2 Former Players Named to All-Mountain West Conference 10th Anniversary Team!

I was excited to see 2 of my former players, striker Annii Magliulo and goalkeeper Jenna Huff, both were recently named to the Mountain West Conference's 10th Anniversary Team. Both had outstanding careers with Anni being named MWC Offensive Player of the Year and Jenna being named MWC Defensive Player of the Year, in addition to both of there multiple All-Conference Selections.

Just got off the phone with Annii a couple of days ago and we've actually got her set to head over to Iceland and finish up the last month and a half of the season there as she gets prepared for tryouts for the new Women's Professional Soccer League here in the US. Annii was one of the hardest working, most competitive women I've ever coached-she just wouldn't stop until the ball was in the back of the net, which happened quite frequently for her.

Jenna is also still in soccer, as an assistant coach for the University of Houston. One of the most talented goalkeepers in the country, I can't count the number of games she single handedly won for us. She's doing a great job down at Houston, which we witnessed last year, taking 92 minutes to finally beat her goalkeeper for the win.

These two young ladies were both not only great players, but great people and it was an honor to have the opportunity to work with both of them!

Summer Winding Down

The summer is moving along for us here at TCU. We just finished our Elite Academy which is a great way to begin our preparations for the upcoming season. Our Elite Academy is open to incoming freshmen through seniors in high school. This camp is a great one for us, as we do our best to introduce these aspiring collegiate players to how college training sessions are run. We also spend part of each day in the classroom discussing nutrition, college recruiting, strength and conditioning, as well as what its like to be a college student athlete. We had close to 100 high school age girls at TCU for a week of training, learning and some fun thrown. This included a few pretty intense rock star auditions between coaches and campers in Rock Band on play station. It was a fantastic week for everyone. Now as the next few weeks bring our summer to a close, our preparations for the 2008 season really get moving. There is a lot to do in order to prepare for our team returning for pre-season training and its a time of year filled with excitment and anticipation for the year. Keep checking here as well as HornedFrogSoccer and Gofrogs.com for updates. It should be another great year!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Hope all of you and your families have a very safe and happy 4th of July! Enjoy the fireworks and good food! Also, a great time to remember all of those that represent our country in the armed forces....no matter your views on the politics, these brave people risk their lives on behalf of our country everyday. Both of my parents served in the Air Force, and my cousin James is currently enlisted in the Marines (he's done 3 tours over in the middle east). Mark, one of our other coaches, has a long family history of service for this country, including his own time in the military, so you can see such a patriotic holiday has special meaning for all of us.

Enjoy and have a great weekend and we'll catch up next week!

Taylor invited into National Team Camp!

Horned Frog Katie Taylor has been invited into training camp for the US National "B" Team this upcoming weekend in California. This is the 3rd straight year we've had a TCU player invited into a National Team Camp and I'm sure Katie will represent herself, our team and TCU well. She's one of 60 players brought in to compete for a spot on the team that will travel to Canada to play the Canadian National Team later in the year.

Congrats Katie and good luck!

Summer Tid Bits!

I'm still in denial over Germany's 1-0 loss to Spain in the Euro 2008 final -- broke my heart, but the better team in the end won...

We've got a countdown to our season going on that you can view right here: Countdown to 2008. As of right now we're only 49 days, 9 hours and 53 minutes from our first official match versus Stephen F. Austin. Check the website for the up to date counter down to the second...

One week of camps left and it's our favorite one, that includes our Elite Girls Academy-- always is a great level and a lot of fun...

My son Zak just had his first surfboard ride at the age of 2 this past week -- so it was only in inches of water, but he was pretty good!

Construction Close To Finishing Up!

They've been working what seems like 24/7 on the new athletic facility and student center here on campus. It's been fun to watch as the finishing touches are going on-sidewalks, ornamental features. The student center is going to be amazing, featuring a main dining area that they say is going to be a like a fancy Las Vegas buffet, a sports bar themed restaurant, amphitheatre, meeting rooms, student grocery store, banquet halls and a huge technology center.

The new end zone project in athletics will double our already great space for athletic academic support, as well as house a state-of-the-art stadium style classroom for video review and a hospitality area for team, alumni and donor functions.

Both facilities should open right around the first of August!

Superb Staff-Matt Hoover, Sports Information!

Alright, I've gotten caught up in the Euro's and was on hiatus until Germany got the big win yesterday-but wanted to share with you another outstanding person who makes our program so special, Matt Hoover!

Matt is our Sports Information Director and is one of the best in the country. I can't think of another program that has someone as talented and driven as Matt. If you just go to our website you'll see one of the most accurate and up to date soccer pages around. Everyday Matt is looking for different angles to pitch stories to local and national media. This summer alone we've seen at least 6 different articles on our girls in their local media publications.

Matt is also a master of design and does some unbelievable work with photos and materials for our program-his media guides, game day programs and photo layouts on the web are second to none. I cannot wait to see our media guide for this upcoming fall as Matt came up with this whole creative angle that is going to look amazing.

Needless to say we're very lucky to have Matt here with TCU Soccer, as he certainly puts us on a different level!