Player Journal: Erin Scott, Sophomore at Creighton

Erin Scott joins us for our third collegiate goalkeeper contributing a player journal for their season. Scott enters her sophomore year after Creighton went 10-10 last year, which she started every game as a freshman. After a successful season with FC Dallas' WPSL team, Scott revisits her summer and discusses Creighton's upcoming season. Click here to read the other goalkeepers' player journals as they all start their season.

Not too long ago you finished your summer season with FC Dallas' WPSL team, where y'all won the Southwest conference and allowed less than a goal a game. Most college players don't play in the summer so what made you decide to play with FC Dallas? What did you gain from playing for FC Dallas?

Playing in the WPSL with FC Dallas over the summer was easily one of the best things I have done to prepare for an upcoming D1 college season. This year was FC Dallas’ first year competing in the WPSL and Ben Waldrum put together a very strong roster in a fairly short amount of time. I have been involved in the ECNL program at FC Dallas throughout high school so this was a great opportunity for me. Playing this past summer not only helped keep my touch on the ball sharp but also helped me stay mentally engaged in games all summer as well. Playing in games and keeping that mental sharpness that a game demands at a high level is such an important factor that generally goes missing for some in the summer. Yes, keeper training and training with a team is great but nothing can truly replace the experience you get from playing in a game.

The group of girls that played with FC Dallas this summer were truly world class. Adapting to a new team and adjusting to a different style of play than I am used to allowed me to not only develop as a player but become more well rounded. I noticed that I was holding myself accountable more often because there was a very high standard in training sessions and games. FC Dallas’ women’s side is going in a positive direction and talks of a NWSL team is a strong possibility for the future which is very exciting. There was so much talent on our team this summer and going undefeated was an exhilarating feeling. We finished our season 15-1, suffering our one and only loss to the Chicago Red Star’s Reserves in the Regional Championship game. 
 

The WPSL is a massive league with over 100 teams. Some of the teams are tied to professional teams and others fold after just being around a year. Describe your experience with the league. What's something outsiders don't realize or understand about the league?

I think the WPSL is a great league that will continue to move in the right direction. Although certain teams may have more talent than others, I feel there is a high level of competition throughout. I feel that many don’t realize how high the level of competition truly is. We had a very talented roster which included players like Monica Alvarado who is on Mexico’s national team and has played in a world cup. We also had many Houston Dash reserves playing with us throughout the season, many of which were called up to play on the full team in games for the Dash. Between the international talent and the professional talent, the quality of play was phenomenal. Kelsey Devonshire, who has also played professional soccer, was the other goalkeeper on our roster and being able to work with her this summer was extremely beneficial for me. Playing alongside a professional forced me to push myself to a higher standard that was expected. Overall I think the WPSL presents a great opportunity for anyone looking to continue to play over the summer.
 

Last year Creighton finished 2-7 in the Big East. What needs to happen this year to make sure Creighton reaches the Big East conference tournament?

This year we received a large freshman class with very talented players who will be able to come in and make a difference in our season. The mentality of our team is great and the competitive environment makes training very enjoyable. Although we are only one week into preseason, I can tell we are headed in the right direction. Commitment, dedication, and accountability are going to be huge parts of this season. It is crucial that we all hold ourselves and our teammates accountable. This season we need to make sure that we clean up silly mistakes. We have been working on our defensive shape as well as being more aggressive all over the field. We conceded many goals off of preventable errors that we need to work hard to fix this season. We also need to make sure that we capitalize on our opportunities this year. I believe everyone is committed to our goal and we are all working extremely hard each day to get better. I truly believe that we are going to be a very dangerous competitor in the Big East this season. 

Player Journal: Bobby Edwards - August 2016

Bobby Edwards returns for his second installment of his player journal, walking us through a summer injury and his outlook on the fall. For a complete listing of player journals, click here.

You picked up an unfortunate injury this summer. What happened and how did that alter your summer?

