1 women's college soccer team

i’m really fortunate as the head coach ofour women’s soccer program here at the university of washington to be responsible for a group of 25 really self-motivated, directed, driven women who want to achieve in all aspects of student life here at washington. academically, they achieve great things as individuals butmore so as a team culture — it’s just how they work. it’s how they operate. forus, it’s cool to be smart. they really work hard in the classroom and first and foremost, i think that that is obviously the mission of why they’re here. they understand thatit’s a privilege to be an athlete. as athletes, that all carries over for them. they’redriven, they’re self-motivated. they’re more collaborative than cutthroat. they’reteam-first players. we talk about it all the

time. who do you play for? you play for theuniversity, you play for the athletic department, you play for each other, and then the fourthis you play for yourself. you put yourself last. everything else comes before you. the thing that really this season in particular has helped this team be successful up to this point, and not even be successful — to me success, yeah you can look at wins and losses, but successful as far as how they’re playing, how they’re learning from losing, how they’re getting better each practice and how they’re enjoying the journey of being on the teamfor this season is that they have a really great focus. they have a day-to-day focus,they have a one game focus, and that’s been sort of the thread for this group the entireseason and they carry that focus into the

rest of their lives.