Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Cougar Forwards Receive Conference Honors

Earlier this month the Ohio Valley Conference released their post-season honors and among the names were two SIUE Cougars. Meagan Iffrig, sophomore forward from St. Charles, MO, was named to the All-OVC Second Team and Michelle Auer, freshman forward from St. Louis, MO, was named to the All-Newcomer team. This was the first year the Cougars competed in the OVC and therefore the first OVC awards accomplished by SIUE. For the full article, check out this link: Iffrig, Auer Recognized by Ohio Valley Conference.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Fall Season Moves Along!

Hello everyone. I wanted to send a quick note on the fall season. We are moving into the last stages of our final season in Division I recertification. After this year, it's full speed ahead towards postseason play!

We have 3 Ohio Valley Conference games left: two this weekend and then our final game at Eastern Illinois.

I also wanted to pass along a few updates and links. One, is our second OVC Player of the Week recognition. Devon Thomas was recognized this weekend as a top performer. Congrats to her! We are all proud of her leadership and she deserves to be recognized. Use this link: Devon Thomas, OVC Def Player of the Week

And also, a great feature article was released to the media today about fellow senior Brittany Bodziak and her amazing experience studying abroad this past spring semester. Use this link: Bodziak Studies Abroad

We are bursting with pride about all of our seniors, their academic accomplishments and the character in which they have represented SIUE, our program and their families. These athletes were the first class to compete as freshmen during the athletic department's recertification to Division I athletics. They have been pioneers and shining examples that their coach will forever use as comparison to all the players that come after them.

Here's to a strong finish! Go Cougars!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

2011 Cougar Soccer Camps are BIG success!

Mid July in the Midwest brings two things to the SIUE campus: summer soccer camps and HEAT! But the heat didn't stop us from having a great time at both of our camps this past week. The Advanced Training Camp ran from Friday, August 8th to Sunday, August 10th and we had the opportunity to train 74 girls, ages 13-18. The following three days, Monday, August 11th through Wednesday, August 13th was our Junior Cougar Camp. We taught basic soccer skills and played fun, skill building games with 23 boys and girls, ages 6-12. The heat advisories were cause for many more water breaks than normal but we managed to stay cool and enjoy the time getting to know and train many kids from local communities. The Advanced Training Camp especially gives us a chance to evaluate the talent in the area and training our Junior Cougars gives us a bright future to look forward to! Below is a picture of our Junior Cougar campers.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

SIUE Shines!

Hello again. I wanted to share a couple releases with everyone. First, our release of the Fall 2011 schedule. Here is a link: 2011 Schedule. Also, we've added it as a headline/link on the right of the main blog page --->
We are all excited to get going and especially to be able to play our innaugural season in the Ohio Valley Conference!

Also, I wanted to share a release that was put out by the OVC yesterday. It's a summary of the academic accomplishments of the entire SIUE Athletic Department, in relation to the OVC's Annual Academic recognitions. Link here: OVC Academics! You'll see that we ranked 3rd in overall academic rankings of the 11 OVC members. And of course you will see the 17 different Women's Soccer players who garnered recognition for their excellence in the classroom :)

Two weeks from today we will welcome the 2011 team onto campus and get going with preseason! Summers keep getting shorter and shorter! As always, we'd love to hear from you! Take care.

Coach Burton

Friday, July 1, 2011

Great to be back on campus!

Alaina and I have been super busy travelling all over the midwest in the last 3 weeks! Coach Schlaefer was in Rockford, IL for Illinois State Cup for three days while I was in St.Louis for Missouri State Cup the same weekend. Then we both attended Missouri State Cup throughout the rest of the week full of games. Which of course were interrupted by a massive overnight rain on the the second day.

After some time back in the office, I was off to Appleton, Wisconsin for the Region II Midwest Championships to continue recruiting for the classes of 2012 and 2013. Great competition with a ton of talent from all 13 states in Region II. And the weather was fantastic: 75 and breezy. Can't ask for anything better than that.

