Illinois Women’s Soccer Team trains with Missouri National Guard

University of Illinois Women's Soccer Team members learn to walk in a line with riot gear during a training session with Soldiers from the Missouri National Guard's 140th Regiment Missouri Regional Training Institute. (Photo by Matthew J. Wilson)

By Matthew J. Wilson
Ngmo.pao@US.ARMY.MIL

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - The 25 student athletes from University of Illinois Women's Soccer Team were a little surprised when they learned Sunday morning that they'd be training with the Missouri National Guard.

"We didn't know basically until we pulled in here," said senior center midfielder Marissa Mykines.

The team was near Fort Leonard Wood following an exhibition match with the University of Missouri that ended Friday tied at 1. The Fighting Illini coach, Janet Rayfield, wanted her players to experience some unusual, but beneficial training.

"I think we were looking for a unique experience," Rayfield said. "The military, in terms of communicating with each other, teamwork and paying attention to small details, all of those things are common with the things that we are trying to put in place for our team. This has been great."

Guardsmen from the 140th Regiment Missouri Regional Training Institute, a unit on post that specializes in training, provided a four-stop, round-robin of training stops, as well as a look into the everyday obstacles Soldiers must overcome.

"They were looking for some fun Army training and to experience what that might consist of," said Sgt. 1st Class James Brown, who helped coordinate the training. "We were having drill this weekend and it worked out."

About 20 Guardsmen helped run or supported four stations, which included an indoor weapons simulator, an obstacle course, riot control equipment training and a tactical movement and grenade toss competition. The players were issued body armor vests, elbow and knee pads and rubber M-16 rifles to use at the stations.

Brown said the training was well received.

"I think they got a taste of what our Guardsmen go through in common Soldiers tasks, dealing with shoot, move and communicate," said Brown, who lives in St. Robert. "They loved it and were motivated."

Not only was the training fun for the players, it was also fun for the Guardsmen.

"It's always great to be able to work with outside entities like that," he said. "It's good to be able to represent what we do not just to our own community, but people who are going to be elsewhere in jobs all over the world in a few years"

Mykines enjoyed the team building aspects of the training.

"A lot of this stuff was extremely team-based," said Mykines, a starter the last two seasons from Spokane, Wash. "Even the riot gear training, with things like the importance of staying in a line, there was a lot of stuff that was directly applicable to soccer in that respect."

Although Mykines saw several areas where soccer and military training ran parallel, she noted that the stakes for Soldiers are much higher.

"It was just weird to think of it in a different light, especially since this is 10-times more serious than it is in soccer-wise if you mess up," she said. "If you get out of line with your team, it's an offside. Here, it could mean injury or death. That really puts it into perspective and it's cool to see what these guys have to do every day."

Mykines said her favorite station was the indoor weapons simulators where the players reacted to a simulation playing out in front of them on a big screen projector.

"The shooting one was pretty cool because the simulation was so real," Mykines said. "It just felt like you were actually in it, so that was pretty crazy."

At the completion of the round robin, Guardsmen provided Guard T-shirts for the players, as well as other prizes for the winners of the obstacle course and grenade toss. The players also had "Illinois" T-shirts for the Guardsmen, as well as a soccer ball signed by the team.

"It's an honor to come here and have them show us around and show us what they do," Mykines said. "We owe these guys everything and they put their lives on the line, so it's the least we can do. The respect goes up even more, if that's possible."

Although mutual respect was shown, the ladies from the Land of Lincoln had to endure some good natured verbal jabs from the pro-Mizzou Missouri Guardsmen.

"We gave them a little bit of a hard time when we found out they were from Illinois," said Sgt. 1st Class Eric Stallo, who lives in Marceline. "In my scenario with the riot gear, we kept telling them that Mizzou rocks. So they kind of got fired up about that and that made for good training."

The team then returned to its busses and went to one of the dining facilities on post for a military style meal. After lunch, the team observed Army combatives training before heading home.

Rayfield said the training was exactly what she had hoped for, with the additional benefit of her players getting to see life through a Soldier's eyes.

"One of the things you want to do as a college coach is expose your players to different experiences," she said. "I think in terms of what our military does - what they are all about and how challenging their lives can be - I think they learned about that, as well as all the lessons we wanted to incorporate into our team. I think we got a win-win situation for them, not just in terms of what will help us in the season, but I think a respect for what our U.S. military does in order to give them the opportunity to play a college sport like they do."

In the preseason coaches' poll, the Fighting Illini are ranked 24th in the nation after finishing last season with a 13-4-1 record and being ranked as high as 13th. Illinois opens its regular season at home against Gonzaga at 7 p.m., Friday.