Happy 2011! The Irish website announces several frosh signings for the 2011 season: "Lauren Bohaboy, a 5-8 forward (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic HS/So Cal Blues), Jennifer Jasper, a 5-8 goalkeeper (Fort Worth, Texas/Trinity Valley School/Solar SC), Taylor Schneider, a 5-6 defender (Southlake, Texas/Carroll Senior HS/Dallas Texans), Sammy Scofield, a 5-7 defender (Geneva, Ill./Geneva HS/Eclipse Select), Karin Simonian, a 5-2 midfielder (Westbury, N.Y./W.T. Clarke HS/Albertson Fury) and Sarah Voigt, a 5-10 goalkeeper (Middleburg, Fla./St. Johns Country Day School/Ponte Vedra Storm), each made their official commitments to Notre Dame during the current signing period, which began Feb. 2." Last year's freshmen came up big for ND throughout the season and especially during the NCAAs - who knows, maybe these players will too. Welcome to Notre Dame!
Does anyone know or have heard the Notre Dame spring schedule for 2011? Please post if and when you hear/read something. Thanks.
Coach Randy tweeted that the Irish will be playing on April 16, the weekend of the pointy-ball Blue-Gold intrasquad game. Stay tuned...
Came accross this article from LA Times dating Dec 7th 1995 from ND's first National Championship: memories.
ND women's soccer tweet: Spring opener on Saturday March 26, 5:00 pm - ND vs Michigan State in Fort Wayne IN. Charity event at Univ. of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne.
I went to St. Francis a couple of years ago to watch UND in a pre-season game. There were many teams there for a charity event. They have an astroturf field at St. Francis. I'll probably end up going. Any more pre-season info, please post guys. Thanks.
Notre Dame will play Michigan State tomorrow in Ft. Wayne, Indiana at 5:00. Can't make this one. The Chicago Fire home opener is tomorrow. Haven't missed a Fire opener in a long time.
So what's going on at ND on April 3rd? I read on Twitters and a couple of other places that several teams will be playing at ND field on Sunday. Toledo, Western Michigan, ND, Wright State.
ND v Toledo/Wright State v WMU both played simultaneously (heard 11 AM for a KO but that was a while back) then ND v WMU/Wright State v Toledo later in the day (2:30, see comment for previous stated time).
From Coach's tweet: "Irish women's soccer beats Toledo 5-0 w/goals from Laddish, Tucker, & Henderson ... Irish defeat W. Michigan 1-0 on goal by Leon." It's just spring soccer, but Class of 2014 continues to impress.
Congratulations on your women's basketball team's huge upset last night. Impressive play by some unsung heroes...looking forward to the Final against A&M. Good to see some madness spilling over into the women's game! Looked like a soldout crowd.
College Cup re-match with Ohio State Saturday in Xenia, OH at the Athletes In Action Sports Complex. Kickoff is 3 PM.
According to Coach's tweet, "Irish beat Ohio State on a goal by Liz Tucker & assist by Jess Schuveiller"
Remaining ND spring games: 4/16 Loyola-Chicago Notre Dame, Ind./Alumni Practice Field 1:00 p.m. ET 4/19 Marquette Notre Dame, Ind./Alumni Practice Field 7:00 p.m. ET
Not really about the 2011 ND program, but featured on the Irish web page: "Olympic Gold Medalist Kate Markgraf '98 To Cover World Cup For ESPN" "April 13, 2011" "By Natalie Davis Miller for ND Today" "Gold medalist and former Notre Dame women's soccer player Kate Sobrero Markgraf '98 recently retired from soccer, but she hasn't given up the sport entirely. This summer fans around the world will see her as a play-by-play analyst for ESPN." "She'll be covering the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women's World Cup in Germany June 26 - July 17. "It's just exciting to be able to speak knowledgeably about something I love," says Markgraf of her new TV gig. "Basically I'll be there to explain the `why' of how things happen for those who don't play soccer--keeping it to an easy, understandable manner..." Etc. Sobs did a nice job in the booth at at least one recent US friendly.
2010 NCAA National Champions get their rings. Former Notre Dame and USWNT great and NCAA Champion herself, Kate Markgraf as keynote speaker. http://www.und.com/sports/w-soccer/nd-w-soccer-body-main.html http://www.und.com/view.gal?id=92034
Not really a 2011 post, but a DVD about the 2010 Championship season is available from ND for a nominal sum: "Be 1st on your block to own @NDSoccer DVD documentary "The Extra Mile" detailing #Irish run to 2010 nat'l champ: http://tinyurl.com/4yvwh6f " What better belated Mother's Day present? (Rhetorical question - don't answer that)
According to Duke 2011 schedule ND will play Duke in the UNC Tournament in Chapel Hill on August 28th. So I assume that Notre Dame will play North Carolina on August 26th. Can anyone from confirm this please. If so, I'm already there.
Fun story about Randy Waldrum from the Witchita Falls, TX Times Record News: http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2011/may/10/soccer-not-business-runs-in-randy-waldrums-veins/ Money quote from the Coach: "...I was the black sheep that went off to a Communist sport," Waldrum said. "It worked out pretty well. There's not a day that goes by that I regret it."
I believe that the "communist" quote is a reference to how soccer is (somewhat jokingly) perceived by many in Texas. ...That is to say, (American) football is the red-blooded All-American sport, while soccer is played by South Americans, wimps, Europeans, geeks, etc. which are colloquially summed up as "communists." ;-)
Ah, you mean "comminists" as referred to by the previous President. Perhaps Waldrum's predecessor is perceived in Texas as one of them, which could explain why he hasn't been as successful as might have been expected. Sorry, Notre Dame fans, I won't say anything more on this since this is your topic, but I couldn't resist.