PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: AMANDA FITZGERALD ALUMNA SPOTLIGHT: MARGUERITE FERRELL RETIRED LIFE: 30 minute workout less UPPER 90 NEWSLETTER Welcome To Our First Edition Of the Upper 90 Newsletter! Our goal of this newsletter is to provide our alumnae and other individuals quarterly updates about our team. We hope that this newsletter will be able to bridge relationships between our alumnae and current players. Articles will feature player spotlights, alumnae updates, fitness tips and workouts, nutrition tips, season updates, and many more topics. ALL Alumnae please spread the word to Email Jason at jweis12@fdu.edu with your contact information!
Player Spotlight: Amanda Fitzgerald (GK) 1) What are you studying and what would be your dream job? I am currently majoring in Business Administration. I am not quite sure what I want to pursue in the future; however, it has always been a dream to be the CEO of my own company. 2) What are your plans for the summer? This summer I will be working as an Intern for LeFrak Realty Group, in their Residential Lease and Contractual Enforcement Department. I also look forward to playing competitively all summer with SUSA FC located on Long Island. 3) What is your favorite part about being an FDU Knight? My favorite part about being an FDU Knight is the ability to be a part something bigger than just the women s soccer team individually. Every athlete, coach, trainer, and administrator are part of this community and represent the University. The entirety of the athletics community wears the Knight logo with pride and supports each other in our accomplishments. 4) What makes being a member of the women s soccer team so special? The thing that makes being a part of our team special is not only the desire to win but the motivation to uphold our already established legacy of success. Being a part of the women s soccer team, excellence is demanded, not from outside pressures, but through the culture that our team manufactured and thrives on. 5) What are your thoughts on this past season? The ending of last season was a tough pill to swallow, but we learned from our mistakes and know what we need to do better in order to take it to the next level for the upcoming season. 6) What are you most looking forward to this season? The beginning of any season is always exciting. I m most looking forward to everyone coming back and competing with each other. A new season is a fresh start and I look forward to, as a team, making the most of every opportunity that is presented to us.
Alumnae Spotlight: Marguerite Ferrell 1) What was your journey life after graduating? Life after college is an adventure. You re young and ambitious and ready to take on the world and try to figure things out. I was fortunate to get a full-time job right out of college being the full-time assistant women s soccer coach at FDU. I was ready to attend graduate school, but needed to take a year of school off at FDU. In the meantime, I ended up going to Middlesex Community College to get my license in athletic personal training. It was something I was interested in and I knew it would help in the career I was going after, being a soccer coach. I became business partners to run a company called Net Edge Training and Sport Video. We ran camps, clinics, small group training and filmed and edited video for all sports in order for players to have a recruitment film to send to college coaches. I worked for multiple soccer clubs including World Class FC and for the NY Red Bulls youth programs. How many jobs is that? 4 jobs, plus school what was I doing?!?! 2) What advice can you give to our current Knights on how to prepare for the future? Say yes now to opportunities. Once your established, later in life, there are opportunities to say no. Does your coach ask you to help out at camps in the off season? Does a professor ask you to tutor some students? Can you be a local camp counselor at the FDU summer programming? What are you studying? Go find an internship and get experience somewhere. Companies, businesses big and small, schools all need your help. Getting out there, meet people, figure out what you like to do and don t like to do. Be sociable, kind and work hard because all of this will pay off in the long run to get you where you want to go or need to go.
3) What is your best playing memory at FDU? There are many great memories I have and will cherish. There are hilarious moments and challenging moments which helped bond our team, create lasting friendships and helped shape me as a person. I m most proud of the 2007 season where we went undefeated 6-0-3 in conference play. The women s soccer program was only 4 years old and through solid recruitment, a group of us were prepared to compete. We made strides quickly of being a powerhouse overnight in the conference. Winning is fun and we had a stellar team that year. We were competitive, played good soccer and the results showed. I felt it what the tipping point of the FDU women s soccer program to make a statement of this program is here to stay and to continuously be a challenge to play against. 4) How was it going from player to coach? Going from player to coach was a challenge. I did my best to not show how it affected me to the players. I basically fully embodied the role, the professionalism and separated a lot of friendships. I had to move out of a house where I lived with a couple of my friends and teammates. Overnight, I had to wear a different hat and prove to the players I meant business. I asked for this challenge, applied for the position, was offered interim head coach for a month and had to accept saying yes and fully throw myself into an adult role. My goal was for the women s soccer program to continue to succeed, to recruit hard by being out every weekend and to run effective, challenging and fun training sessions. With any decision, sacrifices had to me made and for me that was losing some close-knit friendships I had. The rewarding part was when I did depart FDU, these close friends of mine came through and I believe understood the position I had to take. 5) What are you doing now? Currently, my husband Simon, dog George and I reside in Berkeley Heights NJ. We moved from city living to the suburbs and it s a great getaway from our busy lifestyles. I currently work for US Soccer in the girl s development academy. My role in tales club support of eight girl s development academy clubs and talent identification for youth national team prospects in the northeast area. I travel quite a bit but it s a good balance as the busy work I get to do from home. I have a group of nine part-time qualified scouts who logistically live near DA clubs and are my eyes and ears on a continuous basis. 6) What does being an FDU alumnae mean to you? Being an FDU alumni means continuing to support the school. FDU is a small residential school, larger commuter school and big multicultural and international school. All of these have great benefits and as a student, it s hard to recognize the benefits of meeting people from all around the world, of understanding different background and cultures and then because the school is small, it s a tight community where you can know and stay connected with a lot of people. I m proud of these experiences. The only way to continue to help evolve FDU is for all of us alumni to continue to support and be proud of the university. You don t realize how good it is until your university years are gone.
Spring Season Recap: As we continue towards the upcoming all season, we wanted to make sure our spring season would prepare us for that. Despite having numerous sessions and two games called off with the poor spring weather, we had a feeling we were ready for another step. In playing teams like St.Joesph, Binghamton, Villanova, Quinnipiac and Marist, we were pushed hard since our numbers were small. With a win, a loss, and four ties( finishing will be a fall topic), we learned a lot about the depth of our team. To add, we also felt the team was getting stronger as we progressed thru the spring. We then ended with our alumni day game which was a very successful turnout, for this we want to continue to build our numbers but it is always great to see those who have helped build our program they the years. Onto the Fall, hope to see many of you at the games Upcoming Event:
30 Minute workout for the Retired Athlete Warm-up: 5 minutes jog or bike Band walks forward X10 Band walks backwards x10 Band walks lateral x10 Circuit: 30 secs on, 30 secs off Walking lunges Front planks and Side planks Body weight squats Push-ups Mountain Climbers Burpees