The Forum: How big is the regular season SCIAC championship for the team compared to being the fourth place team last year?

Keri Sanchez: I think you always want to host [the SCIAC tournament], I think home-field advantage in any sport is big, except so far with the women’s tournament, the first seed hasn’t won, so we are looking to be the first team to do that.

The Forum: Who do you see as the biggest competition in the SCIAC tournament?

KS: I think once you get to the tournament, any of the four teams can win. Redlands always plays us tough, we beat them in overtime away and had a good win over them at home, but Cal Lutheran tied us, and Oxy will be fired up to come after us. I think any time you play a team for a third time, it is tough to win.

The Forum: Which players would you consider the leaders of the team?

KS: I think we have a few, All of the seniors (Camila Friedman-Gerlicz, Giselle Galanto, Kelsey Rose, Nicole Sady-Kennedy, Courtney Funk), as well as Laura Hagen, our leading scorer, and Kirsten McAfee and Stefanie Chan have been strong all year as well. What is nice is that our team is so deep, and so some games it is different people stepping up, but our older players are definitely exhibiting the leadership needed to win the big games.

The Forum: What is your team’s X-factor?

KS: I don’t think we have a person that is our X-factor, our X-factor is our bench. When we sub in, we are as strong or stronger than when we started, so we get to keep putting in fresh bodies that are equally talented. So it’s not the same person every time, its different people, but overall our X-factor is our depth.

The Forum: How much of a role will experience play, as your team won the SCIAC tournament last year and made it to the round of 16 at NCAAs?

KS: I think that is huge, if you look at any of the top teams in the NCAA tournament, they are usually there consistently. I think the more experience that you have in big games, the better chance your team has to win, because a playoff game has a different sensation.

The Forum: Who is the top competition in the West outside of SCIAC?

KS: Puget Sound is always tough, leading the Northwest Conference, as are Trinity and Hardin-Simmons, and independent schools Chapman and UC Santa Cruz. Its always interesting because we are so spread out, and when the NCAA is trying to match up teams regionally, we [the west] tend to have some problems in getting teams in.

The Forum: Do you think your experience as a highly successful college player helps you when coaching?

KS: It always helps to coach players when you have been in their situation, and I know what they are feeling and what they are going through, I had a great college coach through those times, so I hope that my experience is bringing them a little bit of knowledge. I think it does help, but it is all about whether you can get your word across to your players.

The Forum: What do you see as the biggest games of the season so far?

I think our two come from behind wins, one of them over Redlands, and overcoming a lull in scoring, we had couple of ties, a loss to Chapman and had a close win over Oxy, which were some bumps in our road. But you always want to see how a team handles those moments, and it was really nice to see the team come through those times and find a way to tie and win games that we may have lost in the past.

The Forum: What do you see as the keys to repeating as SCIAC champions?

You know there is the famous quote “offense wins games, defense wins championships,” and the defense was a huge factor in us being able to go as far as we did last year. That is one of the things we are trying to work on is our Goals Against Average, and overall we have been doing a better job and we hope to continue that into the playoffs.

During our first weekend back from winter break, girl’s soccer coach Keri Sanchez and handful of student-athletes including Ashton Clarke, Helena Bottemiler, and Nicole Sady-Kennedy attended a Division III Student-Athlete Leadership Conference hosted by the NCAA. Our school’s SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) met (with several other Division III schools from all over the country) in Irving, Texas, to ultimately create a project to improve student-athlete and faculty relations.

Various issues concerning student-athletics were discussed including off-season practice times, sportsmanship, and student-athlete welfare. Some regulations gave some fall sports a few days to practice before their first games; others were forcing teams to practice without their coach and in some cases without a ball.

CMC’s SAAC ultimately focused on improving student-athlete and faculty relations which they determined was the most pressing issue they could adequately address given their one weekend stay. Our school’s SAAC felt that by helping facilitate better relations between athletes and their professors, they would also make progress in other areas like fan attendance and sportsmanship. To get a better understanding of the issues I spoke with SAAC candidate Nicole Sady-Kennedy.

She explained that the plan itself consisted of four main parts each designed to “generate faculty support.”

The first plan proposed by Coach Keri Sanchez would have a collective letter (as well as a letter from each coach) addressed to the faculty as a sign of goodwill and a pledge of support that would emphasize that each students coach “supports and acknowledges the academic aspect of the students life.”

The second idea is to have a student-faculty softball game in the spring, to give “students and professors a chance to bond outside of the classroom.” If non-athletes wished to participate they would also have the chance to play as well.

The next idea would be for each team to “adopt” a professor for the “all sports banquet.” This professor would ideally be on who supported the team, and the banquet would give the professor a chance to see “what his/her students has achieved outside the classroom” and be acknowledge and thanked for their support.

The last plan would make supporting events more family friendly. This fourth idea (which is already being implemented by the girl’s volleyball team) would let professors’ kids “take part in the huddles before the games and encourage them to sit on the bench and meet with the players.” The kids would also get CMC stag and Athena memorabilia to take home after the game.

At the conference our committee also participated in different psychological tests meant to help identify and learn about each individual’s different strengths and the strategies they should keep in mind while they lead ‘both on and off the field.” The two tests administered were the SLPI and DISC profile personality tests.

The way SAAC works is each school has a SAAC committee composed of student athletes that offer input on the rules, regulations, and policies governing their respective schools. They work with national-level SAAC committee workers who are in turn, “charged with the responsibility of assisting in the review of NCAA proposed legislation and representing the voice of the student-athlete in the NCAA governance structure.”