As the season starts for men’s soccer, there is a lot of pressure to win, junior men’s soccer player Teddy Gula said.

The same goes for the offseason. This means much of the regular season must be spent in game day preparation and tactics while the offseason includes additional practices, Gula said. The offseason for both men’s and women’s soccer teams includes training as well. A typical spring season day for either team would include a skills practice on the athletics department turf fields, as well as a strength session in the varsity weight room, said Gula.

“This weight room includes a very large open space for agility work and “all the weights you need, with a great strength staff,” Gula said. “It’s development time; there’s less pressure to perform, focusing on yourself and how to become better and working on it,” Gula said.  “Individually work on extra touches or extra strength work.” Over his career at UVM, Gula has one goal and one assist. Gula said the offseason is really a time where he improves as a soccer player between practices and lifting sessions.

“The more work you put in now, the more it will help you when it matters,” Gula said. 

His teammate, junior Daniel Childs, had similar comments regarding. The spring semester and the team’s training habits help people improve individually, Childs said. “We work on fundamentals, more positional-specific work on improving team concepts,” Childs said. “Our weight-lifting demands increase and with the goal to get bigger, faster, stronger.” In three seasons at UVM, Childs has netted two goals and four assists. The season’s more about getting ready for games, tactics and more big picture ideas for the team to be successful, Childs said.

The men’s soccer team finished 8-9-2 overall and 2-4-1 in conference play during the 2014 season.  The offseason allows for the team to harness some of their individual skills and become better players, Childs said. The same goes for club soccer.

“During the offseason we practice on indoor turf, which is faster paced and greatly improves our short game like passes,” junior men’s club soccer player Dave Landay said.

Junior Ally Ramos, a member of the women’s soccer team, is currently training to enter her senior season. Over her UVM career, the women’s soccer  team has continually improved, not only because of the talented players they bring, in but because of the offseason training as well, Ramos said. The women’s soccer team finished their 2014 season 3-12-2 overall and 1-6-1 in conference play.

“My favorite part of the offseason is being able to strengthen our weaknesses from the previous season to be a better team come fall.”  Ramos said.