Blog Note: Carly Beyar and Shannon Fay are junior members of the women’s soccer team.  They will be teaming up to provide a Stag soccer point of view to Stag Tracks.

Hello friends,

Most people may know us as, Carly Beyar and Shannon Fay, however we would like to combine ourselves into the Carl-Shanigans. We are both juniors and members of the Fairfield Women’s Soccer team. Although our lives are completely absorbed with soccer practices and games, there is more to us than you may think.

September 7th, 2012 we played Hartford on Lessing Field and unfortunately ended up in a double overtime…TIE. Ties are the worst part of soccer in our eyes. However, our Coach Jimbo [head coach Jim O'Brien] was there to cheer us up after the game. He informed us that the men’s and women’s soccer teams were to be represented at Late-Night Barone around 10 pm that night.

We are not sure if you have ever heard of Late-Night at Barone, but it is infamously known for the most unhealthy food that could instantly make you the happiest person in the world. And if you know our team, you know we love food! You’ve got choices of bacon, egg and cheese, or chicken fingers, greasy pizza or even slushy cones (naturally having 2 or 3 them, but who’s keeping track?). Our team headed over around 10 o’clock PM and were the first on line (Shocker, we are always hungry).

The cafeteria was decorated with streamers and there were even custom made water bottles with soccer balls as caps. Not only did our team eat until we felt we were going to explode, but we also held the freeze dance competition in the middle of the cafeteria. Unfortunately shy faces didn’t want to come and dance, but our teammates danced enough for all of the guests at Late-Night. We had tons of laughs inside of our dance circle. Evidently, it was a great bonding experience for everyone, including the freshman who are still warming up to the upper class-man on our squad.

After going home late, we had to set our alarms to 8:30 AM. Normally it would be for a practice, however that day was different. Our team had decided to host a clinic called, “Mini Stags” for six weeks. Every Saturday for six weeks, 147 three and four-year-olds will come train with the Fairfield Women’s Soccer team.

Last Saturday was the first day so naturally we ran the registration and began to play games with our designated groups. We played with the mini stags for an hour playing games like, Duck Duck Goose, Red Light Green Light, Sharks and Minos, and of course a full-field scrimmage (Which was very difficult to control considering they are three years old), but we managed to be successful. The kids were laughing and enjoying themselves, as well as the parents who were carefully watching our every move on the sidelines. Incorporating the soccer ball into the drills was a challenge but we actually taught some children how to dribble the ball and shoot into a net. “No hands!” was repeated numerous times, but we hope to think that the children eventually got the point.

What we had thought would be a chore for the next six Saturday mornings actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The kids help us remember why we play the game we love, which is simply to be yourself and have fun. Sometimes with the pressures of college, we forget that soccer is about enjoying yourself and working as hard as you can to achieve a common goal. It is a blessing to be apart of teaching young kids to love the same game that we do. (Not to mention, we are making great babysitting contacts).

Well, that’s all we have to share right now! Stay tuned for more shenanigans that we might get into next….

xoxo,

Carl-Shanigans