Senior Weekly Update

Posted by Sam Boehm, Senior Captain

Our team had a great week of practices and lifting that led up to a great first spring game! Our spring practices have been intense, focused, but also a lot of fun. Our team has been playing very well together and that was reflected in this Saturday’s game versus the Magic City U-15 boy’s club team.

These spring games that we play are very important to our program because this is the time where we can grow and improve as a whole. It also gives the team an opportunity to try players in different positions, play in different formations, and overall get a chance to figure out what works best. We won the game 5-0 and had several players with assists and goals. Jen Larsen scored a great PK and breakaway, Kristen had two goals (giving herself a great birthday present!) and Jen Brookshire scored a goal in her first college game. Biggs had two great assists; one from a corner kick, headed in by Kristin. Our goal keepers, Danielle and Jordan, got their first shutout of the spring also. The team accomplished every goal we had set for the game. Everyone on the team played very well, making the game a great win and a great start to our 2010 season.

Before the game on Saturday we had our annual Spring-Kickoff camp. There were a little over 45 campers this year making it a fun and very busy day! Don, Wojtek, Sara, Carly, Janae and Kelley all did a great job coaching the kids and having fun! We hope to see some of the campers cheering for us at our upcoming spring games!

Now that we have recovered from playing the U-15’s (who are very fast and hard to keep up with!!!) we are set for another week of practices. It will be a short week. On Thursday we go on our Easter break and some girls will be going home, going to friends’ house or just relaxing in Billings! Happy Easter everyone!

Alumni Relations

Posted by Julie Seedhouse, Director of Alumni Relations

If you think about it, the alumni of MSUB are the school’s most valuable and only consistent asset. The staff, faculty, administration, and even the structures will come and go, but once a person graduates from this University, she or he is an alum for life! You all made a significant investment of your time and money to get your degrees from MSUB, and these degrees have much value. However, you do have the power to capitalize on this value. Your accomplishments, your pride in your alma mater, your positive interactions with people who know you are an MSUB grad—all these things reflect positively on the University, and thus on your degree. When you share your reasons for choosing MSUB with a prospective student, your degree gains value. When you network with your colleagues and the people in your community and tell them you went to MSUB, you add to this value.

It was with this in mind that three years ago Chancellor Sexton created the Office of Alumni Relations and hired me to be its Director. We are located in the beautiful Alumni House on Normal Avenue, just west of the LA Building, and our work is carried out by me, Development Officer Jamie Lane, and the Alumni Association Advisory Board which is made up of 20 dedicated alumni-volunteers. Our mission is to provide you with as many ways as possible to stay connected, network and promote the great things you are doing. We host alumni socials in Billings and across the state and the country. Our quarterly electronic newsletter goes to several thousand alumni. We have revamped our website, have an active presence on Facebook, and are constantly exploring new ways to reach out to you.

I am thrilled to be working with Coach Trentham to engage the alumni of our women’s soccer program! We got off to a great start with a gathering in the Alumni House on Feb. 13 when a group was here for Rocky’s indoor tournament. The plan is to make this an annual event! We also discussed what kind of event should occur during the season, and you will certainly be informed as these plans progress.

If you don’t want to miss out on any of this, send your mailing and email addresses to jseedhouse@msubillings.edu, and join our Facebook group! We want you to continue to part of the Yellowjacket family long after you’ve graduated!

Side note from assistant coach Sara Gress:

First of all, the alumni house is a great resource and a really nice place to have a gathering. Visiting alumni can stay there for free! How long can a visit last...is six months considered a visit? I would encourage all alumni to go visit Julie over there; she is a very welcoming host and I look forward to having more alumni events at the house.

Second, our next big alumni event is the 15th Anniversary Team selection and announcement. Criteria and other alumni information can be found here: http://www.msubillings.edu/athletics/Womens_Soccer/Alumni/Alumni%20Home.html The announcement of the team will be made on Futbol Frenzy weekend, which is October 2nd and 3rd. There will be a brunch on October 3rd, which all current and former MSUB women's soccer players are encouraged to attend.

