SEPTEMBER 2018 Volume 1, Issue 14

COWGIRL SEASON UPDATE

IN THIS
ISSUE...
The cowgirls started off September with a 3-0 home win against ULL! The girls began the next week
with practice knowing they had the next two weekends away from Cowgirl field. The away status
began down in Rio Grande against UTRGV. This was the first meeting of the two teams; the girls
fought hard, but left with a loss after a stunning 40 yard shot from UTRGV forward ending the game
in the first over time with Golden Goal rules standing. Next, the cowgirls traveled back up Texas  Cowgirl Season
making a stop in Houston to play UH on Sunday afternoon. With weather delay the game started an Update
hour later than scheduled, the cowgirls took the field. It wasn’t our best showing, in the end losing 2  JLLC Volunteering
-0 to Houston. This ended the Cowgirls last games before Conference play. "We need to erase this  Game ball &Cowbell
from our memory and move forward to conference next weekend," said Fitzgerald. The girls en- Winners
tered a hard working week of practice to prepare them for the first conference away game. The
 Alumni Update
Cowgirls traveled up to Southeastern Louisiana to start conference play. Again, there was another
weather delay pushing the 7pm kickoff to 8:30pm. It was a rough start to the game having to warm-  Lace Up 4 Pediatric
up twice, but the girls gave a hard fought battle. SLU scored just nine minutes into the game and the Cancer
lead built in the 57th minute of the game. The Cowgirls wouldn't go down without a fight though. Isa  Updates on Cowgirl
Kembel scored on a breakaway goal in the 89th minute to cut the margin to 2-1, her first goal of her Field
career. The game ended 2-1 and did not sit well with the Cowgirls. Luckily, they had a break in con-
 Cowgirl Reminders!
ference play to learn from mistakes and take it to Jackson State University on Sunday. (Continued)
 A Message from
Coach Fitzgerald
 COWGIRL SEASON UPDATE continued...
The Cowgirls broke the away losing streak and ended the weekend 6-0 against JSU. The goals of the
game came from Rachel Palet, Nola Prickett, Alexis Miller, Morgan Middleton, Mariah Ruelas and Mad-
die Neidig. The Cowgirls continued their momentum into the next home conference game taking on
Northwesten State University for the “Lace Up for Pediatric Cancer” Game beating them 4-0 with
goals from Morgan Middleton and Keely Morrow, and first goals of the season from Anna Watson and
Carissa Adams. Sunday’s match against Central Arkansas was postponed to Oct 7th, due to weather
delay. Next, the Cowgirls took a short bus ride over to Nacogdoches, TX to take on SFA. The girls got to
enjoy some team bonding before heading to the game where the result ended in a 1-1 draw after two
overtimes. The Cowgirls fought hard facing a tough SFA team and crowd! In the end, the Cowgirls
were able to walk out of SFA with a point towards the Southland Conference standings on an away
trip! Lastly, we took ANOTHER short trip down to Huntsville, TX (only 1 hour from Nacogdoches) to take
on Sam Houston State University. The girls were ready for an on the road win and got what they de-
served. The Cowgirls got a 3-1 win over SHSU with goals from Havana Johnson, Anna Watson and Mor-
gan Middleton! The Cowgirls are now 2-1-1 in league play and 8-4-1 overall! KEEP GOING COWGIRLS!
GEAUX POKES! __________________________________________________________________________

The Junior League of Lake Charles, Inc., is an organization of women

committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women
and improving the community through the effective action and leader-
ship of trained volunteers. The Junior League of Lake Charles, Inc.,
collaborated with the Partnership for a Healthier SWLA to begin the Fit
Kids Program. The program empowers children to reverse the increase
of childhood obesity and its associated health issues. Students gain basic understanding of nutrition which includes portion sizes, label
reading, recipes for healthy snacks, and finding healthy items in the grocery store . Our Cowgirls teamed up with JLLC Fit at Oak Park
Elementary School to promote a healthy lifestyle! The girls are volunteering every Monday and Wednesday helping teach the Lake
Charles youth about fitness and nutrition. As you can see by the pictures, the girls are enjoying every bit of it spending time with the
kids. They will continue their volunteering throughout the month of October! We’re proud of our Cowgirls continuing to giveback to the
Lake Charles community! Great job Cowgirls!
 Nikki Schaff, Cowgirl from 2013-2017
“My life has been a roller coaster of events upon graduating from McNeese State in May of this
year with my BSN. I took my NCLEX exam in July and passed, which is a feeling I will never forget
when all your hard work has finally paid off. I am also proud to announce that the spring 2018
BSN Graduates from McNeese had a 100% pass rate on the NCLEX, which is an amazing achieve-
ment. I applied to several different GN resident programs in Texas and finally was given the op-
portunity to be part of the St. David’s South Austin Medical Center’s Cardiac team in Austin, TX. I
am very excited to start working and to be part of a team again. I am looking forward to expand-
ing my knowledge in this amazing field and being the best nurse I can be! GEAUX Pokes! “
-Nikki Schaff CONGRATS NIKKI!

