TicketsThroughout the 2006-07 school year, select UC student-athletes will share their experiences on and off the field with Bearcat fans through CATSblogs. These student-athletes will take you in to the life of a Bearcat and share their struggles and triumphs. Fans can email their favorite CATSblogger here! Be sure to include your name and hometown.
Kim Sykes is a sophomore defender for the UC women's soccer team. She is majoring in psychology and pre-med and is a captain for the 2006 Bearcats.
July 28, 2006 3 pm
Countdown until preseason: 11 days
Countdown until first kick off: 16 days
Happy Friday!! Only a week and a half until preseason starts for our team. I just went running and it was so hot outside which is crazy because this morning it was pouring rain and looked like it would never stop. In fact, when I was leaving my house for conditioning, I thought I would pick up the newspaper (the Cincinnati Enquirer) so that way it wouldn't get ruined by the rain. Instead, I ended up accidentally running over it with my car and I think it was worse off than if I had left it out in the rain! Anyway, later I read in the sports section that the UC Men's soccer team has the 38th ranked recruiting class in the nation according to collegesoccernews.com. That was pretty cool especially since I met some of the incoming players a few weeks ago and I got to see them play...so congrats to the men's team!! On the topic of news, I must say I am pretty excited that we are going to be having our game versus our rival on TV this season... but I will fill you in with details on that later. Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend...Check back in soon!
Kim Sykes #5
July 24, 2006 12:45 pm
Countdown until preseason: 15 days
Countdown until first kick off: 20 days
I haven't written in awhile because I have been so busy with school and of course soccer. Right now I'm excited because this morning I took my final exam for my chemistry class, which means now chemistry is over for the summer! I actually liked my chemistry class, but it will be nice to have some more free time in the morning. Chemistry being over just reminds me of how fast this summer has truly gone by. Even though I didn't write much last week, a lot happened! The highlights of my week included seeing Pirates of the , which I think was only a good movie because of Johnny Depp. Also on the list of the highlights would be running sprints with the football team with Jo Jo and Erica on Friday. Also on Sunday I was excited to watch the U.S. Women's National Team beat . Even without Kristine Lilly, they won 5-0!
As far as this week goes, later in the week I will be part of the Bearcat Caravan, which is basically where a bunch of players and some coaches go to events in and the athletes sign autographs, we give away some prizes, and a bunch of other stuff! Anyway, the date I'm helping out is this Wednesday; and it's at the Florence Freedom game, so you should come to win prizes and have fun! Anyway, I'm about to go meet a friend to run so I will write again soon........remember to email me!
Check back in soon,
Kim Sykes #5
July 12, 2006 10:30 pm
Countdown until preseason: 27 days
Countdown until first kick off: 32 days
Yesterday I mentioned that I would talk about how I had been playing some soccer at the UC Bearcats soccer camp that is going on this week. Most of the players at this camp are in high school... it's just a camp where you stay on campus and get to enjoy playing soccer and at the same time learn about soccer at the collegiate level. Tonight was the last night of camp, and the camp will officially end for everyone tomorrow afternoon. It has been fun playing with and against the campers all week and I think they had fun and learned a lot, too.
I also got to see two of our incoming freshman next year: Andrea Kaminski and Sherry Lyle at the camp. It just so happens that they both are goalies! I only got to talk to Andrea for a little while, because she had her orientation this week, but it was still nice to see her again. Sherry and I did more than just talk for a little bit....we dominated!! I'm kidding, but we actually were on the same team Sunday night through tonight (Wednesday) so we got used to playing with each other. I was very impressed with her!
Also this week, some of the alumni have come and played with us at the camps. I actually met two alumni I did not know before the camps, Ashley Murphy and Lisa Stephens, who are still amazing at soccer. Jen Leiter and Lauren Buland, both seniors last season, were also there, so I was eager to see them and talk to them. After we played our last night of games tonight, there was an "All-Star" game where the future, present, and former Bearcats soccer players took on the top players of the camp! After that, I headed home and now I am about to finish my homework for tomorrow morning. Make sure you check back in soon to read more about the 's Soccer team!! And remember to email me here!
Kim Sykes #5
July 11, 2006 1:35 pm
Countdown until preseason: 28 days
Countdown until first kick off: 33 days
Today was Tuesday, which meant that I had the privilege of waking up early to do agilities! I also got to see the football team doing part of their workout in Nippert Stadium, and I think they are going to do amazing this year. Around 7, Kidus Tadele and Sam Miller from the men's soccer team, as well as my teammate Erica Maine and I, did some ladders together. It was a pretty intense workout I must say...Curtis Bostic comes up with some crazy agilities for us to do!!
After this, I headed to my chemistry laboratory which I have on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30. On the way to the chemistry building - Rieveschl, for the unfamiliar - I felt like I was missing something. I made a mental check: I had my chemistry book, my lab report that was due, and my goggles, haha. Then I remembered how my T.A. had stressed that even though it was summer, we had to wear pants in the lab room because you could spill some chemicals on yourself and overall that it could get pretty dangerous up in Rieveschl 422E if we were not careful. Well, obviously I was wearing shorts while working out in the 80 degree weather today, so I didn't have a pair of pants with me, and class was soon! If I went to lab in shorts, I would be kicked out.
