I have met a lot of athletes at UConn threw my job, fanaticism (catching games of pretty much every team but Rowing, Golf and Tennis) friends and reporting for UC Sports. The one athlete that I had been dying to meet this year was Women's Soccer Goalie Stephanie Labbe and today I met her. As a matter of fact it was the highlight of my day.
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/WSoccer/Labbe%20Blog/blog1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx9had1BJCw
I had no idea who Labbe was until this summer when I checked uconnhuskies.com and saw that she had been selected to be an alternate for team Canada as a goalie. I was genuinely impressed. An Olympian goes to my school???!!!! How often can you say that? To me being an Olympian, being able to represent your country proudly is the greatest honor for an athlete. You worked your tail off to become one of the best in your country. I was so impressed that I told everyone who was watching the UEFA Soccer tournament at my summer job at RBS Greenwich Capital about Labbe. I was so proud to tell them that someone from my school and that someone who represents the State of Connecticut would be playing in the Olympics. She also wrote a blog about her expierences in Beijing and I loved reading about them.
Unfortunetly Canada didn't win a medal, but I will definetly be following this UConn alum should she be playing in London in 2012. I hope she plays and I certainly will be rooting for Canada should she play. To be honest the Canadian anthem is almost as good as ours, so I won't mind listening to it. I loved watching Labbe. She was a real leader on the field. I don't know too much about soccer (but I am working on it) but she definetly helped position her younger defenders on the field. Labbe made several amazing saves in both her games against West Virginia and Notre Dame in the Big East tournament. I was jumping up and down in my room when I was watching her saves. And I went nuts when she went in and scored on the second penatly kick in the win against West Virginia. I even missed a Cowboys-Giants game for the first time in more then 12 years to watch Labbe and the women's soccer team face Notre Dame. Labbe was awesome in that game and I felt so bad on the last play for Steph. She stopped the initial shot on goal (on a 2-1 break away for Notre Dame in overtime) but couldn't quite catch it. It rolled away and was kicked in. I saw her cry on TV, and as a general rule I hate seeing people cry. I hate it even more when UConn loses. Lets just say I was in a really somber mood at the Volleyball game. Kaili McLaren was gracious enough to stop by at the game and we talked about Women's Soccer for a good 5-10 minutes. I had even told her how much I wanted to meet Labbe, at one of her interviews. Now Kai and I always seem to talk about women's soccer now. Kai even told me that she texted Labbe right after the game, and both Kai and I agreed that Kai probably wouldn't hear back from Steph for a little bit. Even Tahirah Williams mentioned the soccer game and how bad she felt for the end of Steph's college career.
So how did I meet Labbe? Well she was in the Sports Management offices (which is a place I hope to be an even more frequent guest too) talking to my teacher during office hours. After she left I stopped her to tell her that I enjoyed reading her blog. To be honest I was so nervous saying hello to her. Just as nervous as I was when I said hello to Coach Calhoun, introduced myself to Coach Auriemma and Maya Moore for the first time. She was really nice and I wish her the best of luck in whatever may happen in her future. It's actually kind of ironic too. I had just given a presentation in my Husky Sport class about our field trip. One of the girls on the trip, Shena, loved to play soccer in Shenkman. We went up to eat at Putnam Dining Hall and I told Shena to grab some bacon because it's the favorite food of UConn's Olympic Soccer player. Part of Husky Sport is too promote healthy foods. My mom makes me eat bacon (I hate it) so I figured it must be good for me. I told Shena that she should eat some too become a great soccer player. I felt so stupid when I told Meghan Nanfeldt why I was having Shena eat bacon. Meghan informed me that bacon was not healthy and I promptly told Shena that it would be a good idea to try something else! Who knows if I'll ever speak to Labbe again or if she'll remember me, but I can only have good things to say about her.
I wish people at UConn and around the world of sports realized how hard people work to become great and at the same time get no real recognition for it. I think that's kind of pathetic. Somethings wrong with sports and the world when people would rather say they were a lab partner with a back-up center on the men's basketball team then an Olympian who was Big East Goalie of the Year.
Many of you know that I have recently become a huge soccer fan. UConn's best kept secrets are the two soccer programs at UConn who play at Morrone Stadium. I wish the people back in Fairfield County and at home in Stamford had a much better understanding of how great these programs are. The Men's soccer program has won 3 National Championships, 1948, 1981, and in 2000. The Men's program had the M.A.C. Hermann Award winner (Think Heisman of college soccer) O'Brian White on the team. He and Akeem Priestley were the two best players on the team and are two really great people. They always say hello to me when we see each other. The Men's soccer fan group "Goal Patrol" is one of the most passionate fan groups in the entire nation. They are the Cameron Crazies of soccer. I am a part of the Goal Patrol too. The Men's team treats their fans really well, they bought hot chocolate for the group when it was 25 degrees out. I changed travel arrangements to watch them play twice this year! It was well worth it, I feel good supporting them. Today I met Coach Bertsch and had a nice conversation about the program and how much I enjoyed them.
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/MSoccer/2008/FOS2008Brochure.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0WIs1dX0bU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H68kIK8sxlc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il28boGYHa0
The Women's soccer program has only missed the NCAA tournament once and that was this year when their two best players missed a part of the season. Stephanie Labbe was in Beijing for the Olympics for the first couple games and Senior Brittany Taylor tore her ACL before the season even started. Senior Jessica Diakun also tore leg ligaments. It's tough when some of your best and most expierenced players are out. Even so the Women's team was able to make it to the Big East Championship game. They were able to beat Georgetown and beat a ranked West Virginia squad in Penatly kicks. Both of the soccer programs are elite in the college soccer ranks. I wish all of Connecticut knew that both the basketball and soccer programs at this school are tops in the country.
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