The stage was set for big season opener. South Carolina Men's Soccer was set to head to Charleston last Friday to take on College of Charleston in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Game of the Week, televised nationally on FOX Soccer Channel. It would have been the second year in a row the Gamecocks opened up the season as the featured college soccer game in the nation. But, this year, Hurricane Irene had other plans.
The approaching storm bearing down on the east coast forced CofC to postpone of the game until Sunday, August 28th, and the television crew was no longer able to come. The lure of taking on the Gamecocks still drew a record-high CofC crowd of 2,931 fans to the game, despite the rescheduled time.
I joined up with the team to get an inside look at going on the road. Check out the full slideshow of the day below and also check out the story of the day told by social media.
We met at the Field House around 12:30 p.m. to load up the bus and hit the road. Many of the guys entertained themselves listening to music or watching TV, but the ride was fairly quiet as they focused on the task at hand. We stopped about halfway for a pre-game meal at Cracker Barrel in Orangeburg. The staff there was ready and waiting, with a meal for more than 40 players and staff hot and ready. Any time you take that large a group of Gamecocks into a public restaurant, you're going to attract attention. We could hear, "Go Gamecocks!" as we walked to our seats, while other fans asked where we were headed and offered their best wishes for the game or asked for a picture. Running a little ahead of schedule, the team took some downtime outside after eating before re-boarding the bus, including several intense games of checkers. Most elite-level college student-athletes are naturally competitive - and checkers is no exception.
We arrived at College of Charleston's athletics complex at Patriots Point around 4:00, which gave the team about an hour to get settled in, check out the field, get taped, and be dressed and ready for warm-ups. Assistant Media Relations Director Emily Feeney and I made our way to the CofC press box to get our computers set up for the game and talk to the CofC staff while the Gamecock Productions crew set up their video cameras. I fired up the laptop and caught up on all the Gamecocks conversation on Twitter and Facebook from the day so far.
After a brief talk from head coach Mark Berson the team emerged from the locker room to take the field for warm-ups as a group around 5:15. As game time drew closer, the CofC fans began to pack the stadium, displaying their "Beat USC" placards. They would eventually pack the house with a record-high crowd of 2,931 fans.
The game got off to a quick start with CofC scoring first. The Gamecocks and Cougars continued to battle back and forth (you can check out the full game recap here), but CofC eventually prevailed over Carolina, 3-2. It was the first outing of a much younger team than last season's conference championship team. Alex Long made his first career start at goalkeeper and true freshmen Snoopy Davidson and Braeden Troyer also made their first collegiate starts in the game (Troyer also scored one of the Gamecocks' two goals for his first career score as a Gamecock). Four more freshmen, Stephen Anderson, Niklas Kivinen, Asa Kryst, and Emmett Lunceford, also saw action in the game coming off the bench. Although disappointed in the final outcome, Coach Berson said he was very pleased with this young team's performance in their first game and he saw several positives about their play.
"First of all tonight I think we did a lot more things well than poorly," said Berson. "I'm really pleased with that. We battled back twice from being behind and for a young team with as many freshman as we have, we have a brand new goalkeeper, two new centerbacks and three new central midfielders and new guys up front so we knew that this would be an opportunity for us to put some things together, and I was very proud of the way we battled back twice. The goals we gave up were very soft, and uncharacteristic of our team. We are usually pretty tough in the back and I don't think we did a particularly good job, but on the flip side, we created so many scoring chances. That is really positive."
After the game and cooling down, the team made their way back towards the locker room to shower and change for the return trip home. Many were greeted by their families who made the trip to watch them play. While the team packed up, Feeney finished writing the game recap and sending post-game commentary video from Coach Berson to a staff member back in Columbia to load on GamecocksOnline.com. We collected our gear and made the trek back to the bus to make the return trip home. Understandably following a loss, the bus ride home was fairly subdued and we arrived back at the Field House around 10:45 where the team would head back to their dorms and apartments to rest before class and practice Monday.
One of the biggest things about road trips is all the planning and logistics involved. The staff plans out an itinerary including travel schedules, what gear to bring and wear, meals and drinks for such a large group, etc. and just hopes that nothing unexpected comes along to disrupt the plans. Oh, you know, like a hurricane...
The team will hit the road again Friday for their next game at arch-rival Clemson at 7:15 p.m. The Gamecocks currently hold a four-game winning streak over the Tigers. For Carolina fans in the Upstate head on over to Riggs Field on Clemson's campus to cheer on your Gamecocks. The Gamecocks open up play at home on Tuesday, September 6th, vs. Charlotte at 7:00 p.m. Season tickets are available for $25 each for adults and $10 each for youth.
