Lady Hornet booters’ Midnight Oil
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (bamastatesports.com) – Under the lights past the midnight hour, the Alabama State women’s soccer team was hard at work to open their 2016 season.
The Lady Hornets gathered for their first official time together and were tested with a fitness test and intra-squad game Thursday at the ASU Soccer Complex in a Midnight Madness reveal of the squad.
The initial impression from coach Jodie Smith was encouraging.
“I loved it,” Smith said.
“I had a great mixture of nervousness, anticipation and excitement. I was pleased with our overall fitness level coming in from the summer conditioning.”
Players bought into coach Smith’s summer conditioning program that detailed distance work, short work distance and incline work to get them off to a sound start.
Of noteworthy importance, the 10 newcomers looked prepared.
Overall, ASU welcomed nine freshmen and one junior transfer to the team to join 12 letterwinners for a team that has reached the SWAC Championship in two of the previous three seasons.
“I’m really excited about how competitive the intra-squad was,” Smith added.
“I anticipate a lot of position battles for the starting 11, which is fantastic. We have a lot of players that can play multiple positions, which is nice to have. Our job, as a staff, is to use the preseason to find out where to best use everyone.”
While Smith chose not to single out any one individual player who stood out, he felt the game flow was fluid and the freshmen “looked like they belonged.”
With competitive days ahead, Smith said that he could definitely see a large group of players receiving a significant amount of time for this upcoming season.
Midnight Madness marked the first time that the Alabama State soccer team opened a season in this manner, an event planned to liven up the program.
With the event running “better than expected” and players ready to show off their skills to the coaching staff, it was a positive toward keeping the Midnight Madness practice an optional promotional event in seasons to come.
The Lady Hornets will continue its practice schedule with a Friday 3 p.m. scheduled start that is free and open to the public.
“Preseason is great,” Smith said. “Practice. Eat. Sleep. Repeat!”