Then I realized that I could ask my fellow teammate Andrea Bouldin, who happens to be in my class and also is my lab partner, to bring me some pants so that way I wouldn't get a zero for the day. Let me try to paint a picture of what happened at this point in my morning: for everyone who knows where Rieveschl is, I was going up the stairs that lead to the building. For those of you that don't take biology or chemistry, I was going up the stairs that also lead you to Langsam Library. If you don't know where the main library is on campus, it is somewhat near Starbucks!! Nevertheless, before this morning, I thought I was a good multi-tasker. Seemingly simple enough, I reached into my backpack (so I could text Andrea), while at the same time I climbed the stairs to get to class on time. I felt my phone in the bottom of my backpack, but it seemed to be caught on something, which I now can conclude was my ipod. Like anyone would do in my position, I yanked the phone upwards to get it out my bag; except unlike most people, I somehow let go of the cell phone once I had gotten it loose.
What does this mean? My cell phone went flying!! Actually, I won't lie, it didn't really fly... it seemed to just head right toward the pavement. While watching my cell phone hit one flight of stairs and then another, I basically just froze. Finally my phone hit this muddy patch of grass; onlookers hypothesized that this was probably better for my cell phone to land on, but I had to disagree considering it had already hit the cement a good five times previous to this landing!! After retrieving my phone from the mud, I was relieved to see the background picture of Johnny Depp, meaning that my phone was still intact!! Unfazed from this cell phone incident, I quickly texted Andrea to see if she could bring me some pants. At this point I was concerned because I figured she had already left for class and wouldn't be able to solve my problem. Luckily, I guess Andrea likes to sleep in and hadn't left for class yet -- so she brought me some sweatpants to wear!! What a teammate haha!!
Tonight I'm playing soccer at the , which is basically an overnight UC soccer camp. I'll be sure to tell you more about it Wednesday. Make sure you check back in soon to read more about the 's Soccer team!! Email me here!
July 3, 2006 3:15 pm
Countdown until preseason: 36 days
Countdown until first kick off: 41 days
It's hard to believe that spring quarter has been over for almost a month now. It seems like just yesterday I was living in Turner dorms with my roommates Chelsea (Kindschuh), JoJo (Jenn Johannigman), and Smo Train (Teresa Smolilo). Although summer break has seemingly gone by fast, last week marked the official start of our summer training workouts. Basically, those of us who live in try to workout together whenever we can in the mornings with our strength coach, former UC basketball player, Curtis Bostic. Though not required, everybody on the team wants to be in the best shape possible and also have our best touch on the ball when we come into preseason August 8th. We usually meet Monday through Friday, except on Thursdays. Not only did the lifting and agilities start last week, but also my summer school started.
Anyway, today I woke up at 6:10, which for some people may sound pretty awful, but I'm a morning person, as my roomie Chelsea knows, so that wasn't a big deal. I decided to make myself some toast since I wouldn't really have a break until about one o'clock when my chemistry class is scheduled to be over. What I had for breakfast was only a minor detail of my morning; rather, what proved not to be a minor detail was that I realized I had no clue where we were meeting for conditioning!! You are probably thinking: is that really that big of a deal? Or, at how many places could we really be meeting? Apparently, quite a few in the new !!
First I checked the weight room. I jogged down the stairs, and I listened for the Metallica or the Young Jeezy that is often blaring, the latter which JoJo and I often jam to, and not just in the weight room!! I didn't hear any so I had a feeling that we weren't meeting there. Next I thought I'd check out Nippert Stadium; I figured we might be running there. By this time it was five till seven, so I started to pick up the pace a little. Just as I was heading out the doors of Armory Fieldhouse, I saw senior Jess Legge! It turned out that she didn't know where we were meeting either, and she pondered aloud whether or not we were even meeting today considering tomorrow is July 4th!
After going to the football field and coming up empty-handed, we both concluded that everybody must be meeting at Gettler Stadium. On the way there, we joked that we really knew we were meeting at Gettler Stadium all along. As we approached, we didn't really recognize anyone on the soccer field as being our teammates. All of a sudden, I thought I saw Boomer (Lindsey Noteboom). Excited, I screamed "Booooooomer!" as loud as I could. In retrospect I think I did this because I haven't seen her in weeks! In response to my high-pitch scream, everyone on the field, including Boomer, turned and stared in our direction. The only problem was, once Boomer turned, I realized this was not actually Boomer after all!!!
It turned out everyone running was really Army ROTC. At that point it was pretty obvious it was them because of their uniforms: they read ROTC across the front in conspicuous black lettering and they wore these bright yellow and orange reflective belts - I'm not sure how I missed that. At this point, Legge was cracking up!! Anyway, after I confused the entire ROTC, Legge and I ended up calling Erica Maine and of course Boomer to jokingly yell at them for not telling us we weren't meeting for conditioning today/wake them up on purpose/confirm that there was not conditioning today.
After this, Legge had the idea that we should do the sprints from the workout packet that Coach Stefani Workman had put together for us so that we could have our anaerobic workout for the day completed. She pointed out how we'd end up pushing each other while doing the sprints, whereas if we were alone it would be more difficult. I believe Legge is leader on our team and I think this is just one example that shows this quality of hers!! We looked at the packet and the workout for today consisted of lifting, footwork, and sprint #5. Sprint #5 was essentially doing sets of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 yard sprints, with breaks in between, totaling 1040 yards. The second part was a cone drill that incorporated quick sprints with jogging. We ran all the sprints in the times we were aiming for, so we were content with the workout when we were done. After this, Legge was off to work at the hospital and I headed to chemistry class.
Today started off with me not really having a purpose considering I didn't even know where we were meeting for conditioning... In the end though, Legge and I ended up focused on an objective that I'm proud to say we successfully accomplished together!!!! I hope that everybody reading this has a Happy Fourth of July tomorrow.... Make sure you check back in soon to read more about the 's Soccer team!!
Kim Sykes #5