California Golden Bears Athletics

What a year to be part of the Cal Men's Soccer team! The hard work began since our last game a season ago. It was another year of disappointment due to missing playoffs for two consecutive years. The group knows how important it is for this program to be a top program every year and being back in the playoffs is only the beginning. The word playoffs had not been in our vocabulary until we were selected on Monday morning.
 
First, we all focused on preseason, and then nonconference games. We looked to improve game by game and prepare for Pac-12 play. After nonconference games were over we had one goal which was to bring a Pac-12 championship back to Cal. Unfortunately, we fell short but that hunger led us to a second place finish in conference, and the best finish in nearly seven years!
 
Now that conference play is over, we focus on PLAYOFFS. It is a great feeling. You work so hard all season long to get an invitation to the big dance. The entire group deserves this chance to show what we are made of. My first year here, I was lucky to be part of the team that reached the Elite 8 in 2013 and my following year we reached the Sweet 16. Those were two great teams, especially the 2013 team. This year's team reminds me a lot of them - same hunger and focus to play our best.
 
I learned a lot from those two years and being the only one on the team that was part of both of those teams I can take the experiences I've learned and implement them to this team so that the boys and I can reach our goal. Our goal is to become national champions. It will be tough. Every game is a national championship game and there is no room for errors. We are focused only on USF and nothing else. Us beating them earlier in the season doesn't matter anymore. We are focused on improving from our last game and that has shown at practice. Now we will go out there and give it our all as we always do. One game at a time. We will trust the process.
 
Go Bears!