Back in January, I was having some pain on and around the outside of my foot. I was told to keep an eye on it, but it didn't seem to be anything serious at the time, so I continued to play. But then one morning our team had a fitness workout on the turf. We were running sprints and on the fourth one I pushed off my left foot and just felt it crack, followed by probably some of the worst pain I've ever experienced. I knew immediately I just broke something, badly. 

It's funny in hindsight, but right after I had broken it I couldn't walk, so my 5'7" coach had to help carry all 6'6" of me off the field. Poor guy must have been in just as much pain as I was getting me to the training room. 

I made my way to the hospital to get X-rays and there it was: a straight crack across my 5th metatarsal, aka a "Jones fracture,” an injury common in bigger athletes. (Kevin Durant suffered the same thing). I saw three different orthopedists and their opinions were the all same: surgery would be the best choice in order for me to play soccer again.

So I underwent the surgery. (Attached you can see the X-rays post surgery.) Basically it involved drilling a screw down the center of the bone to reinforce it, and then wait for it to heal. The next three months were really tough. Surgery on anything below your waist limits you to almost no movement, so my daily workouts consisted of bench press, abs, and some more abs. It got pretty repetitive and awful after day three. But worst of all, it was having to sit on the sidelines watching my teammates play the sport I live for, and not being able to participate. Any athlete will tell you the worst part of the injury - regardless of the severity - is having to sit and watch from the sideline. 

Finally in May I was cleared to play, just in time to begin with the U-23 New York Red Bulls. It felt so great to be back - like I said in the last journal, I can't speak highly enough of the team at NYRB. From the players to the staff, it's all class. But one month into Red Bull and it happened again. A ball was slotted across the goal and I moved quickly laterally to my left. The ball is cleared, I stopped abruptly, and I heard a loud “CRACK.”

I can't really describe the frustration and anger I felt after having it happen a second time. It was brutal, so taxing mentally and I just had this sense of hopelessness. Took me about a week to finally come to terms with it and from there I moved on, best I could. 

Luckily for me, the screw held up - it was the bone that failed. I wouldn't need to get surgery again. I just needed to wait for it to heal. As I write this, I am two months into the healing process and a week from the start of Saint Joe’s training camp, and the healing is not yet complete. There are a lot of questions yet to be answered about what the plan will be for this year. What I do know is that regardless of what does happen, my goal doesn't change - I'll keep chasing my dream of professional soccer. 

How does your team stay in contact over the summer? Do most of the players go off and do their own thing or are y'all in constant contact?

We’re spread out so we pretty much do our own thing. One of the toughest things for a college soccer player during the summer is the choice that has to be made between soccer or a job. Playing PDL or another form of high level summer ball is pretty much a job in itself, and so working an internship on top of that is nearly impossible. It’s a tough choice to make.

The choice I’ve made is to pursue soccer as fully as possible to the very last chance I have. This means I chose to sacrifice opportunities to get ahead in the business world since my classmates are spending their summers building their resumes - I'm just kicking a soccer ball around. Some of my teammates have opted for high level soccer (PDL, NPSL, U-23s, etc). Others chose to take full time internships and play on the side when they can. Both work either way. Each player knows their personal responsibility to staying fit and coming into preseason ready to play. How they go about this is in their power. 

Once I got hurt I knew I had to do something else with my free time, otherwise my summer would consist of sitting at home playing FIFA all day. Therefore, I chose to move back to Philly and take a full time coaching job with a great company called U.K. Elite. It allowed me to still workout with my trainers at SJU while doing something I'm passionate about: coach soccer. In all honesty, coaching has done well at filling the void of not being able to play. I was able to take on two summer teams, a U-9 and U-10 team for FCUSA Philadelphia. Even got a few medals along the way this summer! I cannot speak highly enough of both U.K. Elite or FCUSA. The standard of their coaches, professionalism, personality - genuinely the best company I have been able to work for and so helpful to me in my coaching career. Coaching is difficult, I learned that first hand this summer. It's so easy to sit back and say what should be done but to actually have to be in charge is a completely different beast. 

Contact [with the St. Joseph's players] though doesn't stop. We have a group chat which is very active throughout the summer regardless of where everyone is. Players that are close to SJU can meet up and work out together or hit the field, and after I moved back down I was able to workout and see a bunch of guys close to campus. 

