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The Best Year...EVER...
from Sarah Haas
12/31/07 9:42am

...IS NOW! and consider this email the official beginning of the 2008 Sweet Mamas season. This email has a lot of important info in it, so keep it saved somewhere in your e-files. This is your chance to read about: how this season is shaping up to go down as the best in the history of the team, 'fitness bonanza 2008', the preliminary tourney schedule, some more details of trouble in vegas, upcoming fundraisers (disc sales and onionfest), team events and parties, and last, but not least to get the link to the always evolving Whitman Sweets website (thanks to the one and only Kristine Berg). So, without further ado:

Practice: In order for this season to be great, we are going to need to upgrade the way the team operates. Practices will have a similar format to before. They will be two hours long two times a week (Tuesday and Thursday) and we will have one weekend practice on Sundays that will be three hours long. Everyone is expected to come to all of the practices. 'What's different?' you ask. Read on curious reader...Practices will start at 4:15 and end at 6:15 at the soccer fields. At the beginning of each practice, as individuals finish getting ready to play (ie they have their cleats and gear on and ready to go) they will start to get the fields ready for practice. This will be done 1) setting up a game field and 2) consulting the practice outline that will be used for that practice (for more info on this see the 'playbooks' section below). At 4:20 on the dot we will leave for the run.

Late comers and no shows: not having enough people to run drills and scrimmages is frustrating for everyone. So, to help this problem we are going to provide some incentive for everyone to come to practices. If at any time during practice we do not have enough women to run which ever drill or scrimmage we are doing, we will add sprints to the end of practice. So, your teammates run for your absence. The up side is that we probably won't need 14 people until the second hour, so there is still some leeway for lateness. Also, sprinting will make us stronger, especially seeing as how...

Fitness: ...we will not have conditioning practices this year. They are always under-attended and tend to fall apart before the end of the season. But, just because we don't have formal conditioning doesn't mean that we won't be working out. LA is now officially our fitness guru which means that whatever she says goes. So start working on that three miles in 24 minutes goal. You are expected to keep yourself in shape. If you would like the team to assist you in that, ask people or email the listserve. Also, please use this as an opportunity to take some initiative in organizing team workouts on your own. For example, make a three week plyos workout and set up a schedule for people to come to. Train for a 5k together etc.

Playbook: When we get back, everyone will be given their own personal play book. This will include drills, descriptions of our offenses and defenses, plays and practice outlines. You all are expected to know all of the plays and have at least some understanding of the offenses and defenses by the week before vegas. The practice outlines will have drills and scrimmages for a variety of different practices. Some will be for ho stack, defense, straight, play drills, disc handling, etc. All we will have to do is pick which ones to do from the sheet and in which order and practice will be set.

Tournaments: This year we will be going to
1. Trouble in Vegas- Feb 8, 9, 10 (yep, its a three day tourney!)
2. PLU BBQ- (pre-spring break, usually the weekend right before, so Mar 8, 9)
3. Onionfest- Usually two weeks after spring break @ whitman.
4. Sectionals- TBD
5. Regionals- TBD

Vegas: Here are a few more details. Be prepared to leave on Thursday morning, we will be flying out sometime on Thursday evening (Feb 7). Once we get to Vegas we will be camping out for at least 2 nights. Each player will have to pay the team $50 to asst. with costs.

Fundraising: We are a little short on money this year. So, we will really need to sell all of the remaining discs we have left from last year. Each player will be given apx. 5 discs to sell. Also, if you have any ideas for new disc designs let us know/sketch one up!

Team Events and Parties: 1) Team Breakfasts. Wednesday mornings at 8:30 in Jewett. The best meal of the day with the best people in the best dinning hall, need I say more? 2) Secret fire-sisters (or some other, better name that someone else comes up with). At the start of the season the seniors will host a 'get the fire' event in which everyone will be given their own little piece of sweet mama flame as well as a super secret name of another player who will be something like a secret santa. Before every tourney (whether your girl is going or not) you will secretly give them a gift (that costs less than $2). At the end of the year party, you will reveal yourselves in a grand gifting exchange similar to years past.

Also, please feel free to suggest/host other team events. Potlucks, dinners, hot drink study breaks, saunas, trips to brights etc....

Website/Facebook: Kristine is hard at work on updating our new website. Check it out! And if you have any cool pics or other ideas for the site, let her know @ bergkm@whitman.edu. Also, now that facebook is 'off the hook' don't forget to join the sweet mamas group.

Welp, that's probably the longest email I've ever written. Hopefully you made it all the way through. I'm hoping that by organizing the team this way, we can kind of forget about having an actual coach type and start to be accountable to and for each other. Being organized and dedicated will be our slave driver, not me or anyone else and all of us can work hard, have fun and strike that perfect balance that we've all been dreaming of.

Happy New Year! I can't wait to hit the field running with you all on Tuesday the 15th at 4:15 at the soccer fields!

Sincerely yours, Sarah Haas

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