Georgie

Georgie has always been a favorite player of mine.  If I remember correctly, I think she was also the first player from her class that I got to know.  

My overall memory of Georgie is that she simply has so many freaking friends.  I think she knows everyone.  Of course she was even the first player to have met my sister.   

But, the best example I have of Georgie knowing everyone on campus is from this story.

After watching footage of Dulski interviewing me I saw how hideous my hair was looking.  I hated when it was long, but I also hated paying for haircuts.  My mom usually buzzes it for free, so I was waiting to see her next.  Anyway, I just had to get a haircut before going to Florida.  I went right after practice before the place closed and the women cutting my hair and I somehow got talking about athletics from my UCONN jacket.  I told her what I did and then she said, "Oh do you know the Brit?"  Something like that but I knew who she meant.  She knew Georgie.

Everyone knows Georgie. 

I also swear that without Georgie I'd know a lot less people.  I remember all of a sudden having all of these people waving at me and saying Hi.  I was totally clueless as to who these people were.  I'm thinking to myself, "who are these people?"  For the life of me I had no idea. After a little investigating it turns out they were Georgie's friends.

I love Georgie's accent.  My first year all I wanted for a birthday gift was to have her say "Happy Birthday" to me. 

I am such an egg.

To be fair one of my friends really liked her accent.  Georgie was talking about not "fancying" something to me in front of my friend before class.  I had no idea what "fancying" meant.  I'm still sort of clueless.  Anyway, my friend fell in love with her accent after listening to her speak. 

My favorite story revolving Georgie and her accent was when she said someone asked her where she was from because of her accent and she replied "Texas" and the guy believed her.

As a side note, there is a chance the guy may have been a limo driver from Providence who was hoping to start a worm farm. 

I remember walking with Georgie after a practice to get photos from communications when she was a freshman.  I don't know why I remember that, but I do so there must be some significance to it.

Georgie's two goals were vital to the team making the NCAA's that year.  Without her goals and the win over Wake Forest, I doubt that the team would have gotten to the NCAA's. 

From what I saw behind the goal, Georgie and Julie have the most pace/weight (maybe I'm getting the soccer lingo right?) on their shots.  (Others come close, but in my opinion, the opinion of someone who knows very little, those two can just rip it)  Georgie's shot hurts.  I caught one once that was headed right to me.  Oh my goodness, I was so proud I caught it, but good lord did it hurt.  Man, I felt like I got punched so hard in my stomach.

Both Georgie and Julie also have shots that do weird things.  They dip and move around which means that even if it doesn't go in, there is a good chance that there will be a rebound that is scored because their shots are hard to catch.   Anyway, both of Georgie's goals were laser beams vs Wake Forest.

Her goal this year was awesome, but it was hard to see that she scored.  I didn't think she did until I heard it announced.  I thought Court did.  So I followed Court's celebration on camera. 

When Georgie was a freshman she won the team Trivia Contest.  I came up with questions based on players information and history of the team.  Georgie was just the best at it.  She won the only one ever done.  She also showed up around 5:00 to finish something up for me, even though I told her she could come another day.  It was at this point I realized that freshman will do whatever you tell them and try never to disappoint.   

Georgie liked my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  She said it was one of the best she had ever had.  I made it for her for a spring game when she was just starting to eat after her jaw problems.  She couldn't have the subs at Subway so she got something that I guess was pretty good.

I ran into Georgie at an Ice Hockey game one day and I tried to talk to her and she just sounded like she was making baby-talk.  She was pointing at her mouth and I couldn't understand a word she was saying.  Finally I saw a bandage or scar and picked up on the fact that something wasn't quite right.
Her jaw injury was so hard to think about because I just couldn't imagine only eating from a straw for six weeks or even more.  It was also hard to communicate for her, which isn't surprising when someone's jaw is wired shut.  She had a pad of paper to help her at a few practices that I remember.