Also, we are hoping to plan an alumni event in Seattle when the team plays Seattle Pacific University this coming fall. There are a lot of MSUB alumni in the Seattle area and it would be great to have a gathering and watch our girls take on SPU under the lights at Interbay Stadium. We will keep everyone updated about this potential event; we are welcome to suggestions or ideas, so feel free to contact either Julie or myself.

Senior Weekly Update

Posted by Carly Valentine, Senior

This past week was extremely eventful. As usual, we came out for practice four of the days, lifted two days, attended a “nail-biter” of a golf tournament, and ended with a fun-filled and successful 7v7 tournament. I’d say it was quite a week!

Many of the girls on our team are quite competitive, to say the least. We love being feisty on the soccer field, therefore when our competitive spirit was needed this week at the MSUB golf tournament, we happily obliged. We showed up to the tournament at 4pm in full force. There were about 25 of us in attendance, which may not seem like a large amount; however, on a golf course that can be quite the crowd. We incorporated our intense spirit while each MSUB golfer putted their way to victory. Taking in to consideration the etiquette of golf, we held our applause, or should I say full-blown cheers, for after each golfer was through with their swing. After attending the golf tournament, I’m sure I can speak for all the girls when I say that it was one of the most exciting golf tournaments we’ve ever attended!

All fun aside, the 7v7 was all business this weekend :). Happily cheering from the sideline, I couldn’t help but notice the skill, tenacity and work ethic of our team. Each game we played, a whopping 6 games I might add, was a reflection of our ongoing and overall positive team attitude. With two teams in the tournament, we had one goal, which was to simply win it all. Through all adversity (no subs, injuries and of course old age, we attained the sole goal we made beforehand. This weekends’ tournament, along with the practices throughout the previous week, was a simple reflection of our team’s endeavor be successful at everything we do in one way or another.

Overall, watching this tournament and attending the golf tournament with my hilarious teammates has me incredibly excited for next season! We all understand that the steps we take in the spring are the steps toward success in the fall, and right now I’d have to say we are taking all the right steps.

Spring is Here!

Posted by Don Trentham, Head Coach

Our spring outdoor season is in full swing, as we have been training outside for the past week and a half. The weather has been very good, it actually reached 70 degrees the past two days, and we have had six productive training sessions. Our focus this spring is going back to basics (technically and tactically), being more consistent in our performances in training and games (i.e. always being at our best) and preparing ourselves to be the 2010 GNAC CHAMPIONS!

As I mentioned above, I believe our training so far this spring has been very productive, and the players are certainly a big reason for that. This group of 16 players seems to be very close and open with each other, has a strong desire to improve and has a competitiveness that inspires everyone to work hard. It’s hard to explain unless you are around it on a daily basis, but you can see the motivation driving them day in and day out. As a result I have seen this team make great strides over the last two months, the six weeks of winter conditioning and the week and a half of outdoor season.

Another big reason the training has gone so well is the coaching staff. Wojtek, Campbell and Gress have been a great addition to the program, and all three of them bring so much experience to our players. It was a great feeling today to look around the field at the beginning of training and see our goalkeepers training with Wojtek, Gress running a warm up activity while Campbell and I are able to give individual feedback to the players. Then when we progressed to the bigger games we were able to implement Campbell, Gress and Wojtek into training to add numbers and a lot of playing experience on the training ground --- one former MLS player/Hermann Trophy winner and two all conference collegiate players.

In terms of our consistency, we are working hard to improve how we play from game to game, as well as how we play from half to half. We know there were games last fall that we let get away from us because we were not consistent in our play. I believe a lot of that came from the fact we had a relatively young team, which is something that we won’t have to worry about next year. However, with that being said, we still have many of the same players returning next fall from last year’s team; they must learn from those experiences in order to make sure we have that consistency this spring in our games and carry it over to the fall.

Lastly, we have one simple goal for the 2010 season --- win the GNAC and go to the NCAA II Tournament (both would be firsts for our program). Our players believe they can do this and also understand the challenge of winning this title in a conference that will be made up of seven other teams with the same goal. We also know that in order to do this we will need to continue to have a productive spring, work hard over the summer and be consistent in the way we play. If we can do that, we know we will be in the running for the GNAC title.