In can be a grind sometime, with the driving and eating out and hotel rooms. But our staff thrives on the challenge and the opportunity to continue bringing in quality student-athletes to SIUE. We are proud of our team and the young women who are on their way her, as well as those who have verbally committed to be a future Cougar. And the quest for continuing in that direction is always in front of us.

Just thought I would update everyone on what's going on this summer. Don't forget, Summer Camps start next weekend and go through the following week! And there will be more Fall 2011 Alumni Day information on its way soon! Stay tuned. Enjoy the summer!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Top of the Class!

This press release warrants an academic update for all who have an interest in our program. SIUE Women's Soccer continues its fine tradition of excellence in the classroom with the following announcement in relation to the Spring 2011 Semester.

In total for the 2010-11 school year, the team has had 5 players recognized by the NSCAA as Scholar All Central Region recipients, 8 different players garner a perfect 4.0 GPA, 13 Deans List honorees and 10 OVC Comissioner's List recipients. Not to mention the highest overall Team GPA for the Fall semester and the highest Women's team GPA for the Spring. Great Day to be a Cougar!

SIUE Student-Athletes Post 3.0 GPA for 10th Straight Semester
EDWARDSVILLE, ILL. – SIUE student-athletes posted a combined 3.124 grade point average (GPA) and have now excelled to a GPA of 3.0 or better for 10 consecutive semesters.

The spring semester featured 11 athletic programs which finished with a GPA of better than 3.0. It closed out a highly-successful year for Cougar student-athletes who also posted an all-time best 3.172 GPA during the 2010 fall semester.

“This milestone of 10 consecutive semesters should not go without fanfare. These student-athletes work hard in the classroom, and their efforts should be lauded,” said SIUE Director of Athletics Dr. Brad Hewitt. “They have demonstrated their commitment to academic success and eliminated the concern that Division I athletics would diminish our academic performance.”

Men’s golf earned the highest GPA of any SIUE athletics program with a combined 3.619. Women’s soccer earned the best GPA among the women’s programs with a 3.428.

Nine other programs also finished better than 3.0. They include men’s track and field (3.077), women’s track and field (3.025), men’s cross country (3.286), women’s cross country (3.211), softball (3.268), men’s tennis (3.183), women’s tennis (3.383), volleyball (3.229) and women’s golf (3.212).

Better than 62 percent of all SIUE student-athletes (158 of 253) finished with a GPA of 3.0 or better. There were 75 student-athletes who were named to SIUE’s Dean’s List, having posted a GPA of better than 3.5.

“Timely graduation is the focal point of our mission in Intercollegiate Athletics. The University’s support structure that is in place continues to reinforce the outstanding achievement for SIUE student-athletes,” said Hewitt.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Coaching Staff Hit the Recruiting Trail

Wow, it has been awhile. The end of the semester, the spring in general and the start of summer have all come so quickly!

I wanted to get back in touch to give a quick update with what is going on at SIUE. The spring season ended on a great note with three wins in our last three spring contests. Some players got some valuable playing time in new positions. But most importantly, the entire team began to develop an understanding of a couple new tactical formations. We were focused on expanding our soccer IQs and trained in a couple new formations, then carried those into our spring games. The results were mixed of course, like with anything new. But the exposure to ideas and what they can do for us as we move into Ohio Valley Conference play this fall was of great value.

The last couple weeks Alaina and I have spent a ton of time watching the high school playoffs, that just finished this past weekend. Being in such a great soccer playing metropolitan area is a major plus for our program...but it means logging literally thousands of miles to continually watch our incoming signed class of 2011, our verbally committed players of the 2012 class and all the potential future Cougars of the 2013 class!

The endless job of recruiting quality student athletes is one that our staff thrives on. So if you see us out and about, please say hello.

Here are a few links on some of things that have popped up at SIUE this Spring and Early Summer:
*2nd Annual SIUE Golf Scramble
*SIUE Summer Soccer Camps
And of course we will have more updates on our incoming players, preseason, the release of our 2011 Schedule and of course more recruiting trips this weekend to Illinois State Cup in Rockford and Missouri State Cup in St.Louis!

Take care! Go Cougars!