Clay Dawes and Dylan Morris

Men's Soccer

Preparing For a Soccer Season on Your Own

ATLANTA – This spring and summer has been anything but normal for collegiate and professional teams all around the world. However, that hasn't stopped our Georgia State men's soccer student-athletes from preparing for the fall season, although obviously in a different way.

Rising senior Dylan Morris and rising junior Clay Dawes have seen the changes for preparing first hand, and although their experiences have had some similarities, where they have been training could not be more different. Morris has been training at home in New Zealand, while Dawes has been home here in Georgia.

"Usually, summertime has an element of relaxation and fitness," said Morris. "Around 50.0 percent of the boys tend to play soccer throughout summer league in the U.S., namely, the NPSL or USL 2. These are leagues that give young players an alternate environment to improve and gain exposure that they may not have gotten during the regular college season. 

"Without the NPSL and USL 2 most of the boys on the team have moved back home. A lot of our team members have family that are based overseas and therefore most of those boys have left the country. In my home country, New Zealand, there has been an intense lockdown. To train in the gym or with a team has been against the law. I have been using my Strava app to track my running around the city that I live and have been doing at-home workouts." 

"Normally I give myself a short break when the school year ends to relax and allow my body to heal," said Dawes. "Then I begin my grind with mostly weightlifting and some light cardio trying to add onto the base we build during our spring season. Once we get into the middle June and July time period, I begin my really strict workouts with a lot of cardio and game play to prepare myself for the preseason. I am fortunate to be able to train with other collegiate athletes during this time typically which helps with the accountability and technical soccer aspect of training. I always like to end my summer with a family vacation that tapers into the preseason, so I am fresh both body and mind when report date finally comes around."

Unfortunately for Dawes and many of the Panthers, training here in Georgia has been limited as well.

"In the beginning months of quarantine, I focused on a lot of long runs for cardiovascular fitness mixed with high volume body weight exercises to try and retain as much muscle mass as possible," Dawes said. "Now that a lot of the social distancing guidelines in Georgia have been lifted or weakened, I have had the opportunity to play small-sided pick-up games with other collegiate athletes. I think the focus for all of us during this time, especially those with an athletic goal at the end of the tunnel, is to be resourceful and make good out of whatever situation we have been put in both on and off the athletic field."

With such a tight-knit group, both agreed that the social element of not being around their friends and teammates has been among the hardest parts.
"The GSU men's soccer team is very family orientated so while we were all isolated away from each other our coaching staff did a great job at setting up Zoom calls with different activities to keep us sane and connected," Dawes said.

"New Zealand has an advantage during times of crisis as they are a relatively small island nation that can implement strict lockdown measures," Morris said. "Within three months, New Zealand managed to go from over 1,000 active COVID-19 cases to zero. I am lucky to be from a nation that is willing to come together in times of crisis to do what is needed in order to slow down the spread of COVID-19.

"It has been great to get back to normal, but New Zealand does not come without its faults. We have a small economy that relies on trade and tourism. These sectors have slowed down during this crisis and will continue to suffer." 

The good news is that it will soon be time to come back together with a goal of winning a second Sun Belt Conference title in three years to advance to the NCAA Tournament once again.

"This season is going to be a big one for us both on and off the field," said Dawes. "Off the field this past year we put almost every player on academic honor roll and that is something we take great pride in so replicating and trying to beat that will be a good challenge for all of us.

"On the field we have another final to get to. The team last year had many setbacks, individually through injury and collectively as one team, but we focused on the principles our team put into place at the beginning of the year and made it further than many expected us to. For this upcoming season it would be much of the same, we will have a strong core of upperclassmen and a lot of promising young guys that will play big roles to help us not only hopefully regain the Sun Belt title but also put our stamp in the NCAA tournament as well."

Now it is just a matter of time before they can get back on the field and see what the 2020 schedule awaits following four months with a lot of unknowns and plenty more unknowns to come.
 
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Players Mentioned

Clay Dawes

#5 Clay Dawes

D
6' 2"
Sophomore
Dylan Morris

#14 Dylan Morris

MF
5' 11"
Junior

Players Mentioned

Clay Dawes

#5 Clay Dawes

6' 2"
Sophomore
D
Dylan Morris

#14 Dylan Morris

5' 11"
Junior
MF