SSA Checks in with vetran SSA Staff Coach Stacy Lamb - Head Coach ULM
Happy Mardi Gras season from Louisiana and how ‘bout those Saints?! WHO DAT!! Wow, so much has happened since the Christmas holidays in Louisiana, and the excitement continues with the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s women’s soccer team. We returned from Christmas break January 19 and literally hit the ground running! We give the girls the first week off from fitness and lifting to get settled into their classes but starting week two…it gets busy!
The spring season starts with individual and small group training. Players are broken up by positions and trained as a unit on specific technical and tactical aspects of their position. This training takes place twice a week for one hour at a time. In addition to these sessions, the team meets on Wednesdays for two hours for a fitness session (always fun for all)! Small group training lasts for two weeks and then we move to team training 3 times a week. We usually train for 1.5 hours but some days we tend to run a little longer than expected…Team training starts the last week in February and continues through the third week of April. Also starting the second week of the spring semester the team participates in a very soccer-specific weight lifting program. Three times a week the team lifts weights for injury prevention as well as strength gain, and also concentrates on plyometrics (jumping) and stretching.
A typical day in the life of a ULM Soccer player, or any collegiate athlete, is anything BUT typical. Very regimented in order to complete all necessary tasks, a days for the ULM Soccer player looks like this:
6:00ish Wake up / Breakfast
6:30am Weights
8:00am – 3pm Classes
*lunch and treatment of injuries takes place throughout the day in-between classes.*
3:30pm Training
5:30pm Dinner
6:00pm Study Hall / Tutors Available if Wanted
*players have a set number of hours to attend in study hall each week.*
Although NCAA Soccer is a fall sport, soccer programs are allowed to play a shortened spring season consisting of five spring event dates. Teams may only compete on five days but are allowed to play multiple games on those dates. ULM hosts a 7 v 7 tournament February 27 to open our spring competitive season. We will travel to Lafayette, LA, March 6, to compete in the Louisiana College Cup which is a tournament of all the Division I teams in the state competing to be “THE BEST IN LOUISIANA.” In addition to these two events we will also play in tournaments at LA Tech, Arkansas Little Rock, and Central Arkansas. Spring events are fun and generate a lot of exciting soccer in a more laid back atmosphere than the fall season.
In addition to Mardi Gras Break (yep, we get a week off for Mardi Gras), and Spring Break (That’s right, we get a spring break, too) perhaps the most exciting spring date falls on the first Wednesday every February…NCAA Signing Day. We are so excited about the players who signed National Letters of Intent to play at ULM next year and are confident they are going to impact our program immediately!!
I know the spring season and semester will be over before we know it and we are already making summer plans for recruiting and camps. This is perhaps the MOST exciting for the coaches because not only do we at ULM travel the country watching tournaments and finding new players…but we know our travels will lead us to beautiful COLORADO and Steamboat, specifically, for the Steamboat Soccer Academy! There truly is nothing better than July in Colorado (and out of the Louisiana heat). From the time I am writing this the countdown to SSA is on - 142 days and hope to see you there!
