Game Week

Well it has been a long offseason and now it is again time for the games. There is no better way to start off the season than a couple of premiere national games in a couple of sports. The women's soccer team opens the season with old-rival Trinity. The two programs have a lot of mutual respect for each other and they have ended each other's season the last three years. First kick is slated for 2 p.m. on Friday at the HSU Soccer Complex on Grape Street. Be careful of the construction area next to the field when you go out. We ask that you go around the softball fieldhouse to get to the field.

The volleyball team plays two regional foes on Friday at the UT-Dallas Tournament. The Cowgirls will play nationally-ranked Southwestern to open the season and then will play UT-Dallas in a rematch of the ASC Championship last season.

The football team welcomes No. 7 UW-La Crosse to the Forty Acres on Saturday in what should be one of the best national games of the week. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. at Shelton Stadium. To get you warmed up for the game you can catch the men's soccer season opener against UT-Permain Basin at 3 p.m. at the HSU Soccer Complex.

All of the two-a-days are over and all of the hard work that goes into the offseason will start to pay dividends for the Cowboys and Cowgirls. We hope to see you at the games this week.

Weekly Roundup

It’s been an exciting week around the campus as the football team is on campus and has gone through the first week of practice. There is some major competition going on all over the field for playing time.

We are still a week away from school starting so it will give the Cowboys another full week of football only to prepare for its tough opening stretch.

The soccer and volleyball teams begin their workouts on Monday in preparation for the season. All three of those teams are reigning conference champions and have plenty of returners on the team. The Cowgirl Soccer Team has been picked fourth in the preseason D3kicks.com poll. The Cowgirls made it home safely around 11:30 on Thursday night. Look forward to a slide show of pictures from their trip in the next week.

A couple of notes on a pair of former Cowboys playing professionally -- Ryan Shaughnessy Is playing for a team in Belgium and had a shutout of the first place team in the league in his debut. He also had the assist on the lone goal in the game. Jordan Neal continues to play for Malmo in the Swedish Football League. You can find his weekly ”Postcards from Sweden” on the Abilene Reporter News.

Blog 5 From England

The HSU Cowgirls will fly back from London Gatwick on Thursday, August 15. Their preseason trip was very successful. The educational side of the tour included trips to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, The Globe Theatre where Shakespeare's plays are performed, The British Museum, The Tower of London, London Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Windsor, Eton College, Cambridge University and a ride on the World Famous London Eye. The Cowgirls very much enjoyed shopping at Harrod's, Picadilly Circus, China Town, The Covent Gardens and Cambridge.

On the soccer side the Cowgirls won one game and tied, 2 conceding no goals. The win was 4-0 against Cambridge United. The ties were against EPL sides Fulham and West Ham United, both with scores of 0-0. Coach Wood said about the games, "I am very pleased with how we played this early in the year.

We defended extremely well and some of the attacking ideas were starting to come together." The team also took part in training sessions led by staff from Tottenham FC. One of the sessions included two 13 year old boys who were on trial with Tottenham trying to earn a contract. The training sessions all took place at the Chigwell School.

On Wednesday night the team will take a stadium tour at Chelsea's stadium, Stamford Bridge and then will attend the English Premier League game between Fulham and Bolton.

Another Tie In England

The Cowgirls had another scoreless tie in their game today with West Ham. Coach Wood says the Cowgirls played well, but missed finishing three breakaways. The Cowgirls out shot West Ham 8-4 and HSU had 12 corners.

Jessica Flobeck and Amy Kuykendall will tell about the events of the day for Blog 4.

Cheers from London! Today was a pretty busy day for us...we started with a practice session with another one of the Tottenham coaches. He had a lot of good pointers for us and definately targeted our weak spots from our game last night. While our legs are pretty tired and sore, it was an all around great practice. We had a few hours of free time after that, so many of the girls went to downtown London to a HUGE department store called Harrods. It's 6 stories and has everything from designer clothes to groceries to candy stores to sporting goods! All the girls were pretty amazed at both the size of the store and the prices. (Not in a good way!) By the time we got back from there, it was time to prepare for our game against West Ham United. They were very strong girls, but we held them well and did not give up many scoring opportunities. We had 3 or 4 really good attacks, but we were very unlucky with our finishing. Although our legs are getting a little fatigued, we keep remembering what a great opportunity we have been given to be playing in beautiful London with such beautiful cool weather, and that keeps us very motivated to play well.

We miss all our fans very much and can't wait to show y'all what we can do this year!! We'll keep you updated on how the game goes tomorrow...hopefully we can score some goals and get our first London win!!

Cheers!!
-Flo n' Amy

Welcome To HSU

The Cowboy football team went through its first practice of the season and the thermometer pushed ever so close to the 100-degree mark. Jimmie Keeling welcomed over 170 Cowboys to the first day. There was a lot of intensity in the workout and it amazes me every year when I watch how quickly the new guys learn from the upperclassmen and coaches. I must say it was amazing to see some of the size that the Cowboys brought in. After going through much of spring drills with less than 10 healthy bodies on the offensive line, it was a nice sight to see around 40 offensive lineman get after it.

