April 11, 2014
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Last week, the South Carolina women’s soccer team finished off its spring schedule with a win over Coastal Carolina, and last night the squad ended the spring with its annual fan appreciation clinic. It’s way for the team and staff to give back to its young fans and say thank you for their support during the fall.
The event has turned into a tradition. The team and staff began doing the free clinic in the spring of 2009 after the Gamecocks began to hit their stride under Coach Smith after earning their second-straight berth in the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve had a great fan base and we continue to reach out those girls instead of waiting until the fall to come out here, get autographs and watch us play,” head coach Shelley Smith said. “It gives us a chance to bring back soccer as we go into the summer.”
With different skill stations scattered across the field at Stone Stadium, the clinic was an opportunity for returning student-athletes to interact with young fans outside of the fall season.
“Our players do a great job with the young girls,” Smith added. “They’re tremendous role models and they’re passionate about teaching the game to these kids. Everyone had a station and took ownership of a skill to teach the girls and run a game. Hopefully their enthusiasm spread throughout the group. I know that there were some kids there who had never played soccer before and others who have played, but all of them seemed to enjoy themselves and their interactions with our players.”
It was a great way for the team to end a tough spring season. After being pushed physically last spring, this year has focused more on the technical side of things, speeding up play–passing and decision making. A diverse mix of opponents has aided in this process with teams ranging from local boy’s club teams, women’s college teams from the region and the Trinidad & Tobago national team.
“I think the team really put a lot of effort into this spring,” Smith said. “They’ve maintained a tremendous level of fitness. There are things that we’ve pushed them to get better at and now they have a summer to take care of individual skill work and weakness they need to improve on. If they can all do that coming into the fall, we’re going to be that much better.”
With good habits developed during the spring season a year ago, and a strong season last fall, coupled with the majority of the team returning, players have been driven heading into next fall to push the program to even greater heights.
“We didn’t have to push them as much [this year],” Smith said. “The mentality has been that this is our spring, it’s hard work, but we’re going to be better from it.”
Getting better is what the spring is about. This season will carry over into the summer where that commitment to improve upon last year will bring the team back together long before preseason begins in August.
