Newswire Staff Writer Danny O’Malley sat down with Club Women’s Soccer President Emily Spring to discuss the inner workings of the team.
- Xavier Newswire: How are you funded?
- Emily Spring: Each player playing pays “club dues,” which is essentially a league fee. These expenses cover free shorts and socks. We also get a budget allocated to us thanks to the student government.
- XN: How do you determine who makes the team?
- ES: We never have to turn people away because there is usually just the right amount of girls who show up and decide to play with us. It has never been an issue.
- XN: How many people play on the team?
- ES: Twenty is the perfect number for a team. Even though we have 40 girls on the team as of now, they don’t all stick with the team. We only need about 15 girls per game and since students are busy, not all players can come to every game, so it works out perfectly.
- XN: What’s the team looking like compared to last year?
- ES: Much better. We have a lot of interest from first-year players. We only have lost three girls from last year, so most of the team has returned. We have about 20 new girls that will be playing with us. During the practice, they showed a lot of promise, and we work well together.
- XN: How many games do you play per year?
- ES: In the fall season, we have about 10 scheduled games and one tournament at Purdue in October. Also, in the spring we try to sign up for an indoor league since we do not actually play during the springtime. We even played some high school club teams in the area last year.
- XN: In what ways do you set the lineup during games?
- ES: We never have a set starting lineup. Everybody is welcome to play, and we equal out playing time. This was good because it was fair for everyone. No matter what your skill level is, we have everyone play equally.
- XN: What were the highlights of last year’s team?
- ES: I think we won about two games last year. So the team was more focused on getting numbers and being out there to have fun rather than win games. Another highlight would be sand soccer. We played in a tournament down in Virginia Beach which was really exciting. We will be doing that again this year.
- XN: What are the expectations for this season?
- ES: The goals we want to accomplish this season are to have more goals and promote the team. Get people interested in playing and coming out to watch. We do a lot more other than just go out and play soccer. And obviously, we would like to improve the team and put more wins on the board.