yos!there will be a new Frenchie journal up every
Friday on womenssoccer.com. Here's the first
one:<br>Michelle French's WUSA diary<br>By Michelle
French<br><br>Michelle French's WUSA diary will appear every Friday
<br>Washington, D.C., 9 March 2001 (Teamtalk) - "Money in the
bank!" Those were some of the last words to come out of
Jim Gabarra's, our Washington Freedom coach, mouth
after our first day of preseason to kick off the
Women's Professional League in Washington DC. <br><br>He
said that with each practice we are moving one step
closer to the level of soccer we hope to be playing in
our home opener on April 14th. What an amazing and
incredible time this is to be female playing soccer! To have
the opportunity to play in a professional league, in
the United States, with some of the best players in
the world is truly an incredible experience!
<br><br>What makes the whole experience even better here in
D.C. is the incredible staff that we have working for
the Freedom. As I mentioned, our coach is Jim Gabarra
who has had an immense amount of coaching and playing
experience at a number of different levels. As a result, he
is definitely a player's coach in that he knows what
is needed for us and when. <br><br>Our GM, Katy
Button, is one of the most professional people I have
ever been associated with. She comes with great
experience since she worked closely with Hilary Clinton in
the White House. The support staff, from our trainer
Sue Hammond, who has worked many years with the
National Team, to Dave Vanole, who was the goalkeeper
coach for us during the Olympics, has raised the level
of professionalism and set a standard for us as
players to reach. Don't get me wrong though, it's not all
about business around here! <br><br>Of course there
have already been some funny instances that have
occurred in the past seven days. Our team has two big,
white, 15-passenger vans with "Washington Freedom"
plastered on the side of them. Most of the players are
currently living in apartments, and they all travel
together to training in the van. I guess on the way to, or
from training, there were women screaming and taking
pictures from a car in the highway. Everybody in the van
was waving, and smiling, and laughing. That's
definitely the kind of excitement for the Freedom we like to
see! <br><br>We also have a strength and conditioning
coach who we like to call "T." He provided all of us
with these contraptions called "Fitness Partners."
Lindsay Stoecker decided to dub it her "Fitness Friend."
It basically consists of rubber bands that add
resistance when you run or move your arms. By the time you
have yourself hooked up in these bands, from your
ankle to your waist, to your hands, you look like a
superhuman! As soon as we all started running around and
doing our fitness and strength drills, we all felt like
Forrest Gump trying to bust out of the bands so we could
run freely!