The approaching storm bearing down on the east coast forced CofC to postpone of the game until Sunday, August 28th, and the television crew was no longer able to come. The lure of taking on the Gamecocks still drew a record-high CofC crowd of 2,931 fans to the game, despite the rescheduled time.
I joined up with the team to get an inside look at going on the road. Check out the full slideshow of the day below and also check out the story of the day told by social media.
We met at the Field House around 12:30 p.m. to load up the bus and hit the road. Many of the guys entertained themselves listening to music or watching TV, but the ride was fairly quiet as they focused on the task at hand. We stopped about halfway for a pre-game meal at Cracker Barrel in Orangeburg. The staff there was ready and waiting, with a meal for more than 40 players and staff hot and ready. Any time you take that large a group of Gamecocks into a public restaurant, you're going to attract attention. We could hear, "Go Gamecocks!" as we walked to our seats, while other fans asked where we were headed and offered their best wishes for the game or asked for a picture. Running a little ahead of schedule, the team took some downtime outside after eating before re-boarding the bus, including several intense games of checkers. Most elite-level college student-athletes are naturally competitive - and checkers is no exception.
We arrived at College of Charleston's athletics complex at Patriots Point around 4:00, which gave the team about an hour to get settled in, check out the field, get taped, and be dressed and ready for warm-ups. Assistant Media Relations Director Emily Feeney and I made our way to the CofC press box to get our computers set up for the game and talk to the CofC staff while the Gamecock Productions crew set up their video cameras. I fired up the laptop and caught up on all the Gamecocks conversation on Twitter and Facebook from the day so far.
After a brief talk from head coach Mark Berson the team emerged from the locker room to take the field for warm-ups as a group around 5:15. As game time drew closer, the CofC fans began to pack the stadium, displaying their "Beat USC" placards. They would eventually pack the house with a record-high crowd of 2,931 fans.
The game got off to a quick start with CofC scoring first. The Gamecocks and Cougars continued to battle back and forth (you can check out the full game recap here), but CofC eventually prevailed over Carolina, 3-2. It was the first outing of a much younger team than last season's conference championship team. Alex Long made his first career start at goalkeeper and true freshmen Snoopy Davidson and Braeden Troyer also made their first collegiate starts in the game (Troyer also scored one of the Gamecocks' two goals for his first career score as a Gamecock). Four more freshmen, Stephen Anderson, Niklas Kivinen, Asa Kryst, and Emmett Lunceford, also saw action in the game coming off the bench. Although disappointed in the final outcome, Coach Berson said he was very pleased with this young team's performance in their first game and he saw several positives about their play.
"First of all tonight I think we did a lot more things well than poorly," said Berson. "I'm really pleased with that. We battled back twice from being behind and for a young team with as many freshman as we have, we have a brand new goalkeeper, two new centerbacks and three new central midfielders and new guys up front so we knew that this would be an opportunity for us to put some things together, and I was very proud of the way we battled back twice. The goals we gave up were very soft, and uncharacteristic of our team. We are usually pretty tough in the back and I don't think we did a particularly good job, but on the flip side, we created so many scoring chances. That is really positive."
After the game and cooling down, the team made their way back towards the locker room to shower and change for the return trip home. Many were greeted by their families who made the trip to watch them play. While the team packed up, Feeney finished writing the game recap and sending post-game commentary video from Coach Berson to a staff member back in Columbia to load on GamecocksOnline.com. We collected our gear and made the trek back to the bus to make the return trip home. Understandably following a loss, the bus ride home was fairly subdued and we arrived back at the Field House around 10:45 where the team would head back to their dorms and apartments to rest before class and practice Monday.
One of the biggest things about road trips is all the planning and logistics involved. The staff plans out an itinerary including travel schedules, what gear to bring and wear, meals and drinks for such a large group, etc. and just hopes that nothing unexpected comes along to disrupt the plans. Oh, you know, like a hurricane...
The team will hit the road again Friday for their next game at arch-rival Clemson at 7:15 p.m. The Gamecocks currently hold a four-game winning streak over the Tigers. For Carolina fans in the Upstate head on over to Riggs Field on Clemson's campus to cheer on your Gamecocks. The Gamecocks open up play at home on Tuesday, September 6th, vs. Charlotte at 7:00 p.m. Season tickets are available for $25 each for adults and $10 each for youth.
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