At the end of the day, we are building something special here this spring. While we have a lot of time before our first game next fall, I know everyone is already looking forward to opening day on Thursday, September 2 when we take on Dixie State (UT) in Billings --- a team that participated in the NCAA tournament last fall. Until then, I hope to see some of you out at the field this Sunday when we will be participating in the 7 v 7 MSUB Outdoor Tournament out at our field.

Senior Weekly Update

Posted by Samantha Sandau, Senior

This past week was our first week back from our much needed Spring Break vacation. We started right away again on Monday with our first outdoor training session this spring!!! Yay! It was fun to see everyone again after the break, and our practice was two full fun hours of just playing. Everyone likes it when we get to just scrimmage. It was also Wojtek’s first day with the team. It was a good day overall for everyone on the team to get back into spring fever.

The rest of the week played out well with two days of training and two days of lifting. Everyone was feeling the outdoor soreness that we had not gotten from being indoor this winter, but overall we had a successful first week of outside spring training. Since our team is on the smaller side this spring there will most likely be doing a lot of small sided games, which sounds great to everyone, and it’s a good contrast to fall season.

The rest of the spring season will probably go by fast since we technically have about a month left of this year. The hope for our team the rest of spring is to better our team chemistry and learn some tactics for next fall. As a senior next year, I speak for all of the senior class and team when I say that we hope next year to be one of the best, if not THE BEST, season we will have at this school.

We’re excited for the rest of the spring, we’re excited for next fall and we’re happy to have Wojtek for the years to come!

My Experience at MSUB

Posted by Ally Stroup (03-06: player, 07-09: assistant coach), MSUB Alum

The summer prior to my senior year of high school, I was visiting my family in Wyoming. I was speaking to my uncle who played collegiate football at the University of Utah about the recruiting process. I was speaking to him about the different universities that had contacted me from showcases and other tournaments, but that none of the schools really stood out to me as a place I would want to spend four years of my life. I didn’t have many criteria that the college of my dreams would need to meet, but at the same time, I knew exactly what I wanted out of my college experience. First of all, I knew that I wanted to attend a college outside of California. I had spent eighteen years of my life in California and I knew that I wanted a fresh experience, somewhere different and new! Secondly, I did not want to attend a huge school where I would get lost in the shuffle. I wanted to have a personable experience with my academics where the professors would know who I was. Lastly, I wanted to play on a team where I could make a difference. I wanted to come in instantly my freshman year and make an impact. Sitting on the bench for most of my freshman and sophomore years and maybe having the potential to play my junior and senior years was not appealing to me. My family suggested MSUB and after making a trip north to Billings, I realized that it met and exceeded my expectations for my collegiate experience.

While on my visit at MSUB, I realized there were additional positive aspects present that I didn’t realize at the time would mean so much to me – the team and the coaching staff. When I met the team, I noticed a family atmosphere. It was apparent the moment I met the girls that it wasn’t just a team, but a family. I felt extremely welcomed and I wanted to belong to that family. I also really liked the coaching staff. Don’s coaching style and philosophy was not only similar to those I was used to, but I also knew that his coaching style and philosophy would bring out the best in me as a person, student, and athlete. I thrived off of coaches having high expectations of their team and players, and that was exactly what I noticed.

Throughout my four years at MSUB, I grew immensely as a person, student, and athlete. Like in any family, there were trials and tribulations. Overcoming these not only allowed the team to grow closer as a family, but it also allowed each individual to learn and mature. As a captain for two of the four years, I was required to place myself in a leadership role and hold myself to a higher standard on and off the field. As a student, I knew that in order to be successful, I could not just go through the motions in the classroom. On the field, I wanted to be the best and strived each year to improve from the year prior. I wanted to win games and would be devastated when we didn’t. Not only did the coaching staff have high expectations for the team and individuals, but I also had high expectations of my teammates, but mostly myself. I wanted to win and needed to score goals to allow us to do so.

After my senior season, the spring semester seemed very odd without the early morning workouts, the sprints, the lifting… I knew that I still wanted to be a part of the team and family atmosphere. As I started working as the Assistant Coach, I learned a new appreciation for what coaches, especially at the collegiate level, are required to do and deal with.