Right after her injury Georgie decided to investigate my juggling skills.   Unfortunately I think she assumed I could play.  I can't juggle so when Georgie through the ball at my feet and it didn't go back to her she got mad.  I tried to tell her to stop, but she threw the ball at my feet again, and this time I made decent contact and hit it too close to her jaw for her comfort.  She got the message that I can't juggle at that point.   

One of my favorite memories about Georgie are the trick videos she did.  I had a lot of fun filming those for her.  It was fun for two reasons.  One reason was that I knew Georgie would be enjoying herself while she was showing off her skills.  I think it's good for the players to show off and just have fun with the soccer ball.  No parents, no referees, no coaches, no fans, no pressure, just have fun.  The other reason is that it gave a great opportunity to come up with social media content and to market the team.  I loved filming the stuff we did for the players and for the team, but I also loved when the filming would be used to promote the team.

The first trick stuff we did was when Georgie was in the field house and kicked the soccer ball into a garbage can.  Coach was so impressed by this when I showed him.  He really was. I believe he said "That's really good."

We filmed the garbage can part well before any of the other teams or athletes made trick shot videos.  Georgie was the first to have stuff filmed.  We weren't the first to post it online, nor were we ever going to get as much attention as a football player or women's basketball player, but Georgie was to my knowledge the first to actually have something filmed.

I also really liked the one when Georgie and Julie teamed up in Shenkman to receive the ball from the air, juggle 15-20 yards and then pass it off to the other player who kicks it through the uprights for a field goal.  That was awesome.

I also loved the day that Georgie and I went through campus and filmed.  There was snow on the ground and we were doing filming outside of the Wilbur Cross Building.  I remember getting a camera angle that I liked that required me to be sitting in the snow.  Then Georgie and I went and filmed inside a lecture hall.  I don't think anyone has seen that video, but I really had so much fun filming it.  We would bounce ideas off of each other for things to do, like juggling a soccer ball into class, or juggling on the desk in the front of lecture halls.  I had so much fun doing this.

I think making videos like this is a great way to market a team, especially a women's soccer team.  Too often the knock on female athletes is that they are boring, or that any guy could do what they do.  By showing what they can do, that no one else can really do, you are attacking that stereotype in hopes that people will respect the athletes enough to actually consider going to a game.  Atleast that was a theory I wanted to try.  I also thought that unique videos online would create positive attention for the team and could get people to gain interest in following the team and attending games.

I will also say that I am not a fan of copying other people's ideas.  I wanted everything we filmed to be unique somehow

In other words, I would not have been a fan of a "Call Me Maybe" video.  There are too many of those.  Now a "Starships" Video or something like that, I would be all for, because it's different.  You don't want to copy great ideas, you want to come up with ones that are better.  I was extremely impressed with the Freshman Talent show because the routine was unique.

I can't tell you how much more I wish we got to do with making videos, but I can't tell you how much I enjoyed making and filming those videos with Georgie.  

We had a lot of ideas for videos that we never got to do.  It's hard to do them when you have to worry about the players being tired, dealing with injuries, dealing with classes etc.

Now I mentioned the talent show earlier and when it came to the talent show, Georgie, didn't quite remember what to do at the end of it.  The whole team was lying down at the end while Georgie was standing in the middle.  Thankfully Georgie was in the middle, so it looked slightly less weird than if she had been somewhere else.      

One year during our spring clinic Georgie also got disrespected by a participant.  She could tell you what the camper told her, but I thought it was something like "You're Mother" or something else disrespectful.  It was just something that was really wrong to say and that you wouldn't expect out of a clinic participant.  What I do remember is that the player that disrespected Georgie was wearing yellow cleats.

Also, one of my favorite clips that I ever videoed was a zoomed in shot of a slide tackle by Georgie in a spring game at Oakwood.  I zoomed in and got her tackle and the turf pellets coming up from her slide.  

Georgie stopped by the office a lot, especially when she was a freshman.  As she got older, like most players, they become more independent and aren't around quite as much, and her presence was missed.  I would tell our secretary that it's been too long since Georgie has stopped by. 

I felt like I spoke to Georgie more than most players, and that she was someone I knew better than others.  I really want her to do well and have a great senior year.