By Saif Findakly

Contributing Reporter

The offseason is a time for Oakland University’s women’s soccer team to restock their roster and get ready for the new season.

The team finished the 2008 season with an overall record of 9-9-2. The coaching staff, lead by head coach Nick O’Shea, has been hard at work during the offseason as they look to improve on last season’s record.

“Our expectations are similar to what they always are,” said O’Shea. “We want to win at least one regular season championship, or league tournament championship which gets us into the NCAA tournament.

“From a developmental standpoint, [the goal] is just to continue to be a more sophisticated team, technically and tactically, so we improve our style of play and our understanding of the game,” O’Shea said.

For the past two years, Jessica Boyle was the most dominant player on the team. She led the team with 10 goals and nine assists last season, and was the Summit League’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2008. Last year was Boyle’s final season as a member of the team before she graduated.

As the senior class departs, the coaching staff has been working to develop new players to replace talent like Boyle. O’Shea said this can sometimes prove to be a challenging task.

“Every year you miss significant players, anybody that’s been with you for four years, they become people you rely on because of their senior leadership,” O’Shea said. “Sometimes even players that aren’t your big goal-scorers are the ones you miss the most, just for the little things they do on their daily basis.”

During the offseason, O’Shea and the rest of the coaching staff go around the region to scout for new players to add to the team and fill in the missing pieces that the team needs in order to succeed.

“We’re traveling on the road to find players for the future seasons,” O’Shea said. “We’ve been going a lot into Canada … and then the state [of Michigan], into Ohio and Indiana. We’ve been talking to people overseas as well for future recruits. We have people from Norway coming in this year, from Australia the following year, and possibly some players from Scotland.”

The team has selected Lindsay Blair to be the newest team captain for the 2009 season.

“One player that you don’t notice on a daily basis because she doesn’t show up on the stats a lot, is Lindsay Blair,” O’Shea said. “She’s been a key contributor from her freshman year. She’s just a hardworking midfielder [who does] so many little things, gets some goals and some assists. We can’t do without her in the midfield.”

With last season’s starter having moved on, the team will rely on netminder Shannon Coley this season to provide steady play in goal.

Many members of the team have taken part in a summer soccer league. The league practices twice a week and plays games on Friday nights.

The soccer program also added a new full time athletic trainer to help the players get stronger in the offseason.

“Oakland has hired a fulltime strength and conditioning coach, Todd [Wohlfeil], so we’re hoping that pays for some dividends,” said O’Shea. “Though he can’t work with them unless they voluntarily come in.”

As the offseason nears its end, O’Shea said he hopes to go into the fall season with a team that is stronger and better than the 2008 team.

The Grizzlies will kick off their new season Aug. 12, when they travel to Ohio to play Akron in an exhibition event. The home opener is Aug. 21 at the OU soccer field against Grand Valley State.