard to find the female outside mids who can play it. Actually I think Hedlund is using a 3-4-3. I'm looking forward to tonights game, I don't even want to have to think about Houston, I just hope the girls aren't thinking about it either. BTW, I found out why Buchanan can't play this year. She was released from her old school, but she dropped out a day late and was not able to register for any classes last fall. Thus she lost a year of eligability and because she wasn't in class she is short the 24 hours needed to play as a soph. I love the spirit that Johnson showed when she Morris came in for her, but I think she needs more work before she's ready to start.

I think that with players at this level you can prepare for a different field size in a week. They have the room to set up a larger field and practice on it. It would require a change in the way the team plays, but it's not as if the methods are not well know. Perhaps you might want to make a formation change but you don't have to do so. The main thing is to practice on the wider field so you're ready for it. It is possible that they did do that, I haven't asked and I might be being unfair to the coaches, but they certainly left some large gaps on defense which were exploited. To LoveMG, being able to pick you field size is part of the game, but at this level I think the coaches shouldn't let it be as big a disadvantage as it has been on the two games I've seen us play on very wide fields, UT & UH. OTOH, it probably is harder for a team who practices on a wide field to play on a narrow short field than it is for us to go the other way.

Anyone who is very involved in team sports knows that you are going to lose. If you are a competitive person you always hate to lose, but it really gets your blood boiling when you lose to a team that isn't as good as you are. Take that blood pressure up an order of magnitude for a loss to a team that isn't in your league quality wise, but call EMS when that out classed team beats you in a romp! I knew there was something strange when I went to the new $4M+ U of H soccer field and there was no one there. I still had trouble understanding that we were going to be playing on the John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium! I don't know if all the U of H soccer games are being played there, but this was strange. The field size was set to the absolute widest and longest size that the stadium would allow. Sitting six rows up I could not see the near touch line because the 4' drop between the stand and the field made it below view. Based on what I saw, and I emphasize that it is only based on what I saw, I don't think we were properly prepared for that field. Marin is an incredible player, and the style of play that North Texas uses takes full advantage of her. Normally the idea is that you keep Marin as far forward as you can and get the ball to her as quickly and often as possible. I saw her take on and beat four players several times on Friday, the problem was that instead of being 10 to 15 yd. from scoring position, she was still 30 to 45 yards from where she needed to be to take a shot. Marin has good speed and and unbelievable burst speed, but when she has to cover that much ground, the people she beat once are going to have additional opportunities to stop her. For anyone who thinks that I admire Hedlund too much to criticism him, let me be plain, I don't think he had the girls ready for that field. It looked too much like the Texas game and there was no reason for it. We should have beaten that team by a wider margin than they beat us. In fairness, this was the first game where our lack of experience at goalie showed and it was the difference in the game. I was pleased by what I saw Morris do once she was in the game. She made two saves on shots that were more difficult than any of the goals scored on us except perhaps one, and she was not scored upon. I was also glad to see us score on a set play, that shows a team workiing together. The game at Rice was called because of lightning before it could get started, and I think Rice was very lucky. I'm looking forward to watching the girls Wednesday at SWT, it should be an interesting game.

I see your point MGH, but while I like color as much as the next photograhper, I think the flags should reflect the school. The contrast in colors will be there even if you tried to match the uniforms or the field. If you must have contrast a nice white flag with the UNT logo in the center would do it. Frankly North Texas need a big shot of school pride, and NT Daily artice aside pride in an institution is not the sort of pride talked about in Proverbs. Right now and for the next several years I think it's okay to be a little hyper sensitive about trying to build pride in all aspects of North Texas.

Glad to hear from you. I know that you're proud of your football team, but I do believe that in futbol we would be favored to roll back the tide. One of your starters (French) is from my area, she's very good, and I wish her luck for this season.

I know that I've been astounded at what those trainers can do. Ascchamp, what do you think the girls will do in Houston?

and how long does it take to heal? This is very bad news, as Pina is the threat that has kept Marin from being triple covered. We do have a little depth at forward, but this is going to hurt. I still think that my analysis of the next three games, in Road Trip, is valid, but it will be much closer than it should be. Bottom line the game tonight will be a good one and any Houston fans are invited to come out to U of H soccer field. For those concerned about sight lines this one should be less than good as they have a $4M nine lane track around the field (Tellez track stadium). If you do make it drop by and say hello, I'll be wearing a green shirt that says "North Texas Soccer Sunbelt Conf. Champs '01" with a soccer ball in the center. I know that in the sea of green that is currently expected that might not help much, so just look for the biggest greent shirt there on a fat old guy with a cane.

