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Summer 2015 Vol. 8 No. 2
t he FULL The Official Newsletter of the Grove City College Women’s Soccer Team
2015 SPRING SEASON WRAP-UP
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Inside ... Alumni Update: Erin Shaffer
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Day of Caring
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2015 Schedule
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Homecoming ‘15
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Quick Click ... n
Sports
www.gcc.edu/sports Women’s soccer www2.gcc.edu/sports/ New/WSoccer/home.htm n Alumni & Friends www.alumni.gcc.edu n
Contributors Melissa Lamie Head Coach Sarah Flenniken ’15 Player Printer SCP Group Sharon, Pa.
allows for the juniors and sophomores to begin to understand their roles in the upcoming season in terms of being leaders. While there are always some hang-ups in this transition, there is also valuable learning going on. This spring was no different as a new leadership group experimented with their roles, as well as every player becoming a “returner” now. We made some great strides in preparing for the fall season in terms of our leadership! Lastly, the spring is always a time for me to experiment with new things. see WRAP-UP page 3
SOUTH AFRICA 2016
theFULL90 Editor Robert Audia Web Content/Social Media Supervisor
he spring segment of our season this year was notable in a few ways. First of all, the 5 week segment took place earlier in the spring, which meant some cold, cold nights on the turf!! We started on March 17 and ended on April 17. We did see some warmer days toward the end, but it definitely tested our dedication at times! Another notable feature of the spring segment is always the absence of senior leadership. Since the seniors do not play during their final semester, this
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lans are underway for another team trip to South Africa next May, 2016! We have again connected with Ambassadors Football, the same soccer-based ministry organization we have worked with the last three trips. The plan is to partner with them in their Cape Town ministries, working with churches and in some prisons to use soccer as a vehicle to reach young people with the gospel. If you are interested in going on the trip with us, contact Coach Lamie at mdlamie@gcc.edu to get more details! A shot of the nine Wolverines who traveled to South If you are interested in giving toward the trip, you can also contact Africa as part of the 2013 trip. Coach Lamie at the above email see SOUTH AFRICA page 3
WHERE ARE THEY NOW: ERIN (LAGAN) SHAFFER We recently caught up with one of the members of the very first GCC women’s soccer team, Erin (Lagan ’93) Shaffer, who is now involved in full time ministry in Jamaica. Recent graduate Sarah Flenniken ’15 asked Shaffer a few questions about her life back in early days of GCC Women’s Soccer and now… SF - What position(s) did you play at Grove City? ES - I mostly played right wing and center. SF - What was it like playing on the first Grove City team? ES - When I decided I was going to try and play soccer in the fall, it was in the spring of my Junior year. The team was still intramural at that point. I was a bit surprised when I came back to school in the fall and it had become a legitimate varsity team.
become my life, but I ended up dating (and marrying) the guy who led that first trip. Some of those same soccer principals have served me well. We have really strived to see the strengths of the people in this underdeveloped community in Jamaica. This has allowed us to look at our own strengths and then to learn from each other and help each other. This precludes us from believing we have all the answers and can “fix” things. To be successful at ANYTHING, you have to be willing to be a “learner.” I find this to be especially true of cross-cultural experiences. SF - How have you been impacted by working for Won By One?
ES - We adopted two of our three children from Jamaica. This is no small feat. There are only a handful of children who are adopted each year, and almost all of them go to Jamaicans who have immigrated Our coach that year was to the US, Canada, or a male - Rand Hudson. Great Britain. I can say There’s always something we really WORKED funny about a young guy for these kids - making coaching young women. phone calls, dropping The girls always seem to everything in the middle have the upper hand. But of the day to drive to we really did love Coach the capital to meet with Hudson. Great guy. officials, bending over backwards to understand SF - Did anything you the system so that we felt learned through soccer we were working WITH impact your life? the Jamaicans and not The Shaffer family: Josh ‘93, Aisha, Lane, Tyreak and Erin ‘93. AGAINST them. Soccer ES - I think any sport and education and Grove City College’s culture as a prepares you for real life: If you want something, you whole prepared us to press on. (Aren’t they a beautiful have to work for it. To accomplish your goal, you reward?) often have to work with people, not against them. You learn to accept your own and others’ strengths and weaknesses, and develop ways to utilize each other’s strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. In soccer, I wasn’t a very accurate shooter, but I could outrun just about anyone. All I had to do was get the ball and pass it to someone who could score. It also teaches you to accept the responsibility that other people are counting on you to pull your own weight. I became involved in Won By One To Jamaica as a freshman at Grove City. I don’t think I really knew what I was getting into. To be real, the team leader (Josh Shaffer ‘93) was pretty cute, plus I figured it would look good on a resume. I never would’ve thought it would
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SF - What’s your favorite part of the ministry? ES - My favorite part of the ministry is bringing teams of high school Americans down to see, smell and touch poverty. It changes them profoundly. I never tire of watching the tranformation. SF – Any closing thoughts? ES - God was at work in Harmons long before the Shaffers ever set foot on the island. It’s an adventure and privilege to join Him there. And if we’re fortunate, our own little soccer players will learn some of these same life lessons (maybe even at Grove City College??).
