YEAH! Add another well-earned Championship Year to the sign at Fetzer! An amazing year with some amazing people, Heeligans included. Never take it for granted!
GoCourage, that is the best soccer (sports)photography I've ever seen! I hope you make some money on it somewhere - but those on the web fit my budget :0). I'm a fringe Tarheels fan. Is this the best team ever? ' anybody seen the UNC/Dorrance naysayers lately?
A troll speaks up . . . Sure, this could be the best team ever. It will be compared to the 1987, 1989, 1992, and 1997 teams and it's tough to pick against this team. What do you suppose Dorrance thinks? Here's what he said this afternoon to the media: "This team is an elite team that played the game at a pace few teams can match. The mobility on this team is also world-class. This is a college soccer team, but the mobility is [on an] international level. They're also relentless. Those two things separate them from other teams I've coached." Is that a vote for the 2003 Heels? Sounds like it to me.
Yes, this is the best collegiate team ever. I've been watching UNC a long-time. I don't recall a team that had this many players with full NT experience while still in college. Add the players with Full NT caps to those with "only" U-19/U-21 caps and it was not a level playing field this year. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional. As far as the game yesterday, it was a contest for about 2 minutes and then only a matter of time. My only disappointment was for those on the team who don't have U19/U21 caps, who go to practice everyday and bust their fanny like everyone else, but who didn't get a minute of time in a 6-0 Championship win. Maybe next year?
I figured AD would empty the bench toward the end. Maybe it would have been humiliating for UCONN or maybe he didn't want to chance blemishing the shutout status.
Subs I thought maybe AD wanted to keep the seniors on the field until the very end? The lineup that was in at the end included: Carmen - senior Cat - senior Train - senior Maggie - senior Randolph Maxwell Winget MaryMc Tarp Chalup Elizabeth Guess (The play-by-play posted on the UNC site isn't complete. I know Annie Morrell was subbed out in the second half but it isn't listed on the play-by-play...) The only senior not still in the game was Jordan. She was subbed out earlier in the second half when the game was still 2-0.
Re: Pix Sorry! I just couldn't not-post them... I figured it might have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shoot the championship game... so what the heck... I can certainly remove any to pare them down, so just let me know which.
Re: Pix Don't pare them down for me! I love poring over them. For people with less time, you could do what you did back for the Santa Clara game -- "quick hitters" -- that was a great service and it was fun to see which ones you decided to select, which ones you thought were representative or that captured the game well. But I know you have a fulltime job that needs your attention too.
Pix LOL--don't pare them down! I agree with KLEE, it's fun to see people's fave's, but then I like to choose my own as well! Thank you Shane, and thanks to FSU's help for getting you there!
National Champions Wow! I had a blast. I met several of you in person for the first time and several others I caught up with again. I really did not like the fact that the Heeligans were mostly on the other side of the stadium from those of us behind the Heels bench but perhaps it made the visitors feel like they were surrounded. ( They were! it was a very baby blue crowd.) I have to say that the Heels showed why they will be feared for years to come. Just think Steady was out and could not play a minute. The seniors will be missed and perhaps the biggest loss will be Jordan Walker. Jordan was the glue that held it all together. Her work off the field bonding and smoothing out any rough spots and communicating was a very big part of this team. Jordan will be very successful in life I predict. A natural born leader who all the troops looked to. You should have seen Jordan with the National Champ trophy. Hours after the match she is parading around with it in a death grip. She said it was "her Date". I laughed and laughed One down three to go...
Celebrating a season Check these out. I call this "Celebrating a Season." All photos by GoCourage (need I say?). These are not all of our games, obviously, just the ones where Shane was taking pictures. Nebraska Guilford Richmond NC State Wake Forest Clemson Florida State ACC tournament -- NC State ACC tournament -- Duke ACC tournament -- FSU NCAAs – High Point NCAAs -- UNCG NCAAs -- Purdue NCAAs – Santa Clara NCAAs -- UCLA NCAAs – UConn
Great collection -- thanks for putting then together! I've just downloaded them to my wallpaper changer so I can relive our goals during the off season.
