Booter teams training with eyes on future success

By GEOFF DODD
Collegian Staff Writer

This past season, neither the Penn State men's or women's soccer team made the fabled post-championship flight to Disney World. Each team fell in its respective NCAA Tournament -- the men's team to St. John's in the second round and the women's team to eventual champion Florida in the Elite Eight.

Fortunately for the players, they got the opportunity to embark on the next best thing -- a trip to the . . . weight room?

While not nearly as pleasurable as hanging around Mickey or Minnie in the Magic Kingdom, both teams find the Penn State athletic weight room nearly as satisfying. Spend enough time in there now, and a date with Donald, Goofy and Pluto might not be too far away.

For the soccer teams, anything less than winning a national championship next year most likely will be viewed as a failure, especially considering how far each team advanced this year. The Nittany Lions suffered a rash of early season losses to lesser teams, but improved drastically against many powerhouse opponents. The Lady Lions started 12-0-1 on their way to winning the Big Ten Tournament, becoming the first Big Ten women's soccer team to win both the regular season and postseason league titles.

Despite the incredible effort required to achieve such goals, the teams work harder on skills, strength and endurance now in the off-season than they do in the regular season.

"In the in-season, you're working on games and fitness, but you have to worry about conserving energy for games," said Shari Pickett, a junior midfielder on the women's team. "Now it's the same, but we don't have the games."

Because each version of the sport must focus on the same muscle groups, the women's and men's teams follow a similar path to fitness involving running, lifting with personal trainers and intense practice. Naturally, the workload in both the weight room and classroom increases as the year winds down, often wreaking havoc on the players, especially toward April.

"The first two to three weeks after you get back from Christmas break it's awesome," said Jeannine Verdrager, a sophomore midfielder on the women's team. "But in the spring, it gets worse as the year goes on. The last month of school, you're playing almost every day."

Jorma Makipaa, a freshman defender on the men's team, broke down his regimen. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday the team lifts weights, and on non-lifting days, it runs at 7 p.m. Three hours after the run, the team meets in Holuba Hall to practice soccer until midnight. Sundays, the team practices from 6-8 p.m. After all is said and done, off-season conditioning takes the majority of a player's time away from schoolwork, making it the closest thing he or she will get to a vacation.

Who wants to go to Disney World anyway?