Although I really enjoyed working for Don and still being a part of MSUB Women’s Soccer, I felt as through I arrived at a crossroad in my life. I had, and still do have, a lot of passion for MSUB Women’s Soccer, but I wasn’t 100% sure if coaching was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I made the difficult decision in November to resign my three season post as the Women’s Soccer Assistant Coach. I currently am working at the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch working with ten 15-18 year old boys with severe emotional disturbances, mental illnesses, and conduct disorders. I am also finishing up with my Masters Degree in Education – School Counseling option and am hoping to then gain my license as a Licensed Professional Counselor.

I have applied numerous skills and lessons learned from my experiences at MSUB both as a student-athlete and coach in to my current employment at YBGR. I am very grateful for my seven year kick at MSUB. I learned a lot about myself – what I can do, what I can deal with, and what is important to me – through my experience as a student-athlete and coach.

Senior Weekly Update

Posted by Jordan Fenwick, Senior

Everyone is now back in Billings from their long week of Spring Break. We were all excited to hear about the cool things each other did over the week. It seemed that everyone had a ton of different places to share with each other and some interesting experiences.

A lot of the girls had spring break with one another. We had Kelley, Bigs, Lauren and Andrea go to Washington. They went to downtown Seattle, did some shopping, visited the famous Pikes Place Market, and met each others’ families. Sam B., Brooks, and Jen went to California and were lucky enough to go to Disneyland. They spent a whole day at the park going on different rides and meeting all their favorite characters. They all seemed to agree that Space Mountain and Splash Mountain were the best rides at the park. Kari and I went to Jamaica. We had a great time eating different foods, meeting the Jamaican people, and soaking up the sun. We loved listening to reggae music and telling all the girls about the different lingo they use. Carly went to Hawaii to visit her brother. Due to the island almost being hit by a tsunami, the weather was not the greatest but she still had a great time. Courtney, Janae, Jaucie, Danielle, and Sami, stayed in Billings or traveled around Montana to visit their other friends from different colleges. Lastly, Kristen went home to the sunny city of Phoenix. She met up with some of the guys on the men’s soccer team, and showed them around town.

Although it was only a week away everyone was excited to come back and reunite. I can speak for all of us when I say that we all were ready to see each other again. This will be our first week of spring and we are looking forward to the games ahead. It’s exciting to get back into the routine of things and start building for this spring and next year. I see some good things coming for the Lady Yellowjackets in the future.

My Experience at MSUB!

Posted by Abby Bennett (04-07), MSUB Alum

Growing up in a small town like Livingston, Montana, I never would have imagined that I would get to stand next to amazing athletes like Manny Ramirez, Landon Donavon and David Beckham – not to mention work for the same teams as them. As unbelievable as it sounds, none of what I am doing today would have been possible if I didn’t play soccer at Montana State University Billings.

I first became familiar with the MSUB Women’s soccer program, when I tried out for the Montana Olympic Development Program. Don was coaching my age group, and I am so thankful that he did! I continued to play for him with the ODP team and started becoming more interested in the MSUB soccer program. I looked at several different schools, but wound up at MSUB for two reasons. First, Don is an amazing coach! I learned so much from him and his coaching staff throughout my four years with the program and being that I was only 17 during my freshman year, I really wanted to go to a school where I trusted the coaching staff and knew that they would help me grow as a person, student and athlete. Secondly, just like Sara, I absolutely loved the girls on the team. MSUB does a fantastic job of recruiting not only good students and athletes, but also great people (for the most part, JK). I made such good friends with all the girls on my team and the men’s soccer team. Not to mention the four girls in my class who actually survived all four years (Janica, Britt and Amy) are awesome! We had our ups and downs throughout our time at MSUB, but I am really proud of the people we all became! It is amazing to see how much we have all grown up since that first preseason in the dorms.

Speaking of preseason! Anyone who knows me knows that I hate running. I don’t mind running after a ball, or a girl for that matter, but running in the tennis bubble at 6:00 am is not my idea of a good time. But what made it fun, was the teamwork and the girls on your team who are cheering you on. About a month ago, I came to play in the Rocky Indoor Tournament with some other alumni. Josh and I stayed with some friends from the soccer program, and as we were driving down airport hill I saw the tennis bubble. It has been at least 3 years since I have stepped foot in that place, but I still got chills when I saw it! I don’t think they were bad chills though, I felt chills because besides the soccer field, the bubble was one of the places where we all bonded. While everyone else on campus was warm and sleeping in their dorms, we were running, sprinting, jumping, sweating, crying and cheering.