When do you report for preseason? What has to happen for you to make sure you hit the ground running into the fall?

We report for preseason on my 21st birthday, August 11th. What a way to be spending my 21st! 

But in all seriousness, I am really buzzing to be back with the team. We have a lot to prove after a poor year last year. Collectively, we all need to buy into the program. It's easy (and I am just as guilty as anyone) to remove yourself and try to do things differently than what is collectively asked from the coaching staff when things start going poorly. The "Disease of Me" as my high school coach used to call it. For us to be successful this season, we need to all be pulling in the same direction. This starts at the top with the upperclassmen and trickles down to the younger guys. We need to collectively choose an identity of the team we want to be. Are we going to be a team that locks it up defensively and outworks anyone we play? Are we going to be a team that attacks with pace and creates special things in the attacking third? A big issue I feel we struggled with last year is that we had no identity. No one really knew what kind of team we were. 

For me, I've got a ton of responsibilities this season. This is obviously very dependent on what path I take regarding my injury, but either way, it is important I fulfill them to the best of my abilities. If I can play, then it's obvious: lock it down in the net, take charge and begin to bring an experienced voice to the back. A big step in a college career comes sophomore to junior year, because it's the bridge between young and old. I've had two years in net. Now it is time I stop the learning process and begin the teaching process. Young guys need a helping hand, the same way the juniors/seniors helped me when I was a freshman. My challenge is to find out the best way I can be that helping hand.

If I am dealt the latter and am forced to redshirt, this isn't a year off for me. I still have a responsibility to push the guys around me to become better soccer players and build up team chemistry, just off the field. I'm lucky (though unlucky for him) to have a goalkeeper coach who has been able to mentor me through the ups and downs of my college career. Scott Krotee himself knows the pains of injury too well, in fact he is just coming back off knee surgery. He was forced to take a year off in his college days, and we've talked a lot about the different roles and responsibility you are tasked with when faced with an injury. This year, he will continue to help me grow and learn regardless of which path I take. 

Goalkeeper coach Scott Krotee and Bobby Edwards

Lastly, I would take a second to wish all my goalkeeper friends the best of luck in their seasons. Monmouth, Michigan, Rutgers, UCLA, Boston U, Columbia, Tufts, Williams and plenty more have goalkeepers from the best state in the country in their nets: New Jersey. Best of luck!

Player Journal: Noah Heim, Freshman at Marquette

Noah Heim will be a freshman at Marquette University this fall and is joining the site for the second college athlete contributing to the player journal section. Heim will walk us through his first year at a D1 program.

You committed to Marquette where you'll actually started your freshmen year this past spring. Looking back on that process, what helped you make a final decision on where to attend?

For me, Marquette has really been the school I hoped would be interested in me throughout my whole recruiting process, but I had always had my options open. There were different coaches who had seen me in multiple different scenarios. Most of the schools that I had contact with through the process had actually initiated the conversations. Some smaller schools emailed me after my performance at the Olympic Development Program Interregional Showcase, but nothing major. One coach had given me his card after he saw me play in a Midwest Regional League game in Minnesota. Another coach saw me play in a National Premier Soccer League game in Madison. The coach's brother happened to work at my club so he got a hold of me through his brother. Even though coaches are interested, it is still hard to get their attention through emails and calls. That is one factor that plays into where you’re going to feel at home. If you feel like the interest is mutual, it’s easier to see yourself playing soccer at that school. That was not present while contacting these schools so, for me that dropped them lower on the list.

[There was] another school in the mix. I had been attending their weekly winter trainings for three years. They had seen me develop and so that opened eyes because my transition from sophomore to senior year was pretty big, about six inches and thirty pounds along with my athleticism finally all coming together. That was an interesting bridge. There had really been no words besides casual conversation at the trainings. Well they finally expressed interest to my NPSL coach wondering why I had committed as a junior even though I was a senior. The fact that I had been attending events they put on for three years and they didn’t know how old I was put a damper on how much I was interested in playing there. 

