Liberty League

[Gregory Sager]

The seniors will play like seniors, thats never a concern. When these boys see the end of the road a fire always gets lit under the a$s.

That's not always the case. I've followed D3 sports for four decades, and what I've observed is that some seniors play exactly the way that you described, while others do the exact opposite -- they appear to be coasting or disengaged. That's because senior year for a kid at a D3 school is the year in which he or she focuses in on the next major step in life coming up after graduation, be it the first real job, applying for graduate school, relationship decisions (up to and including engagement and an impending wedding), etc. For the vast majority of D3 student-athletes, there is no professional sports career on the horizon to strive towards, and thus no athletic future that drives present performance, aside from whatever in-season goals he or she has. D3 student-athletes are getting ready for life, not for a possible paycheck as a pro jock. And senior year can be so overwhelming with that impending transition that it can mentally crowd out the sport the student-athlete plays.

Admittedly, this is typically less of a problem with fall-sport student-athletes, including soccer players, than it is with winter- and spring-sport student-athletes. But I've still seen plenty of soccer players tune out a bit (or even a lot) in their senior seasons, and it's usually not hard to figure out why.

[Ejay]

But I've still seen plenty of soccer players tune out a bit (or even a lot) in their senior seasons, and it's usually not hard to figure out why.

Maybe it's sometimes due to the coach being an a*hole.  Or maybe the coach decides to insert 4 new starters into a team that was 15-5 the previous year and was returning 10 starters. And maybe one of those new players is the son of a school administrator who is just not that good, and now you've got 4 new players ruining the team chemistry. And just maybe, the seniors get fed up with the whole thing.

Just a possible reason ;-)

[Gregory Sager]

That sounds like a remarkably specific hypothetical example.

[deutschfan]

Yes EB, that hypothetical sounds awfully real.  The two games of the week next weekend are SLU/Oneonta and Vassar/Stevens.  These are must win games for both LL teams if they have any hope of a NCAA wildcard.  SLU's loss to Otterbein has put them in a hole with highly ranked Cortland in their future.  Vassar doesn't have the SOS SLU does, and also has been missing their top scorer for the past three years in their first two games.  Hopefully for the Brewers he returns for Stevens and thereafter.  Interesting call for offensive player of the week.  The League chooses an Ithaca midfielder with two goals, one being a deflection off a clearance, versus a Skidmore forward with 5 goals and a Union forward with a season worth of points in his first two games.  Kudos to the LL who I have criticized sometimes in the past for their choices.  Showing against some of the nation's toughest teams is far more significant than scoring oodles of points against the meek and weak, imho.

[Saint of Old]

 EB's post proves that IF NOT  for the senior(s) he refers to getting  screwed... they would be ready to ball their senior year.
I get the point that as a senior the major life transition around the corner will take the attention of many players.
I think that our game is different.
There are many of us who grew up loving that little round thing as much as life itself.
Soccer to many of us is not just a sport, and as opposed to winding down and looking to transition our senior year we try so very hard to squeeze every ounce of playing game time/time with the boyz/locker room time etc out before our careers end.

True story, the last game of my junior year my team won a National championship and my senior captain began weeping like a small child.
@first I thought it strange since we just climbed the mountain and his last memory as a player would be as a winner.
A year later I realized that the most important word in the last sentence was "LAST".
It hurts hard to hang it up, and i think innately the seniors, or most seniors get this.

For most of us here Senior year was perhaps our best... maybe not in minutes played or points scored, but atleast effort given... which is maybe the most important part of soccer.

[stlawus]

3 minutes into this SLU Oneonta game and I'm channeling my inner Saint of Old.  I'm going out my mind watching us play the ball backwards.  We had the ball just on the edge of Oneonta's final third and passed backwards. 

[stlawus]

Gonna be a long season for this SLU squad. 

[Saint of Old]

Its starting to become hard to watch.

[Saint of Old]

The Red Dragons literally sliced us open to score that last goal.
I dont get it... We do not play with any sort of offensive mind set and yet get carved up so easily on D.

I have to simply stop commenting because I am just very very disappointed at this point.

[stlawus]

We're playing 3 at the back but midfielders were not tracking back on that goal. Now in the last 2 minutes we possess going forward and get 2 shots on goal.   What a concept.

[Saint of Old]

80% of Saint passes are backwards.
Teams have figured this out and simply sit back and pick us off...
Strikers dont make imaginative runs because they know the ball will simply be passed back.

If your #1 constantly has more touches than your #7, $10 and #8, then your team has a PROBLEM.
This soccer wont work.
Im done, signed off.
Its a joke in Canton right now.
Sad to say.

[stlawus]

For the first time in 6 years I am turning off a SLU game before halftime.   This is simply atrocious and Toshack's stubbornness to change anything has cost us a season before league play even started.

[Saint of Old]

80% of Saint passes are backwards.
Teams have figured this out and simply sit back and pick us off...
Strikers dont make imaginative runs because they know the ball will simply be passed back.

If your #1 constantly has more touches than your #7, $10 and #8, then your team has a PROBLEM.
This soccer wont work.
Im done, signed off.
Its a joke in Canton right now.
Sad to say.

I said what I just did before the 3rd goal and that is exactly how they just scored...
If I can see it, why cant the players and coach?

[Saint of Old]

For the first time in 6 years I am turning off a SLU game before halftime.   This is simply atrocious and Toshack's stubbornness to change anything has cost us a season before league play even started.

First time in 28 years Saints down 3 goals at the half...

[stlawus]

For the first time in 6 years I am turning off a SLU game before halftime.   This is simply atrocious and Toshack's stubbornness to change anything has cost us a season before league play even started.

First time in 28 years Saints down 3 goals at the half...

That's literally my life span.   Woof.