Basically, everyone was trying to make themselves better, just like Don is always trying to make the program better. I enjoyed playing soccer for MSUB so much that I realized I didn’t want to be done with sports when my playing career ended. So I decided to move to California to pursue a Masters degree in Sport Management. Coincidentally, my boyfriend Josh, who played on the Men’s Soccer team, also lives in California!  I had lived in Montana my whole life, so moving to California was scary and the scariest part was that for the first time in four years, I knew there wouldn’t be any friends from my soccer team in my classes. I learned to work hard while being a student-athlete at MSUB, and that has definitely served me well in graduate school and in my career.

For the past year, I have been working as an Account Executive for the Los Angeles Dodgers in their ticketing department. Last summer Don, Ally and Jordan came to California for a soccer tournament and they actually got to see me working at the Stadium while they watched a Dodger game. During that time I was also interning for the Los Angeles Galaxy and just last week they offered me an Account Executive position in their corporate partnerships department! It is awesome being part of a team still, and it is so fun working in an environment with professional athletes. I am so excited for the upcoming Galaxy season and thankful for all the opportunities that came from playing soccer for MSUB. Good luck to all the current MSUB players next season!

Senior Weekly Update

Posted by Lauren Anderson, Senior

YAY! Spring break has officially started! I can honestly say that all of the girls on this team worked our butts off. This was the final week of our six week program of sprints, lifting, individuals and jumps training. Even though all of our bodies were definitely feeling pretty tired by the end of this week, we managed to get through another grueling spring. Monday morning we ran 72 sprints which Don and Sara Gress later told us girls they calculated to be over a mile and a half of sprints! Wednesday we changed morning sprints up a little bit and did something Don calls Hundred Percents. We had to race each other at 100% and eliminate one player at a time until only one girl was left. The last four standing were Kelley, Andrea, Jaucy, and Jen Larsen. The final two were Jaucy and Jen. The final girl standing was Jaucy. By Friday our legs were definitely feeling it.

Our final workout of the week was jumps with Pat. We got to play our annual last day dodge ball game! Let me tell you it was quite intense! I would have to give player of the match award to Mr. Pat Hughes himself. He came prepared to play and wasn’t taking any prisoners. Most creative catch I would have to give to Jen Larsen who made a diving catch and slid 5 yards across the floor. Jordan Fenwick had trouble handling the temperamental “blue ball” but made up for it with a cannon of a throw. Kari Forman was a secret weapon in the match. She had a very distinct role on her team, she was a great ball shagger and came in clutch catching tipped balls off the wall. Jaucy Richter found herself numerous time a lone ranger having balls thrown at her from every angle and at one point one might argue she made a pretty cool catch resulting in a barrel roll backwards. Kristen Kastelic gets the sportsmanship award with her kind words such as “Ohh! I got you!” in her sweet innocent voice we all know so well. And finally I must say that we had two All-Star injured reserve cheering everyone on. Carly Valentine and Kelley Minard added to the festivities.

We all now have a week to relax, recover, take some “me” time and then get ready for our spring season. I am so excited for our spring season. Not only do I feel that our team chemistry is so great right now, I can honestly say that every one of my teammates will be right there next to me putting in 100%. The group of players we have on our team is unlike any group of players I have ever played with. We are team players. We play with and for one another. We play for the love of the game, for the pride and honor. We play because we know that our lives would be empty without it. Playing together gives us integrity, courage, pride, strength, stamina, will and the heart of a champion. If we didn’t play, we would lose part of who we are. We sacrifice for one another. We sacrifice our body, time, sweat, blood and tears for our teammates. We push ourselves, and we push each other. We are a true team. We are a family. I am so proud of each and every girl on this team. I am honored and humbled to play with each one of these girls.

With that being said, I can say for everyone on our team that we are looking forward to spring break and are excited to get back and start our spring season.