Its a Tie

Blog 3: Beth Craig and Laura Newbrough
Yes!!!! The team finally received a day off. We started our "lovely" day by traveling to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards. Afterwards, many groups ventured off on individual adventures. Some traveled to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels. Others went to the British museum, Westminster Abbey, Harrods, and the Globe theatre. I (Laura) went to see a midnight showing of "The Merchant of Venice" at the Globe. It was an amazing experience!!!! I (Beth) went to see the musical "Wicked" and overall the play was fantastic. The actors had the most amazing voices. Other than that the rest of the day was spent shopping and doing other types of tourist attractions.

Today, we started off the morning with a great breakfast and then a trip to Windsor. We spent our time touring the castle and shopping in small stores. Then we headed off to play Fulham. Everyone played wonderful and we ended up tying the premier league team.

Game Recap
The Cowgirls tied Fulham which is a premier team. It was 0-0, but HSU led in shots 5-2 and had eight corners in the game. The defense, which is expected to be the strength of the team, played very well according to Coach Wood.

Blog 2 From England

This blog comes courtesy of Lindsay Cogburn.

Today we got our first true taste of English soccer. We had a training session with one of the coaches of the Tottenham Hotspurs academy. My first thoughts were skeptical; thinking that it was going to be a three hour long session with no water breaks and continuous running, but to my surprise the fitness was done by skillwork. It really was a true taste of the game over here because I learned more about skills in the 2 hours we practiced than I have in a long time.

We started out practicing moves to ourselves, but one of the main differences I saw working with the Tottenham coach was he actually applied the move to a gamelike situation. Showing us when it was appropriate to use it, where on the field it should work, and the exact movement needed to beat the opponent. There were also two South African boys around the age of 13 that were practicing with us. We all noticed how good they were and we later found out that they were here for a tryout for the Tottenham team. It was really amazing to get the opportunity to learn and play with people that love the game of soccer, and have practically made it their life.

After the training session we got a chance to go into London for the first time together and ride the famous London Eye. After a long and involved train ride, almost losing our great goalkeeper Z for missing the train, and running through the train station we finally arrived in the city that we came here to see. The London Eye was really amazing and I'm so glad we got the chance to ride it. We got to see the whole city for what it's worth before actually getting to go in it. After that we walked around downtown, seeing the sights that many have only seen in pictures. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, a double decker bus, China town, and we still have tomorrow when we get a whole day to do anything we want in the huge city.

Hopefully everyone will get to see everything they want to in the time we have this week. With a day off tomorrow from soccer, I'm really looking forward to our first game on Sunday. I can't wait to find out how great we will play against the women teams over here. So far...this has been a trip I will always remember.

Greetings From England

Hardin-Simmons head women's soccer coach Marcus Wood and senior Regan Cappella are blogging from their trip to England. Here is their first installment.

Marcus Wood
The 10 hour flight was one of the better long flights I have experienced. The flight was not full so we had some room to spread out. I had plenty of time to read and the in flight movies were very good. At 4:00 am I watched 2 of the best episdoes of The Office: The Dundee Awards and The Office Olympics both had me laughing outloud.

When we arrived at London Gatwick Airport everything went pretty smooth. We got right on our coach (charter bus) and headed to The Chigwell School. At the Chigwell School we headed out to the pitch and had a practice session that allowed us to work the bugs out. I am sad to report that my team (the Veterans) lost to the Youngsters.

Walking off the practice field we planned on catching the tube into London but jet lag caught up so my group stayed in Chigwell. The Pub (Ye Old Kings Head) where we ate is where Charles Dickens wrote one of his books. Winston Churchill often ate at Ye Old Kings Head. Several of the girls went into London and I admire their ability to stay awake. I was asleep by 9:00 pm.

Today we practice with the staff of Tottenham Hotspur FC. We expect Martin Jol will have a nice session for us on the eve of their opening match of the EPL season. We then head into London for a ride on the London Eye and all the sightseeing. Our first match is Sunday against Fulham.

My most memorable moment of day one was when we first arrived at the Chigwell school and seeing the kids playing cricket. They all had on their "football" uniforms especially West Ham which seems to be the club of choice in Chigwell. As the girls got off the bus, all the kids stopped what they were doing and watched our every move. A couple brave ones even came over and greeted us. It is fun experiencing a new culture, especially seeing the game over here. Brilliant!

Regan Cappella
Cheers mate! Lets just say that our first day has been interesting...The flight was loooonngg and bumpy making it very hard to get decent sleep, but we did get pretty good food and movies. We then went ahead to our first practice with eyes half shut and did pretty good to beat the old farts as usual.

Although we were excited to be there and playing soccer most of us were just dying to get out and have a look around. After practice, we hurried to get ready then headed out into the so called big village of Chigwell. Most of the girls went to the local pubs around town, a few decided to make the hour trek into London. Beth and I headed with my parents to the same pub that Woody went too where we chowed down on the local fish and chips. You also had your choice of graden peas or mushy peas to go with the meal, but we were told that most englanders opted for the mushy peas. They looked and tasted like baby food peas...never again. It was a good experience.

Tonight we will make our way out into London where we will get to ride on the London Eye and start our adventure in the city..Hopefully we get to see Prince William....but probably not! :)