Listen up, fives, a ten is speaking
Coach Bev Yanez shares her excitement about the home opener this Saturday at Lynn Family Stadium
By Elizabeth Shaw
It was smiles-all-around at Racing Louisville’s media day, Monday, March 10th, just five days out from the season opener. And Coach Bev has four specific reasons to be excited: Racing picked up four promising players in the off-season/ pre-season and they are already bringing their unique energies to the team. Allie George, Ella Hase, Katie O’Kane, and Sarah Weber are each impressing Coach Bev in different ways, including one who isn’t afraid to charge down the field and shoot with either foot. (I’ll leave it to the fans to discover who I’m speaking about here; we wouldn’t want the NC Courage getting any advance notice of our special talents.)
Self-Reflection & Relationships
Bev shared how she spent a lot of time in self-reflection in the off-season. She’s continued her commitment to building relationships by providing interactive activities for the team. Music to my ears! After observing some player disconnects during the first season, I would regularly comment to Michael that the teams needed some good old-fashioned team building to learn more about each other and thus how to play well together.
Having spent over twenty years at Fortune 100 companies that live or die by culture, I’ve developed a passion for genuine self-discovery and team bonding. (Alternatively, I have a gag-reflex when a new leader dusts off a Myers-Briggs personality assessment and forces their employees to take the test (again) and share with their colleagues, even if they are an ISTP who clearly hates this type of exercise.) Otherwise said, it has to be done right!
How do you know if you’ve done it right? You issue a survey at the end of the session and ask for feedback. (Kidding, please, for the love of soccer do not do that.) You will just know. Like if teammates start opening up to each other in new ways. Coach Bev wants her players to “go the extra mile” for each other. And if you know someone and care about them (maybe because you realized you’re both Swifties), then you’re more likely to step up for them.
New Captains
This season, Coach asked her players to vote on their captain. I cannot imagine how hard that must’ve been given the candidate pool here. If this had been a popularity vote, I think we would’ve seen Lauren Milliet or Olivia Sekany as winners, which would be a problem since Olivia isn’t the starting keeper. Since this was, however, a captain vote, we’re looking for different qualities (that Lauren Milliet also possesses, but I didn’t get to vote).
Congrats to Arin Wright (captain) and Janine Sonis (nee Beckie) (co-captain)! Look forward to hearing Arin inspire the team in the pre-game huddle on Friday.
Intensity
I loved Coach Bev’s response to the question “what do you want fans to see from the team this year?” Without missing a beat, she said “Intensity.” For a minute I was reminded of the word-of-the-year bracelets that women of a certain age used to create for themselves as part of their New Year’s Resolutions and Related Activities to Quit Mid-January. But if you put that word on a bracelet and wear that bracelet everyday - or until you catch it on your car door and it breaks into a million beads in your garage that you’ll step on the rest of your life - then yeah, it can make a difference. You’re forced to think about that word every day, how you can incorporate that into your personality.
And Coach was not talking about bracelets. She was talking again about culture. They established a good foundation last season and plan to build on that. She smiled as she talked about a recent bus ride with the team where they shared their playlists and song picks for this season. (I think it’s a missed opportunity if we can’t find a way to parody H-O-T-T-O-G-O with “R-A-C-I-N-G-O” or something much better.) Music can be very personal, so I think the bonding activities are working.
Let’s goooo
We’ll find out soon enough how the new players are integrating with the veterans, how Captain Arin embraces her new role, and what songs get the players hyped up on game day. See you all Saturday for the 5pm kick-off against the NC Courage at Lynn Family stadium (or Ynn Family Stadium if that L light is still out on the north side.)
