Spring Break
The Daily OrangeFH | Bradley uses cake, scrimmages to keep practice light for No. 2 SU
By Edward Paik
Posted: 10/8/08, 12:25 AM EST Section: Sports
After scrimmage two weeks ago on J.S. Coyne's Stadium field, Ange Bradley broke news that most of Syracuse's field hockey team already knew.
Forward Lindsey Conrad had found out earlier from a text message that woke her from a mid-day nap. Kim Coyle saw it that afternoon on a Web site.
The head coach huddled her team around a candle-less vanilla cake - a premature present for sophomore midfield Lena Voelmle's 21st birthday, that fell on the following day - and made her announcement.
Syracuse (12-0) had risen to No. 2 in the STX/NFHCA Division I National Coaches' Poll.
"Congratulations," Bradley said.
Like an uncut prelude to the news delivered from Bradley's lips, the cake was meant to take 23 players' minds off the field. But Bradley made it official, let her players clap to their achievement and then they ate. It's important to have a little fun along this undefeated season.
"It's a little bit of a different thing," said Bradley, who enjoyed a slice herself. "We do different things, like you just got to relax."
Take the focus off the pressure, off rankings.
A cake and a birthday along the Orange sideline are perfect remedies. Part of Bradley's plan to stay focused requires relief at times and pressure during others. The path to an NCAA championship will require more than just hard work.
"Sometimes you push them really tough where they almost have tears in their eyes, and they want to quit," Bradley said. "There's other times where you bring in a cake to practice, and you relax. You're OK."
It was here, on the same field last year, when Bradley revealed similar news.
"Congratulations," is all she remembers saying when Syracuse received its first national ranking in four years at No. 20, creating both excitement and pressure for her young team. But the accolade became a distraction.
"We weren't practicing very well," Bradley said. "It's just when you do something for the first time you're a little bit nervous, you're focus is somewhere else."
Forward Lindsey Conrad had found out earlier from a text message that woke her from a mid-day nap. Kim Coyle saw it that afternoon on a Web site.
The head coach huddled her team around a candle-less vanilla cake - a premature present for sophomore midfield Lena Voelmle's 21st birthday, that fell on the following day - and made her announcement.
Syracuse (12-0) had risen to No. 2 in the STX/NFHCA Division I National Coaches' Poll.
"Congratulations," Bradley said.
Like an uncut prelude to the news delivered from Bradley's lips, the cake was meant to take 23 players' minds off the field. But Bradley made it official, let her players clap to their achievement and then they ate. It's important to have a little fun along this undefeated season.
"It's a little bit of a different thing," said Bradley, who enjoyed a slice herself. "We do different things, like you just got to relax."
Take the focus off the pressure, off rankings.
A cake and a birthday along the Orange sideline are perfect remedies. Part of Bradley's plan to stay focused requires relief at times and pressure during others. The path to an NCAA championship will require more than just hard work.
"Sometimes you push them really tough where they almost have tears in their eyes, and they want to quit," Bradley said. "There's other times where you bring in a cake to practice, and you relax. You're OK."
It was here, on the same field last year, when Bradley revealed similar news.
"Congratulations," is all she remembers saying when Syracuse received its first national ranking in four years at No. 20, creating both excitement and pressure for her young team. But the accolade became a distraction.
"We weren't practicing very well," Bradley said. "It's just when you do something for the first time you're a little bit nervous, you're focus is somewhere else."
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