Welcome to Chicago!!

Hey Blogworld!!

What is shakin?! To those of you who are not on twitter or my facebook fan page you may not have heard the news… drumroll please… I was traded to Chicago this last weekend! Unfortunately the paperwork didn’t go though in time for me to be with the team over the weekend, but I have spent the time becoming a little more familiar with my new home.  ++disclaimer No pictures to upload for now, so my excellent word choice will have to do as an adequate description++

I’ve never lived in a city before so this is quite an experience for me. No parking. No massive stores. LONG commute to practice. One grocery… 6 blocks away that you are supposed to walk to. BUT… amazing restaurants, busy night life, lots of eligible bachelors, local coffee shops, parks, active people. Did I mention the food? I am going to have to take up running or something like that to keep me from blowing up (and all you know what a statement that is for a goalkeeper). I am loving it so far, though its barely been a week. I found a church and some new friends my 2nd day in the city. Loving doing cool stuff with them already like ultimate frisbee in Lincoln park (no, I did not play. I’m not allowed). Looking forward to a beach trip this weekend maybe!

The team is amazing. Love my Red Stars. The transition for a player joining a team mid-season can be uncomfortable, but everyone here is amazing. Practices are crisp, to the point, and fun. The team is fun, and are really great people. The coaches are on point. Loving Nate the gk coach, its fun learning new things everyday. But the Red Stars have been a great change for me. As much as Atlanta was close to home and has a lot great things with the girls on the team, the stadium, the owners it was time to move on. Looking forward to this new stage. Keep following me on Twitter @whitgk or my fan page on facebook (Allison L Whitworth). Thanks for the support and I will try to update here soon!

GO RED STARS!!

Home Opener

It has been a long few months since I’ve last updated the world on how the Beat are progressing. Many of you may have followed the first 4 games of the season. Well… all I can say is a new day begins Sunday with the Beat home opener. If you can’t make it to Kennesaw GA this Sunday around 7:00 pm then I would suggest tuning in to Fox Soccer for the debut of the new stadium and some quality soccer. If you do plan to get to the game, please pre order tickets we anticipate being sold out by game day!! See you all Sunday… Go Beat!

D license

Well this last weekend I spent 3 days working on getting my first coaching license. If any of you have done that you know the joys of these kinds of experiences. The D license is where any college player or semi professional player begins their coaching training. Without that experience people such as parents or high school players need to begin with the E license. The learning that most collegiate or above players gain from the D is organization and understanding the reasons why their coaches have done practices. You don’t necessarily learn more about soccer, but how to organize practices and plan your coaching points. Anyway, I have met a few people that I can coach with some in the Atlanta Area. That will be super useful.

I plan to continue up the USSF licensing track to get my A so that I can get my national goalkeeping. I personally think there needs to be more goalkeeper awareness or incorporation of keepers into regular course because most people just dont know what to do with their keeper. With one year in between each course that means my C in 2011, B in 2012, and A in 2013 IF I can stay on track. Maybe I will be working with someone who will want to pay for these for me. Needless to say many great coaching relationships and contacts can come from these courses.

I have 2 more days left in the course this weekend so if anyone wants to wish me luck, I’d appreciate it… well mostly I want it to not rain ALL weekend.

post draft and FAN CLUB SHIRTS!!

Fan Club Shirts are now available!

From the “fan club”: The 2010 Whitworth fan shirt design is complete! All we are waiting on is to find out her number and then we can start printing. Price for the shirts (including S/H) will be $15. Front design is below. You can submit your order to scanatsey@gmail.com

So join up, grab a shirt, and come to some games!!
(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Allison-L-Whitworth/60179930497)

Post Draft Breakdown:

How do you guys think we did??

I think we had a stellar first pick of the draft. Tobin is the most talented player coming into the league this year and I am SUPER excited to get to play with her! And she is an amazing person off the field. We also snapped up some southern talent with a few sprinkles on top: Blakely Mattern (University South Carolina), Shaneka and Shameka Gordon (West Florida), Carrie Patterson (UGA), Kasey Langdon (Oklahoma St.), Jill Hutchinson (Wake Forest).

It is turning into a fast team, a young team, a dynamic team. Several hidden gems that critics will not see, but August will be the true telling of how we did this weekend. Now for pre-season… I need to get a run in… Hope it stops raining!

1/1 Tobin Heath, M, North Carolina
3/21 Blakely Mattern, D, South Carolina
3/23 Shameka Gordon, D/M, West Florida
4/30 Jill Hutchinson, F, Wake Forest
5/39 Mallori Lofton-Malachi, G, South Florida (traded to Philadelphia for 5/40 Carrie Patterson, F, Georgia)
6/48 Kasey Langdon, F, Oklahoma State
7/57 Shaneka Gordon, M/F, West Florida (Shameka’s twin sister)

draft watch…

Friday (2 days from now) is the WPS draft. Being such a huge event in my life last year, I know where all the college seniors are sitting. I had the opportunity to actually attend the draft. Such an awesome experience. I almost didn’t dare to dream that I would get the chance to play professionally, much less be drafted to a team. Many of the girls waiting to hear have completed college careers, attended combines, trained, ran, and spent their hopes on the next few days waiting for that invited to attain their dreams.

I flew off to San Jose, California to play professional soccer for the summer. Loved every minute. I played 4 games. Had some success. Learned a lot. Trained a lot. Worked a lot. Made friends. Did life.

I flew home for my last semester of graduate school (yay diploma). Trained some. Rested some. Visited the family some. Studied some. Traveled some. Saw old friends. Did life.

I was traded to the new franchise in Atlanta, Georgia. Leaving a place and people I love and heading to a place and people I will love is an odd thing, but exciting all the same.

Now looking towards this season with all that I’ve learned, seen, and experienced in the last year. I cannot wait to get with the team being assembled. Dang, we’ve got talent, experience, athleticism. It will be a fun year… hopefully one with a championship.

Everyone check the draft out Friday. On twitter @womensprosoccer and probably elsewhere… womensprosoccer.com

Anyone have thoughts on potential picks? The Beat have the first overall pick! Who is the best? What do we need? A midfielder? Forward? Defender? Can’t wait… the anticipation is killing me! 🙂

Adding players… yay Beat

http://www.womensprosoccer.com/atlanta

article on physicality of women’s soccer

I was reading up on women’s soccer and found a few interesting things. You can read Here an editorial about the New Mexico fiasco last weekend.

 

In other news Auburn Soccer is headed to FSU next weekend to play Cal in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. War Eagle!