Jack Pearson.pdf\">Magazine Version

The last day of preseason started a little different than every other preseason day. We were allowed to sleep in until 7:30 a.m. as practice began at 8 a.m.! I was still frustrated after Monday night’s exhibition loss to Kentucky, but I was also determined to finish preseason off strongly by winning the ‘Red Jersey’ competition.

To start the day off the whole team met in the PAC and played ultimate football which quickly became very competitive as every team took it very seriously. Unfortunately, my team lost,  which may have been due to my lack of American football skills and coming from an English culture where ‘footballs’ are round and not shaped like eggs! Afterwards we headed to breakfast and looked forward to the soccer technical sessions later in the day.

At our first session we all paired up with a partner and played soccer tennis. Soccer tennis is a game that tests the technical skills of keeping the ball in the air on your side of the court while trying to force your opponents to make a mistake resulting in you winning the point.

I paired up with freshman superstar Marlon Duran and we discussed our tactics. We had planned on him keeping the ball up and kicking it to my head (which is as hard as a brick) and I was going to head the ball down to the other side of the court, hopefully resulting in the other team making a mistake. We came in third after losing to technical master Ryan Bauer and our new goalkeeping coach Charlie Edwards who impressed us all with his delicate touches. Bauer and Charlie eventually lost to the underdogs Michael Deyhle and John Sobey.

The team then showered up and headed to lunch. After having an afternoon lecture by Coach Currier we headed out for our final session in the afternoon. All week each player had been aiming to score as many points as possible with the leading point scorer winning the red jersey.

The Red Jersey is a competition that, all week, we had been challenging in, winning points during fitness tests, technical skill sessions and fun activities such as bowling. I was leading the points going into the final session so I was hoping to come out on top as well.

The last competition we had was the 1v1 tournament. The players who had the least amount of points started first and then it became a knockout competition, with the winner of each 1v1 game staying on and taking on the next person.

Because I was the top scorer I started last and met up with Tommy Watkins in the final. I somehow put the ball in the back of the net and won the competition. The boys came to congratulate me which was a nice feeling and I was happy to be the latest winner after Ryan Handbury, also from England, won it last year. Maybe it was the touch of the English!

In the evening we went out to dinner at the UD Arena which was a perfect way to end preseason with a large amount of food available for us. Even after dinner the day was not over yet as we headed out to play putt putt golf which we all were looking forward to.

When we got there, the boys felt some of the fatigue that all preseason bad built up and our golfing was not very good! I think my original ball went into the river. After stealing a freshman’s ball, when he wasn’t looking, I carried on. Unfortunately, this ball also didn’t make its way into any holes. In fact, I think this one ended up over the fence.

Once all the boys had finished we had to wait about 30 minutes for all the coaches to finish golfing. They took it so seriously that I think they thought they were playing in the Ryder Cup.

Although preseason was stressful and tiring, there were many positives to come out of it as well. We became closer as a team. We also became more competitive and we feel we are now ready to take on Cincinnati tonight and hopefully get our first win of the season. From there hopefully we can win another championship at the end of the season! On a personal note it was great to win the Red Jersey and whoever tries to take it off me next year is going to have their work cut out for them!

Go Flyers. 
 
Jack Pearson
Junior Defender