G. Guerrieri looks back on last year and not for an instant wonders what kind of soccer season it might have been.

"It’s too easy to look at things in the negative," Guerrieri said. "There’s probably no other team in the country that could have recovered from what we had to endure. No one has six ACLs in one season."

Just the notion that any sports teams can resurrect itself from losing five starters and a key reserve to injury seems preposterous, but that’s exactly

what the Aggie soccer team of 2000 did, going to the Big 12 title game,

making it to the NCAA tournament and then to the Sweet 16 of college soccer.

"And we did it with what many outside our soccer family called our B team," Guerrieri said.

Hard as it is to fathom, there’s a silver lining coming out of the Aggies’ soccer Red Cross tent, one that should serve the 2001 edition of well.

"When I fill out these preseason media questionnaires, they ask how many starters we lost and how many we return, and that's supposed to add up to 11," Guerrieri said. "If you look at August of 2000, we return eight of those starters. But then as the season went on, we lost five of our 11 starters, so we return five additional players who started three-fourths of the season. So we really return 13 or 14 starters. That’s one of the things that has us excited. We return a lot of key players who made contributions last year."

Guerrieri can hardly hide his optimism for what the 2001 team might accomplish this year.

"From top to bottom, it’s the most talented roster we’ve ever had," he said. Returning senior Nicky Thrasher goes further out on the limb.

"The final four is in Dallas this year," she said. "And that’s where we’d love to be."

Thrasher can be forgiven for her unbridled enthusiasm about the upcoming season. It was early in last year’s campaign that she was kicked from behind, and her season was finished with a broken tibia.

Her leg along with her "heart and soul" are mended now, and she and her team seem armed with just the right amount of attitude to pull off something special in the next four months.

Guerrieri compares this team with some former A&M teams that have finished as lofty as third in the nation.

"Which is really saying something when you look at some of those teams," he said. "I’m saying that this team we have right now is on par or even more talented than those teams."

Some will say that such preseason adulation puts the pressure square on the coach, and Guerrieri seems to welcome that burden.

"A lot of the success will depend on whether we can put the right combination of talent on the field, and then can that talent put the ball in the back of the net as many times as possible," he said. "Also, we have if not the most difficult schedule in the nation, certainly one of the five most difficult schedules."

None can claim the Aggies are trying to pad their record with weak opponents. After the opener with Samford Aug. 31st, the Aggies host top ranked North Carolina on Sept. 2nd, then 15th-ranked Stanford, then 10th ranked California.

In late September it’s off to the Washington-Nike Classic in Seattle, where they’ll meet up with third-ranked Portland and second-ranked Washington. And that’s all before the Big 12 race starts which includes three-time conference champ Nebraska, along with NCAA tournament teams Baylor, Texas and Missouri.

"A lot of people build a pre-conference schedule with confidence builders," said Guerrieri. "They build in a way to get seven or eight easy wins. I look at the preseason as a great way to learn, and the best way to learn is to play teams that will really tax us. I’ve never believed in ducking any competition and you can look at our track record. It’s always worked well for us"

Guerrieri’s confidence is well founded with the return of not only Thrasher, but at least five others who stepped up last year when they could

have easily shut down. Junior forward Heather Ragsdale, whom Guerrieri says had previously played in Thasher’s shadow, became the team’s top scorer.

Midfielders Kristen Strutz and Jodie Mitchell both turned up the burners, as did defender Adriene Dillard and goalkeeper Esther Thompson.

"When we started losing our forwards, Heather Ragsdale was the constant," Guerrieri said. "We had to have someone step up to score, and she was the one."

"Christine Strutz was one that we thought had the ability to at least hold the ball on the attack, but she scored 10 goals in 11 games. She was all of a sudden allowing Dillard, an untested freshman at the time, to fill in at the midfield."

The prospect of what his team can accomplish in practices has Guerrieri almost giddy.

