Great to see that, similar to what they did for volleyball, Buffzone/ the Daily Camera has an off-season soccer article (also written by Pat Rooney) leading up to the Buffs' 1st spring scrimmages this weekend-
http://www.buffzone.com/soccer/ci_29709316/cu-soccer-buffs-looking-erase-2015-disappointment
A few of my notes (with quotes from the article)-
1) Good to hear chemistry seems better- ""I feel like what we had to get better at was just all us being on the same page," defender Joss Orejel said. "All of us were on different pages last year. It shows on the field. I feel this group of girls is closer and we know what we have to get done to make a comeback from last year.""
2) On losing so many starters (between graduation and transfer)- "On paper, Sanchez is tasked with replacing six starters. However most of those voids have already been filled. Sophomore goalie Scout Watson should slide seamlessly into the starting role vacated by Kate Scheele, and the return of senior defender Kahlia Hogg, who missed all but six games last year due to injury, should bolster a back line that was inconsistent in 2015."
(Kind of interesting this makes it sound Ms. Watson is the presumed starter at goalie, as I was/ am expecting a fun and spirited competition for the starting spot between her and red-shirt freshman (?***) Jalen Tompkins, who was one of the top ranked goalies in the country in her class coming out of high school. Overall, got to love having 2 quality young players, one a RS sophomore and one a RS freshman***, at that critical position, with another well thought of recruit coming in in 2017. ***Note- I'm assuming Ms. Tompkins is a red-shirt since she didn't play at all last season, but the current roster lists her as a sophomore. Don't know what the rules are for when/ how a year has to be declared for a player to have a red-shirt year in the various sports? Of course, if her academic plans are to graduate and leave after 4 years, the red-shirt talk is all "academic" anyways.)
3) "Sanchez spearheaded a rules change that will be in effect for spring games within the state, with goalies only allowed to hand-pass the ball to their teammates. The initiative is part of a concussion study and eliminates players heading balls that had been booted up to 70 yards in the air."
(Be interesting to hear if/ how this (
spring only) experimental change substantively changes the play during this spring's scrimmages, and if it would ever become a change they'd think of officially making for
real matches. There was also a more detail article about this
experimental spring rule change at
http://www.cubuffs.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&SPID=259&SPSID=3937&DB_OEM_ID=600 .)