This year, we teamed up with Northwestern State Universi-
ty to dedicate our game to raising awareness and dona-
tions for Pediatric Cancer. Both teams wore yellow shoe
laces in support of the “Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer” fund-
raiser. In just a few short days, McNeese Soccer was able
to reach our goal of $500 to donate to the cause. We want
to thank everyone who donated towards the cause and to
Northwestern State in joining us in support.
COWGIRL STAT LEADERS
MORGAN MIDDLETON– 6 GOALS
HAVANA JOHNSON– 5 GOALS
KEELY MORROW– 3 GOALS
ANNA WATSON– 2 GOALS
RACHEL PALET– 2 GOALS
ANNA WATSON– 4 ASSISTS
HAVANA JOHNSON– 2 ASSISTS
KEELY MORROW– 2 ASSISTS
RACHEL PALET– 2 ASSISTS
DAYNA GARCIA– 2 ASSISTS
UPDATE
It has been a whirlwind since we began preseason on August
1st. If you’ve been able to make a visit to Cowgirl Field recently, I
bet you saw that we moved our bleachers so they are now cen-
tered on the field and in one big block. The required us moving the
film tower across the field and, along with the new concrete we’ve
had poured at our entrance, completes phase 1 of our
“remodel.” We are still adding some banners and signs, but the
major stuff is done. Phase 2 will be the new fencing that we hope
to see installed in the spring. (Phase 2.5 is adding some shade to
those bleachers!!)
ELLEN TROUT ZOO
The Coaching staff decided to treat the girls a bit on
game day with a nice cool smoothie and a trip to the
local zoo in Lufkin, TX before taking on SFA. The
Cowgirls enjoyed a nice walk through the zoo, seeing
exotic animals like Komodo dragons, jaguars, and
lemurs while spending some quality time together!
  The Cowgirls will have their last home game
on October 26th, which is also the SENIOR
GAME!
 Conference tournament will be held at La-
mar University in Beaumont, TX October 31st
-November 4th.
 Game vs Central Arkansas has been moved
to October 7th at 1pm!
 If you would like to make any donations to
McNeese Soccer, reach out to Drew Fitzger-
ald at dfitzgerald@mcneese.edu
 Follow us on Social Media @MCNEESESOCCER
and like us on Facebook,.

A Message from Coach Fitzgerald

Managing a Season
One of the interesting things about “coaching” is that it isn’t
always about putting out the best 11 players or figuring out the X’s and O’s.
It’s a lesson I’m constantly reminded of as we go through each season and
there are always new challenges presented, both on and off the field.
As a staff we sat down last week and re-evaluated how we
travel as a team. We were 2-4 on the road with the only wins coming to
teams that have really struggled this year. We discussed how we should
practice on the road, if the morning kick arounds were helpful, if we need-
ed to do more, etc.
After batting around ideas for a while, we decided that maybe
“more” wasn’t always more. So we decided instead of doing a kick-around
on Friday morning, we’d do something fun with the team. We also decid-
ed that we needed to have more real “team meals” on the road and fewer
dinners where people at various places.
Of course, it was a little scary saying “practice less, more fun and
unstructured time together” but we committed to it on Monday as a staff.
When we decided we didn’t know that it would rain all week and that we’d
shuffle practices between the rec center and the softball turf and that we
wouldn’t get in a full session out of doors all week! But we’d committed to
it so that’s what we did.
We ate a team meal on Thursday night where we sat at big
tables and really didn’t separate into the usual small groups. We took time
to go to the zoo and just enjoy the opportunity to be outside walking
around without a real agenda. And in the end I think it paid off! (Plus it was
fun just sitting with the girls during the meal!)
We tied SFA in a game we probably should have won and we
beat Sam Houston on Sunday (after another team dinner) in a gritty, ugly
contest of wills. It is just another little lesson that every team, and every
season is different, and more training, film, etc. isn’t always the answer!
Hopefully we are enjoying being together and really hitting our stride at just
the right time. GEAUX POKES!!