FINAL SCORE FROM SUNDAY UNC 6 UCONN 0. 17th or 18th national championship in 22 years. Amazing indeed!!! info: http://www.uconnhuskies.com/AllStories/WSoccer/2003/12/07/20031207.html , http://tarheelblue.ocsn.com/sports/w-soccer/recaps/120703aab.html , http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031208/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/soc_women_s_final_1 , http://www.ncaasports.com/soccer/womens/results/2991
quote In thinking back on my own journey over the last several years I am struck by how much I read about the death of the Dynasty. Many said it, I am sure at least some really really believed it. Now then I feel it appropriate to quote that great American author Mark Twain: " Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
Re: quote Shhhhh.... You'll wake the sleeping trolls! In a couple of years all we'll be hearing is more whining about the death of the UNC dynasty... Please trolls. There is no dynasty here. Repeat, no dynasty. Nothing here to see. Just keep moving along to other threads. BTW only 765 posts (766 with mine) and the season is over. What so ever is there to talk about to fill the last 11?
What now? There are two things I'm interested in. One is recruiting, but I'm not going to start in on that right yet. The other is in the category of "what might have been" -- our graduating players and professional soccer. Until the WUSA folded, I was happily anticipating seeing Cat, Train, and Maggie, and maybe Carmen too, out on the pitch at SAS Stadium, playing either for or against the Courage. One of the debates that was going on before the league's collapse was who would be the WUSA's first draft pick: Nandi Pryce or Cat Reddick? Cat will continue with the NT, I presume. She can if she wants to, but she may prefer to get on with a career or graduate school or to get married and have a family. The end of the WUSA also means that we won't be seeing Jenni Branam or Susan Bush, Jena Kluegel, Leslie Gaston, or Lorrie Fair, Lindsay Stoecker, Nel Fettig, or Tiff Roberts, or even Cindy Parlow or Mia Hamm except on TV with the NT, just to name some of our grads who have flourished in the league.
Klee, think positively. There will be a WUSA II. There will be USWNT tune-up games before Greece'03 - most likely near some former WUSA cities. There will be 100 some-odd NCAA D1 programs trying to unseat UNC come next Fall. (And maybe I'll get to see Maggie Tomecka with the Boston Renegades again next summer.)
Hermann finalists Tarp and Cat have been named as two fo the three "finalists" for the MAC Hermann award (from the list of 15 "semi-finalists" named early in the season). the award will be given 1/9/04. Details: http://www.nscaa.com/scripts/runisa.dll?m2:gp::14028+article+65258. Both are great players, but my vote would go for Tarp, if I had one, because of her actual contribution to the team and to the college game all season, but i'm going to predict that Cat will get the edge because of her time with the Nats and becasue she is a senior (in addition to being a great player and a player whose talents are even more obvious to coaches than they are to the rest of us). That is, if they don't divide the vote, leaving Lohman as the winner. Anybody know how they vote? Does each vote-caster rank all three or does each have a single vote they cast for their choice?
Re: Hermann finalists Here's a better link: http://www.nscaa.com/ Re. Tarp: I should have mentioned her incredible leadership. We haven't had a hard-nosed leader like her on the field for sometime. that was obvious in the ACC FSU game where she was NOT going to let UNC lose.
Re: FINAL SCORE FROM SUNDAY This will clear up any confusion about how many titles UNC has won. UNC wins its 18th national championship, its 17th NCAA title in 22 tries. UNC improves to 81-5 all-time in the tournament. Info from: http://tarheelblue.ocsn.com/sports/w-soccer/recaps/120703aaa.html
Recruits for 2004 There has been speculation in this thread about TarHeel recruits for next year to replace our fabulous seniors. Names mentioned include: 1) Ashlyn Harris (common knowledge) 2) Jaime Gilbert http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20031116/SP_004.htm 3) Robin Gayle (rumor, no documentation) With a little luck and a lot of internet searching practice, I came up with another name: 4) Katie Brooks a striker from Masachusetts: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2003/11/16/soccer_field_hockey_squads_net_successes/ If anyone else can remember other names or has heard of local players coming to UNC please chime in. Reading the 52 pages of this thread was a chore. The old website www.studentsports.com used to have lists of recruits, but is inactive after being taken over by www.rivals.com Hey, we are just 4 posts from 777! Speaking of recruiting, here is an article from the Charlotte Observer: http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/charlotte/sports/womens/7418611.htm