North Carolina State University Athletics
Carol Tognetti Checks in from Preseason Training
8/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Aug. 12, 2005
RABUN GAP, Ga. - First let me start by saying the scenery here is absolutely beautiful. It is quite a change from Raleigh, although I do miss NC State of course. Our trip to the Rabun Gap School in Georgia has already been a great experience for our team. We train twice a day and spend time in the evenings doing various team bonding activities. Our schedule makes for a long day, but the sunlight on the mountains at night makes for a nice relaxing time as we wind down. Wednesday was our first day here. We arrived late Tuesday evening to stay in the dorm rooms of the Rabun Gap Nacoochee School. All of the students are gone so it is just us keeping the staff busy.
Our day begins at about 6 a.m. when we get up to prepare for breakfast at 7 a.m. in the school's dining hall. The fog has rolled in overnight so it is difficult to take in the view. Training starts at 8 a.m. and then we eat lunch at 11:30. We do get a break for three hours in the afternoon to stay out of the heat. After our break on Wednesday, we sat in for a system breakdown with Coach Kerrigan and the staff before heading out to the field for our second training session. This one is shorter is more concentrated on working through our set so we are prepared before our first preseason game against Georgia on Sunday. I do have one funny story to share. Keep in mind this trip has been a lot of fun and has really given us a great opportunity to get to know one another, especially the freshmen. At practice Nicole Mayo, one of our defenders, went sprinting after a ball that was going out of bounds. The good news is she saved the ball; the funny part is she fell in a huge puddle that was situated between the edge of the track and the field. I was down at the other end of the field, but I did see her fall in the puddle. Everyone was laughing. I think it was the right moment; it just took some of the edge off and provided some comic relief. Poor Nicole was drenched. Another couple of fun things have happened. We took part in a relay canoe race. Allie Wilkerson was one of the two players on my team. She of course was laughing hysterically the entire time. When we were pushed into the lake the water took over our canoe and Allie went nuts. I screamed too and it was just a lot of fun. We also had a chance to get to know our new assistant coach Ben Pinkerton. The guy was a good sport as we interrogated him with 20 questions. He is very intense and dedicated and as we discovered, just an awesome person to have on our staff. We love Coach Cobb and miss her of course!
Thursday was about the same as Wednesday as far as training goes. We focused on the tactical aspects to continue to work on our system and to get everyone on the same page. We also did some individual technical training with 1v1s and some other drills. After practice the team came together for dinner - pizza, which I was looking forward to. We had a task to bring family pictures so that later that night we could share the pictures and introduce everyone to our families. This trip has been very beneficial to us so far and I am looking forward to Friday and Saturday.
I think Mandela (Schumacher-Hodge) is going to fill you guys in about Friday and Saturday. I had a great time chatting. Hope everyone in Raleigh is having fun.
