Fitness Testing

Today is January 31st, 2012 and it happens to be 10 degrees in good ol' Windsor, Ontario. For most residents in the area, it is a nice day to open the windows and air out their house but for soccer players, it is the perfect weather to get outside and kick a ball around on a surface that isn't artificial grass!
However, business will go as usual with the Windsor Lancers Soccer team as players continue with TRX training, 4 workouts a week, weekly practises, and weekly runs to improve from the week before. In fact, this weekend, your Lancer Men underwent fitness tests facilitated by a group of HK undergrads to start measuring our abilities and set improvement goals for the months to follow.

Let's reflect and see just what Lancers were superior in each event:
Squat Champion: Sam Atkin
Vertical Jump Champion: Erik Cirovski
Bench Press Champion: Chris Hakim
Funniest Looking Jumper: Mike Pio
Overall Strongest Beast: John Bahdi
Best Looking Player: Chris Lanni

John BEASTLY Bahdi and Chris Lanni are representing the great fashion sens

e of all the varsity athletes.

 Stay tuned for an upcoming podcast as we prepare to interview a few of the players and get in touch with their personal lives outside of the soccer stadium! Cheers lads.

The Windsor Lancers are all business before a big game!

Lancer Charity

OK! OK! OK! We're back to the grind and I think everyone in Windsor was upset to see that snow blizzard except for your Lancer soccer players. Coaches sometime feel that if there is no snow on Alumni Field in the middle of January, then it is perfectly fine to hold Sunday morning practises OUTDOORS! Thankfully, we've been staying inside, away from the frostbite winds, and on the mondo-floor that makes your knees ache for days to follow.

On a serious note, our soccer team is taking part in a charity where players and coaches are bringing in used indoor and outdoor soccer shoes to be donated to an African relief group where they will be distributed to children who may not be able to afford soccer shoes. The Lancer Men's team is MORE than happy to help with a great cause and I'm sure it will be a success with the amount of shoes that the stadium field turf makes us go through!

In player and coach updates, our coaching staff has recently decided to set their sights for the world of Twitter and although they have no CLUE what they are doing just yet, it's still a lot of fun to keep updated with all of our action! If you've already followed @iamCirovske then make sure you follow @LancerFooty for double the soccer excitement that your University of Windsor Lancers Men's Soccer team is sure to post.

Injury Report: Right now the team seems to be holding up well with injured players slowly returning to game play. Our workouts are going well, as John Bahdi (@thebahdiswag) seems like he is ready to be in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, centre-fold, February swimsuit edition. I'd say the same about Chris Lanni and Dave Salinitri, but, unfortunately they have already been swept off their feet by 2 lovely lassies, so posing in magazines isn't in their best interest.

That's all for now so I will be sure to post as the news comes in. Cheers.

The Beginning of Winter Training

It's that time of year again: the holidays are over and the Lancers are back in action preparing for their Spring trip to Florida against international competition. As we pull out our indoor turf shoes from the depths of our closets and aim to get back in shape, it's business as usual for the blue and gold returning players. With workouts ranging from weight lifting to TRX training at all ridiculous hours of the day, we're focused and driven by the goal of an OUA championship - the first soccer title in the history of the University of Windsor, and it all started this past Sunday.

Regardless of age, hometown, or position, Lancer players from all over the globe finally got back together on Sunday in the St. Denis to shake the dust off and start preparing for upcoming games, the season, and for new recruits to come in and try to mold to our way of play.

Creating good chemistry is the focal point of our team and it all begins with the history and goals of each player. Throughout the course of the semester I am going try posting small biographies on our returning players by starting with the seniors, and working down to the rookies.

Firstly, every single senior on this team have been my club teammates and close friends since I was 14 years old. We all came to the University together and it's exciting knowing that we'll finish the same way. Erik, Chris, Sam, Dejo, Gregger, and myself have all been there for each other through 2-a-day practises in the hot August weather, beep tests after a long night of "dancing," on the bus ride to other schools, on the plane to other countries, and most importantly, in the change room during halftime of the most important games of the season(s). However, through the last 4 years we've made it, and have been able to brush some words of wisdom onto the younger lads on the team, which is always a plus.

Before I end my post for the day, I better give a special shout-out to Erik Cirovski (@iamCirovske on Twitter) who has been my roommate for 99% of all soccer trips for the past 5 years (the other 1% is when coach split us up for staying up too late! But no worries, we wore the coaching staff down to putting us back together immediately!). C ya!