Eagles Battle Heat In Preparation For Season
8/15/2010 12:15:00 AM | Men's Soccer
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Soccer Team continued its fall training camp Saturday, practicing for over two hours early in the morning at Eagle Field.
Saturday marked the fourth day of training camp for the Eagles, who spent the previous three days with two training sessions each day. The morning sessions began at 7 a.m., while the team battled the heat of the afternoon, practicing at 4 p.m. each day.
Head Coach Kevin Kennedy mentioned that the reason for the 4 p.m. practice sessions is to get the players used to the environment during games.
"We play most of our games late in the afternoon, so we want our guys to be used to that," Kennedy said. "Hopefully it will be an advantage for us, and a shock to some of the teams that come and play here. It's a little artificial when you are training in the morning at 75 degrees."
Kennedy said he is pleased with how the team has progressed over the first four days, admitting that things were a little choppy on the first day but have gotten better in the following training sessions.
"As the days have gone on, we have gotten progressively better. Friday and this (Saturday) morning, we had some great sessions," Kennedy stated. "We are continuing to build, and it's starting to look like soccer."
Kennedy continued, saying, "Overall, top to bottom, we have been really pleased with the level of play, the attitude and the effort, especially considering the conditions we've been training in."
The fifth-year Georgia Southern head coach explained the primary emphasis of the training camp is explaining what is expected of the players in terms of technique and strategy, especially for the eight freshmen and three transfers who are new to the program.
"A lot of what we are doing now is explaining to the guys what we will demand of them from a technical aspect: how they receive the ball, how firmly they play it, a lot of those things," Kennedy continued. "Friday and this morning, we got more into the tactics of our system."
The Eagles will continue to prepare for their first exhibition game, hoping to answer some of the questions that still surround some of the starting roles.
"We still have some question marks at some key positions. Obviously, our goal is to win our first exhibition, you take the field to win, but a big part of having three exhibition games is having a game environment that is real to be able to answer some of those questions," Kennedy concluded.
The Eagles open the season with an exhibition match on August 21, hosting Mercer at 4 p.m. at Eagle Field. The regular season get underway on September 1 when the Eagles host USC Upstate at 4 p.m. at Eagle Field.
