WEEK 1- May 7th- 13th
First I would like to say that my job here is to do everything that the head coach needs for the women’s soccer team.
Different than the spring and especially the fall semester, in the summer is not a lot of work to do as in the other semesters. In soccer, the season happens during the fall where the team is going to be having games, traveling all over, and practicing every day. In the spring they still practice every day. However, they only have friendly games which do not count for the conference or for any rank. Spring is also more busy than the summer because is time for recruiting. This week I experienced couple things in and out of the field.
First thing I did in my first day of internship was to cut the grass in the soccer field. Yeah, it sounds funny but it’s true. Union College is a NAIA division which means that they are not a very big school. Like that, they do not have someone responsible to take of the field as we have at Tiffin University that is a NCAA division II, so every coach is responsible for your field. The grass have to be cut twice a week in the morning, and it cannot be wet otherwise it won’t be much effective. It does not seem like it, but it takes about 2 hours or more to cut the grass of the whole field. This affect the coaches who have to take care of their field such as soccer, softball and baseball because they spent time taking care of the field while they could be in the office doing something else.
After a long morning taking care of the field, I went to the office with the head coach where I had worked for the most rest of the week. I have learned and helped in plenty of activities.
Even being a little far from the fall, we started doing the inventories which is to check all the equipment that is going to be needed for the season such as balls, cones, bibs, and etc. We have to make sure that the team is going to have enough balls, shirts, and so on for the number of the players. If does not, we have to order some more.
Although NAIA is not as strict as NCAA they also have a clearing house which an eligibility center that checks whether or not if the players are eligible to play. After learning exactly about how that works, I was in charged to call some players that were not clear yet for the fall to make sure they have all the papers in order to be eligible.
The best experience I had during the first week was to introduce the school to a recruit with the head coach. Although she was responsible for showing and explaining everything to the recruit, she introduced me as an intern which was very professional and made me feel important. The coach also wanted to see her playing but because is summer time and no one is at school we had some friends coming over and I had a chance to play as well. It was interesting to see how the beginning of the whole process of recruiting works. It looks easy, but sometimes it can be hard and very complicated.
Week 2- May 14th- 20th
Second week in my internship started like the first: mowing the
lawn. This time I also gave a little help cutting the grass for the Softball
team which was interesting because they have a different grass, and the lawn
mower has to be used differently. The worst part of cutting the grass is not
even driving the mower, but to use the weed eater to cut the edges of the field
which took me forever.
After spending the whole morning mowing the lawn, I went back to the office as usual and helped the
coach to write an article for the website. The week before I started my
internship she signed with a player, so the school requested an article about
the player and how she can add to the team in the next season (http://www.ucbulldogs.com/article/3498.php).
This week I did not have many things to do other than cut the grass and make some calls to make sure the players are getting ready for the season with documents and stuff.
The most interesting thing that happened on
Week 2 was to experience a player signing with the school
(http://www.ucbulldogs.com/article/3509.php).She was from some town in Tennessee
which is 5 hours away from Union College. Head coach and I drove down there
during the weekend because it was a long trip. After a long drive, we got there;
talked a little bit with her parents and she signed the letter. We took pictures
of them signing with the school and we ride back home. The whole process did not
even take an hour. After sharing the experience with my coach at Tiffin
University, she told me that in NCAA DII things work a little bit different. In
the NAIA the head coach is allowed to meet the player to sign the letter while
in NCAA DII this is illegal. According to my coach, the letter has to be sent by
the athletic office through the mail. The only thing the coaches do is to tell
the athletic office what it has to be in the letter such as scholarship.
Signing Day!
Week 3- May 21th- May 27th
As soon as some of the players were already committed with the school, I helped the
head coach to send packages about the school and the team. The school package
has basic information such as courses, classes, what to know around campus and
so on. The team package has team rules, schedules, information about coaches,
and roster. The most important thing in the team package is the summer workout.
In order to get in shape for the season, the players have to work out almost
every day. The package have detail descriptions of how and what to do each
day.
Working in the office is where I acquired more knowledge of howthings are organized. However, being on the field for me,
it is always more fun. Because I did my internship during the summer, I did not get to spend time with the players on the field. Like that, I could not experience any practices or games. On the other hand, I had a chance
to go to a show case with the coach to help with recruiting. A show case is tournament or a game in which players have the opportunity to show their skills to coaches in order to get recruited for the university or any other kind of
team. In this specific show case, all the athletes were on high school. After the game, coach Mendes, went to talk with the players that she was interested for the season 2012-2013. Different than NCAA, NAIA has no restrictions when it
comes to recruiting, so any coach can talk with any player before or after the game/tournament. In contrast, coaches from NCAA can only talk with seniors and after the last game of the tournament. Any other kind of communication it is
considered illegal by NCAA and the school can be punished.