"The biggest message that I’m trying to get across to players is that this might be the best year we’ve ever had in our practice. We can play 11 vs. 11 in our practice sessions, and there’s no guarantee that the starting 11 from our last game will be able to beat the other

11. Every player will know that she will be rewarded by her hard work by getting in the games. We’ll be able to rest the people who need to be rested and play the people who have been training well, and not lock anyone out of our lineup."

Although it hardly matters, Guerrieri said he would not be surprised if his A&M team were the preseason pick to win the Big 12, even over the

three-time champion Cornhuskers.

"If we are, that’s good," he added. "That’s something we expect of ourselves. Our goal is to treat every game like it’s a personal attack on our soccer family. When we open against Samford, we will play them with the same intensity that we play North Carolina two days later."

AGGIE SOCCER NOTES: Guerrieri feels his incoming freshmen will be among the top classes in the nation. Four of the five new players are A&M legacies, including Emma Smith from Beaverton, Ore., Midland’s Linsey Johnson, Amanda Burke from Spring and Shannon Labhart from Allen. The fathers of Burke and Labhart both played football at A&M.

A New Nicky Thrasher, Aggies hope injury bug is dead on the A&M campus When Nicky Thrasher describes her thoughts last year when she broke her leg during an early-season win in Hartford, Conn., there was no putting it mildly. "Shocking" was the only word that came to mind. "I’ve never been in a situation like that before," Thrasher said. "And it was definitely a test. It’s the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with." Thrasher’s injury was just a preview of an unbelievable string of bad luck that left the Aggies without five starters for the bulk of the 2000 season, a burden that could have put the whole team on the shelf. Nicky Thrasher leads a salty attack. "About halfway through the season, when these things started happening to us, we sat the team down," said coach G. Guerrieri. "We told them the media doesn’t know that much about you. They just know that we’ve lost all these All-Americans. For most teams that would be it. I said, for all of you, that’s your excuse. If you want to pack it in, you can blame the losses on those injuries. If you don’t have what it takes to take up the slack for them, then that will be our story, because the media doesn’t know any better." Guerrieri’s reverse psychology ploy worked. "They bought it and ran with it," Guerrieri says, still proud of his patchwork team that extended its season all the way to the NCAA Sweet 16. Lost for the year were with knee injuries were A&M’s three fastest players in Jessica Hamilton, Jamie Marden, and Martha Moore. along with another speedster Ashley Murray. "So we lost four of our seven fastest players, along with Thrasher who was arguably the best player in the Big 12," Guerrieri said. Murray has since transferred; Hamilton will redshirt a second time; and Marden will attend A&M but not play soccer. However, five others who were hurt last year are back in 2001. Besides Thrasher, Anne Tamporello is back from knee surgery; Michelle Remington returns from a knee injury she suffered in the 2000 pre-season; Laci Stephenson comes back from ankle surgery; and Moore returns from a knee injury. No doubt Thrasher’s return boosts the Aggies’ stock in the Big 12 race. "She’s not our fastest player," said Guerrieri. "She doesn’t have the hardest shot or the best vertical jump or even the best endurance. But she absolutely soaks up information. She comes from a virtual soccer desert in El Paso and came here as a 17-year old in 1997. She’s intense and smart. Playing at less than 100 percent is a personal insult to Nicky." The senior, who is the namesake of a College Station youth league team called the "Thrashers", says she’s still learning the game of soccer. "I came from El Paso and didn’t know a lot about the game," Thrasher said. "G. just opened up a whole new world to me and made me see what was possible. I feel like a more complete player. I’m on scholarship to score goals so that’s what I work at." Thrasher has completed her classroom work at A&M, and she will earn her final 12 hours in sports management interning for the A&M athletic department, before graduating in December. "I honestly feel that this could be A&M’s best team ever," Thrasher said. "We have that kind of work ethic. The final four in Dallas and that’s our ultimate goal."

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