The school that won was Marquette. The way I was recruited by them is the way I’ve heard a lot of people doing it. I pretty much just bugged them until they remembered my name. I just didn’t stay away. I attended their ID camp sophomore, junior, and senior year, emailed them about my schedule, and sent video of games that I wasn’t sure if they made. The same game that the Loyola coach had seen me play, I heard [Marquette head coach] Louis Bennett happened to be there too. A couple of weeks later I was on Marquette's campus for a camp and that’s when everything came together. I ended up graduating high school early and attending Marquette University a semester early. So I will be going into the preseason with a taste of what the fall will be like. The fact that I was given this opportunity really made the decision much easier. 

As far as weighing options, I ended up at the school where the coaches made me feel like where I wasn’t just another player that had big dreams. I did have big dreams and I still do, but the coaching staff at Marquette has developed players so they can chase their dream of playing professionally too. Both my parents and I decided that I would [attend] somewhere that I would be happy playing soccer and being a student. In the end, the decision should really be made off of where you’re going to be the most comfortable. 

How did playing for Madison FC and Cambridge High School put you in a position to make the jump to a D1 program?

Both were very small programs. Madison FC only having about 35-40 people show up to tryouts and Cambridge only having around 25 kids for a varsity and JV team. On either team, I was the only player to play division one soccer. People definitely looked to me to make big saves and decisions when things got suspect. I was a captain and a definite leader of the teams. In a technical aspect, I was not in a great position to jump from a high school season to a D1 spring season. Mentally, I knew that I was going to have to work hard to step up to the technical level and speed of play. 
    
The biggest thing I think I gained out of playing for both teams was my ability to recycle and move on to the next play. There were a lot of mistakes made by all teams at these levels, and many lead to goals or at least chances on goal. One game, I made 27 saves. I couldn’t dwell on the fact that I had just made a good save or what I could’ve done better in that situation, both of those had to come after the game for me. Obviously there wasn’t much time to think about the past when statistically that game I made a save every three minutes. Being able to move onto the next play is one of the biggest weapons a goalkeeper has. If you just got scored on, how you react is a big factor of how the rest of the team will react. If I go silent, most likely, the rest of the team will go silent. 

You're returning to Camp Shutout this summer. Tell us about why you're returning and what you can expect out of the week-long camp.

Camp Shutout... what a week. My Premier League of America season has just ended. So in between now and player’s preseason there is a week of nothing. A lot of people would probably take that week as rest before heading off to school again, but I’m looking to tighten everything up. There is a session for practically every situation a goalkeeper could come across in the game of soccer. If you’re good at extension and top hand dives, good for you, you’re going to get better. If you’re back to the bar isn’t so great, that’s cool, you’ll get better. With the multiple sessions focusing on the various situations, you really have time to find and manipulate your weaknesses.

I’ve been told I’ll be able to hop in with the college sessions [at Camp Shutout] which will put me at three to four training sessions a day. Yeah, that is a lot of sessions every day for a week long camp, but this really helps you figure out what you need to do to take care of your body to keep yourself healthy and at your best. 

Player Journal: Bobby Edwards, St. Joseph's University

cover photo belongs to Sideline Photos, LLC

Bobby Edwards is the starting goalkeeper at St. Joseph's University, where he recently completed his sophomore year in May. The 6'6" goalkeeper started fourteen games in both of his first two years at SJU and enters the summer with the New York Red Bulls U23s, alongside Eric Klenofsky (Monmouth) and Evan Louro (Michigan). Over the next two years, we'll track Edwards' progress with bi-monthly updates as he pursues his goal of becoming a professional goalkeeper.

As a 6’6” goalkeeper, there’s just as assumption that you’ll be great in the air and saves are rarely an issue because of your frame, unless the save is low. How much truth is there to this? How has being 6’6” affected your training?

Being tall has definitely given me certain advantages throughout my career. But there is an important distinction between being big and knowing how to use your size. If you tower over everyone and take up half the goal, but you have two left feet when it comes to movement and positioning, you won't be successful. Being big is a foot in the door, but it takes a lot of detailed training and experience to push that door open.
 
