St. John's University Athletics
Women's Soccer Player Diary: Nicole Canning
2/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
We are in the middle of the spring semester and both school and soccer are starting to pick up the pace. As a biology major, I'm carrying eighteen credits this semester. I started off my freshman year as a business management major, but after some reflection realized that I want to get my Doctor of Physical Therapy degree and therefore had to change my major to biology.
All my classes seem to be going well so far. Luckily, I was able to find classes with some of the girls on the team. I am taking biology lecture with Jess Hnatiuk, chemistry lab with Raelynne Lee and Tatiana Duggan, theology with Courtney Curby, history with Colie (Nicole Doran), and philosophy with Simo (Jessica Simonetti). I'm taking night classes for the first time this semester, and I am really enjoying them despite the fact that they are three hours long. Ideally, I would love to get a 4.0 GPA this semester, but since I am taking chemistry and biology, my realistic goal is to make Dean's List, a 3.5 GPA.
Being in season is always more fun than the off-season because we get to travel and compete in two games each week. But I love being able to really concentrate and work on areas of my game that need improvement during the spring off-season. Personally, I need to work on my strength, agility and explosiveness (among other things), which are particularly difficult to do during the fall season because you never want to overwork yourself and become so tired to compete at an optimum level during training sessions and games.
The spring season, therefore, proves to be the most advantageous time to work on these aspects of my game. My goals for the spring are to increase my overall power and explosiveness; perfect my first touch under high pressure; to master more creative distribution techniques such as Ronaldinho's famous "no look" pass, outside of the foot passes, bent balls, chipped balls; and to enhance my ability to recognize when to use these more complex passes versus keeping it simple. As far as the team is concerned, I would like to see us continue to push each other every day and, of course, to play well in and win our spring games.
Another goal I have for this spring season is to put a great deal of energy and attention into planning a fund-raiser for Alex's Lemonade Stand for Childhood Cancer. Alex's Lemonade Stand is a foundation that was started by a little girl, Alex, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a sever type of childhood cancer, as an infant. When she was four years old, she told her family that she wanted to raise money to help her doctors find a cure for childhood cancer and set up a lemonade stand in her front yard to begin raising money. Before she died on August 1, 2004, Alex had raised over $1 million for childhood cancer research. After her death, her family and friends remained committed to her cause and continue to raise money today. I have had a few meetings with Fr. Tri, our liaison between athletics and campus ministry, and we are in the beginning stages of planning a three day event, including a barbecue and dance marathon contest, for next fall.
When I am not busy with school work, soccer, or planning the fundraiser, I really enjoy spending time with the girls. We just went to the Spice Girl Reunion Tour at Nassau Coliseum. It was amazing! Some of us dressed up as a different spice girl; I was Posh Spice, Tara Mendoza was Scary Spice (because of her big, dark, curly hair), Courtney Curby was Sporty Spice (she can bench press more than anyone on our team), Vaila Barsley has red hair and an English accent so she was obviously Ginger Spice, and Sarah McGrath is short and blonde so she was Baby Spice.
Living with eleven other girls on the team and spending most of our free time with the rest of the players, there is never a dull moment. Even an ordinary day can turn extraordinary with the personalities on this team. My favorite memories off the field have turned out to be the days in which an unexpected water-balloon fight or a dance contest has taken place. Our team chemistry is quite unique and unmatched. I could not have hand picked a better group of girls with whom to train, compete, study and hang out. I very much look forward to our future successes and memories on the field, in the classroom and in everyday life.