UNITED WAY DAY OF CARING
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his spring several members of the Grove City women’s soccer team served the Grove City community by participating in the United Way Day of Caring. Every year, groups of volunteers from the local area sign up to do various projects throughout the borough of Grove City. The projects range from picking up trash to helping at the local historical society. This year, on a beautiful Saturday morning, members of the Grove City women’s soccer team signed up and were assigned to work at the Grove City community garden. Along with many other volunteers, the girls worked hard to spread over 50 yards of mulch, weed several beds, and perform other jobs to get the garden ready for the summer. It was a great time of bonding amongst the Twelve members of the Grove City women’s soccer team took part in the team as they mingled with Grove City locals and United Way Day of Caring on April 25. other college students, living out the core value of “impacting our campus and our community.” SOUTH AFRICA cont. address to get details about a tax deductible donation. This ministry trip every three years has become a staple of our program and we look forward to new, younger players having the experience of using soccer as a ministry in South Africa, then bringing that same mentality back to our team here at Grove City. We’d love to have you be a part of the trip in any way you can!
WRAP-UP cont. This spring, we tried out a new type of conditioning, and the results were evident. Parents who saw our spring game asked what we had done to get such results, and I could only point to the conditioning work we had done. This may have been the most notable part of our spring segment this year. I am very excited to see how it all comes together next fall as we get into the new program even deeper than we have already! Our spring game was at Clarion on April 13th. Playing against a seasoned Division 2 team brought a lot of new challenges for us, particularly in playing at a higher pace and a higher intensity physically. We proved up to the task and came away with a 4-3 loss. We dominated possession time and created many great chances on goal so I was particularly pleased with our attack. It was a great way to finish the spring and get us motivated to train for the fall ahead!
During the 2010 trip, members of the women’s soccer team put on a soccer clinic during a school visit near Pretoria.
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Aug. 22 Aug. 26 Sept. 1 Sept. 4 Sept. 5 Sept. 11 Sept. 12 Sept. 15 Sept. 18 Sept. 22 Sept. 25 Sept. 26 Sept. 30 Oct. 2 Oct. 7 Oct. 10
John Carroll (scrm.) Point Park (scrm.) Adrian Franciscan% Marietta% Oswego$ Fredonia $ Allegheny Carnegie Mellon Penn St. Behrend Mount Union ALUMNI GAME Baldwin Wallace Geneva* W&J#* Bethany#*
Home Away Away Home Home Neutral Away Home Away Away Home Home Away Away Away Home
Homecoming 2015 Schedule Friday, Sept 25 4:00pm
Grove City vs Mount Union on College Field
facebook.com/GroveCity
12 p.m. 4 p.m. 4 p.m. 4 p.m. 2 p.m. 1 p.m. 1 p.m. 4:30 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 4 p.m. 1 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 5:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m.
Oct. 13 Oct. 17 Oct. 21 Oct. 23 Oct. 28 Oct. 31
Westminster* St. Vincent#*^ Thomas More#* Thiel* Waynesburg#* Chatham*
Away Home Home Away Away Home
7:30 p.m. 1 p.m. 3:30 p.m. 6 p.m. 6 p.m. 1 p.m.
Nov. 3 Nov. 7
PAC Semifinals PAC Championships
H/A H/A
TBA TBA
* PAC match ^Senior/Parents Day # Double-header with men’s team %Labor Day Classic $Fredonia Tournament
Saturday, Sept 26 11:00am Homecoming Parade 11:45am Women’s Soccer Alumni Reception in Rathburn Hall 1:00pm Alumni Game on College Field
@GCC_Wolverines
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100 Campus Drive Grove City, PA 16127
2015 Women’s Soccer Schedule