As far as high balls go, my height definitely is an advantage in being able to reach balls above attacking players. And yet it's my opinion that they are still one of the toughest situations for a goalkeeper to deal with. One second too late or one second too early can be the difference between a blunder or a great play. My size has saved me a lot of times by being able to make up for perhaps a misread ball or some sloppy footwork on high balls. I also have spent a good amount of time in the gym, trying to get stronger so I can go up in traffic and claim crosses. Having the extra power helps you win 50-50's in the air and makes it easier on yourself being that you aren't usually the one taking the beating in the battle. 
 
I have always heard that big keepers struggle to get down for low balls. My training has always put a lot of emphasis on working on responding to low balls, since in a certain sense there is a greater distance to cover for tall keepers. But with a longer wing span it is easier for big keepers to reach corners and pick the pockets, so I have learned how to compensate. 

As a taller keeper, I have always focused on, and still focus on, my movement, coordination and body control. The key for any keeper to get better is to put in a lot of work to strengthen their weaknesses. Having size means my strengths and weaknesses are different than other goalkeepers and vice versa, so in a sense yes, being big has affected my training.

St. Joseph’s finished 4-12-2 last year, following a 7-7-4 finish the year before. Where did y’all struggle this last year and what needs to happen moving forward into your junior year that will put St. Joseph’s on a more competitive platform?

Yeah, tough year to say the least. I experienced some of my lowest lows on the soccer field this past year, which was really tough mentally.

We lost three fourths of our starting back line, two of whom were captain center backs. As a freshman, I was fortunate to have an experienced back line that had already played together for three years. They had a cohesiveness that was built over time. Anyone who has played on a team over time knows that a solid back line isn't just about having the best players, it involves having a chemistry that enables the back line to work together as one unit. So losing that was tough. This isn't to say our rookies didn't do well this year, I think they did a great job being thrown into the fire their first year, but experience only comes from playing games. So naturally we didn't have the cohesiveness that we had had the year before. We made some mistakes out of a lack of experience, myself very much included.

photo belongs to Sideline Photos

Pressure was also put on our back line because we struggled to score goals. If we gave up a goal, it sometimes felt like we had fallen into a hole that would be hard to come back from. You could see our heads drop after we gave up a goal and our morale took a hit. If we can get more dangerous up top, we take pressure off our backline, which will help us a ton. I'm hopeful that with the experience we gained last year, we will have more cohesiveness and with some talented guys coming in to add to the mix, our overall play will be significantly stronger.

Our whole team was young. We had only two seniors. The majority of our guys who stepped on the field were either first year players or starting for the first time. Again, I think our guys did well, but for a battle between experienced college players looking to go pro vs. our inexperience, it isn't always a fair fight. Chemistry, experience, size, leadership - these are all things that get better with time.

You’re training with the New York Red Bulls U23s this summer. What about their program made you want to train with them?

The New York Red Bulls are a class organization. From the first team to the youth levels, they play great soccer and have a great program. A lot of factors went into deciding to play with them for the summer, and it took a while to come to that decision. First, the staff, facilities, and team are all amazing with the Red Bulls. They create a competitive environment that is second to none, always pushing you to be better. You don't have time to coast there or take your foot off the gas. This ties into another huge reason I wanted to come back: the people training around me are elite players. Evan Louro and Eric Klenofsky are two of the best goalkeepers I have been able to play with so far in my career. Training with them allows me to learn a lot and find out what is working for them and see if I can implement it into my own game. Lastly, I have the amazing luck that RBNY is pretty much in my backyard. To get to the facilities it takes five minutes, and if I really needed to, I could probably walk to practice. This means I can live at home, and still be able to have my life here in New Jersey. Back in February, I blew out my 5th metatarsal (the bone on the side of your foot) which needed surgery and three-to-four months of rehab. That meant that my return to play was just about two weeks before the PDL season kicked off. I knew that if I wanted to get back to where I needed to be fitness wise, living at home would allow me to spend more time training in the gym and rehab.