This early in the season we just don't know much about how good our soccer chicks are. We don't know much about how good we?ve played are. The teams we've beaten are not having a great year, but generally (SFA is the exception) we are beating them by more than other known good teams. In the next seven days we will play U of H and Rice (Friday and Sunday), both schools have losing records thus far, but they are known qualities. Both are better than their records show. UH beat Rice then was beaten by a good New Mexico team and a UTEP team that is undefeated. Baylor was taken to OT by Rice and Rice pulled even with SWT at one point in their game Tuesday. SWT (Wed) was a very good team last year and went to the NCAA tourney. This year they?ve lost to UTEP and Baylor in OT but beat Rice and Texas Tech. I think we should be favored in all three games, but it's always dicey when you play away, and I don't know about injuries. I do know that several of our players are still banged up and I don't know what their status will be. Anyway, the next three games will tell us much of what to expect for the balance of the season. I would suggest that in view of the importance of the road trip that the Green Brigade in full uniform salute the team as they pull out tomorrow morning.... One can always dream, after all much of the music that is used at soccer games is a bit like jazz... crossed with drinking songs. That's the sort of challenge that music folks love!

As one who has been reduced to foul language by a lack of vocabulary on more than one occasion I agree UNT96 you can find much more creative use of words, I know I've seen you, besides I like the no personal attack policy, I need the protection! One should always be able to attack the ideas of nincompoops without being truthful about their reasoning ability. Kidding aside there is a line there, and I like to see it maintained.

Please understand that I'm not "down" on Monica, I think that Monica has made a bad choice, to play with Mexico, and it is one that bothers me on many levels. I both like and admire Monica personally, but part of maturity is knowing that you can disagree on issues and still be friends or fans. I've been a congressional district chairman for a political party in Texas, my attorney and friend was the county chairman of the other party. We've had many hours of interesting discussions and it is my hope to convert him to the party of light and hope soon, as my conversion remains his forlorn hope. I do wish Monica good luck, but I consider what she has done to be wrong. I've made enough mistakes in my life that I'm more than willing to be understanding of others mistakes. However there is a world of difference in being understanding and being unwilling to call a mistake a mistake. I don't know what Alyssa said or what the coaches said, but in a free country no one can stop anyone else from speaking to anyone. What you can do is make it very clear that you are not speaking as/to a team. One of the things that I like and admire about Monica is her ability to inspire others, she was a key factor in getting the team 'up' several times last season. Knowing that I can certainly understand not wanting her to talk to the team in any forum. Even assuming that Monica had the best of intentions I can understand the coaches position. I'm making the assumption that you are a student aged person and that makes the action of the coaches harder to explain. Let me put it this way, I have fired people and would in the future who have gripped about my company on company time. I know there were others who gripped about the company and me 'off the clock' and I think that is both healthy and necessary, but you have certain obligations to act a certain way when you're getting paid. That's because negativity is contagious and can destroy a team or a company. Any manager who doesn't want or get honest opinions from his employees is in trouble, but there is a big difference in the two. I am not kicking Monica while she is down, butt here is and should be a cost for making a bad decision, to try to lessen that cost is make it more likely that others will make the same bad choice. Part of the cost is the disapproval of others and we do no one a favor to try to shield them from that. I'm sure that Monica has seen friendships strained and probably doesn't want that, but her example makes it easier for others to understand the cost of doing things the wrong way. It is entirely possible, for example, that the coaches decided that allowing Monica to return to the team would be too disruptive and thus didn't allow the team to 'vote' on her return. It sounds like Monica is your friend, and loyalty to a friend is a great virtue, but loyalty shouldn't be blind. If a friend is about to, or has made a mistake it isn't being a friend to pretend that it wasn't a mistake. A true friend is there to help you when you've made a mistake not to justify it or ignore it. We like to make "not being judgmental" a virtue, but generally it is uncaring and a lack of real compassion. That's why we say things like "friends don't let friends drive drunk!" Enough of this! Do you know how Pina's knee is doing, and how do you think the girls will do in Houston?

That is an interesting way to look at sports, I doubt you will find any of the girls who don't care if their team loses as long as they "play well and do not get injured" at least I hope there aren't any. The ones I know, and I know most of them, would say just the opposite, that if they had to choose between their playing well and the team winning they'd choose the team winning. To me that is one of the most valuable lessons that team sports can teach both fans and players. I do know what the 'most recent grads in soccer' are doing, and I didn't have to look it up. I was very sorry that I didn't get a chance to talk to more of the Alumni at that game, but I was most impressed with those I did get to visit with. By the Way, that is another example of what a great program UNT has that ex-players including professional players would return for a game like that. This is one statement that we can agree 100% about. I also am a fan of the girls and especially those who work so very hard and get so little playing time. I think that is especiallly true of people like Bree who has been here for years, worked very hard and was 100% a team player. I'm so glad that she got some starts this year.