In summary, week 3 it was not as busy as the other two weeks, but I had a
chance to experience recruiting, and also get out of the office a little bit
beyond just cutting grass.
head coach to send packages about the school and the team. The school package
has basic information such as courses, classes, what to know around campus and
so on. The team package has team rules, schedules, information about coaches,
and roster. The most important thing in the team package is the summer workout.
In order to get in shape for the season, the players have to work out almost
every day. The package have detail descriptions of how and what to do each
day.
Working in the office is where I acquired more knowledge of howthings are organized. However, being on the field for me,
it is always more fun. Because I did my internship during the summer, I did not get to spend time with the players on the field. Like that, I could not experience any practices or games. On the other hand, I had a chance
to go to a show case with the coach to help with recruiting. A show case is tournament or a game in which players have the opportunity to show their skills to coaches in order to get recruited for the university or any other kind of
team. In this specific show case, all the athletes were on high school. After the game, coach Mendes, went to talk with the players that she was interested for the season 2012-2013. Different than NCAA, NAIA has no restrictions when it
comes to recruiting, so any coach can talk with any player before or after the game/tournament. In contrast, coaches from NCAA can only talk with seniors and after the last game of the tournament. Any other kind of communication it is
considered illegal by NCAA and the school can be punished.
In summary, week 3 it was not as busy as the other two weeks, but I had a
chance to experience recruiting, and also get out of the office a little bit
beyond just cutting grass.
Week 4- May 28th- June 3th
GRASS, GRASS, GRASS, GRASS AND GRASS! I was actually getting tired of
the job of mowing the lawn. However, as any other inter, I had to do a little
bit of everything, and I guess no one wanted to have this job as well.
On week 4, I spent most of the time in the office, but had a lot accomplished with coach Mendes. We started
organizing the “Ladies Bulldog Classic”, which is a tournament that will be
happening on August 30th and 31th. The Ladies Bulldog will be hosting the tournament in which the games already count for the conference. Thus, organizing a sport event is not as easy as it looks.
There are many factors for the tournament to be successful. First is necessary to organize the game schedule. Therefore, it is important to get in touch with other schools that are participating on the event to make sure the
schedule is convenient to everyone. Second, each game need three referees; two
side line referees and one field referee that has to be hired. The tournament will be free for fans. We also
decided how many volunteers we will need and what to sell in the concession.
Those examples are just some of the things that we had to think in order to have
a successful tournament. This experience was important, and it can also help me in the future with any kind of sports event such as planning soccer camps during the summer.
the job of mowing the lawn. However, as any other inter, I had to do a little
bit of everything, and I guess no one wanted to have this job as well.
On week 4, I spent most of the time in the office, but had a lot accomplished with coach Mendes. We started
organizing the “Ladies Bulldog Classic”, which is a tournament that will be
happening on August 30th and 31th. The Ladies Bulldog will be hosting the tournament in which the games already count for the conference. Thus, organizing a sport event is not as easy as it looks.
There are many factors for the tournament to be successful. First is necessary to organize the game schedule. Therefore, it is important to get in touch with other schools that are participating on the event to make sure the
schedule is convenient to everyone. Second, each game need three referees; two
side line referees and one field referee that has to be hired. The tournament will be free for fans. We also
decided how many volunteers we will need and what to sell in the concession.
Those examples are just some of the things that we had to think in order to have
a successful tournament. This experience was important, and it can also help me in the future with any kind of sports event such as planning soccer camps during the summer.
Week 5- June 4th- June 9th
LAST WEEK MOWING THE LAWN! Yes, time flies and I do not have to cut the grass next week. Week 5 it was my last week doing my internship at Union College. Although it was not a lot to do during this week, I tried to ask as many questions as I could about everything.
Something different I did this week was to help with the game schedule for season 2012. Head coaches try to schedule regional, conference and non-conference games in a way that is fair to every school. As soon as we already had the schedule of most of the games for the season, we started working on dividing the budget. The expenses include referees, transportation, hotel, gas, food, uniforms and equipment. It seems easy to do that, but it is actually not. Thus, I had the experience along with the head coach to work on the budget.
Different than NCAA, NAIA does not have the same budget, especially if the school is not very big. Thus, most of the places Union plays are not more than 5 hours driving, so they are able to be back in the same day. However, they still have couple trips in which they have to spend the night. I spent the week looking for hotels that could meet the budget and were more advantageous. For example, if the hotel serves breakfast and is a little bit more expensive it is worth it because we would save $8 dollars that each player has per meal.
150 hours seems like a lot, but time flies. From mowing the lawn to work on the budget, I enjoyed every little task in this internship. I would also like to take the opportunity to thanks my supervisor, Camila Mendes, who gave me the opportunity to somehow be part of this program and my teacher Bonnie Tiell to always support me. THANK YOU!
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