The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Men's Soccer: Carl Woszczynski
8/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Aug. 31, 2009
Hey Blazer Fans,
Hope everyone had a great summer, and are as excited for another great season of UAB Men's Soccer as we all are. My name is Carl Woszczynski, and I'm a redshirt sophomore goalkeeper for the team. Once a week, I'll be writing a blog to give everyone some insight and behind-the-scenes looks into the life of UAB Soccer.
All of the players worked extremely hard this summer to be prepared when we came into preseason. Along with doing our summer workout packets, I'm pretty sure we had the highest number of players ever play in different summer leagues around the country to gain valuable experience and keep our skills sharp. We knew that if we all came to preseason without playing in three months, things wouldn't work out. As soon as we got on campus for preseason, everyone got down to business. After having subpar seasons for the last two seasons, the whole team was very determined to turn it around. We had about a week of two-a-day practices before school got back in session. They were very hard and intense, and everyone on the team was pushing each other to be better and better. A good thing about this year's team is that almost every position is a competition. With the number of skilled players we have, no one can rest and be assured a spot, so all the training sessions are very competitive.
We finished up the preseason 2-0 after two very dominating home performances. First, we beat Clemson 3-0 in front of a record crowd of almost 3,500 people at West Campus Field! The environment for the game was INCREDIBLE!!! We are going to keep advertising and pushing to continue to get these big home crowds. Playing in front of that many people really inspires us to push ourselves and perform. It will be VERY tough to lose a game at home if we continue to get that kind of support. Next, we beat Belmont 3-1 in another good home performance for us. Although we played well and had two big wins, there are still a lot of things that we need to work on and sharpen up as we head into the regular season.
Our regular season home opener is Tuesday, September 1st against Oakland at West Campus Field at 7PM. For the past few years Oakland has been a very good Top 25 team and has been in the NCAA Tournament. We all look forward to being challenged right away. Hopefully we'll get another big crowd out to support us! As always, games are FREE for students. There is tailgate with food before the game at 5:30PM, and this is also FREE for UAB students!
We also travel to Chicago for a game against the University of Illinois-Chicago on Friday. They are ranked #11 in the preseason polls, so again we'll have to be playing our best right off the bat.
PLEASE EVERYONE COME OUT AND SUPPORT US TUESDAY AGAINST OAKLAND AT WEST CAMPUS FIELD AT 7PM!!!
See you at the game,
Carl
