For the No. 1 UCLA women’s soccer team, being a senior comes with its share of responsibilities.
On the field, there’s the need to get results, and with nine of the 11 starting spots filled by seniors, a lot of that responsibility falls on their shoulders.
But the 2014 season also meant accepting one additional task for the nine Bruins – coming up with a new warm-up playlist.
“It’s like a senior class thing where the senior class gets to decide what songs they want since it’s their last year,” said senior defender Caprice Dydasco, explaining the tradition.
The seniors began the quest to compile the songs that would accompany the team’s warm-ups by first polling their teammates. And it didn’t take long for them to come up with an overflowing list of song names.
But as the team’s tradition goes, the seniors had the last word on which songs made it past the final cut. The end result was a 19-track playlist that contained a little portion of each player’s personal picks in it.
“The song I really wanted on there was “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons and Kendrick Lamar,” said senior midfielder Sam Mewis. “It’s so good and it gets me so pumped up, and we play “Jungle” right after that and those are my two favorite songs.”
But there was just a lot more than just figuring which songs would make it to the list. Dydasco said the team tried to structure the playlist according to what drills they’d see during warm-up. It begins with a slow buildup to ease the Bruins into the workouts, before finishing off with songs that get them ready to transition into game time.
“When we first get on the field, it’s more sing-along songs because we know we’re just going to be putting our cleats on and just hanging out,” Dydasco said. “Closer to game time is when we get mixed songs that are a bit more intense and have a bit more of a higher beat going.”
According to UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell, the blend of music and movement seems to have had a positive effect in preparing her players for each game of their undefeated season so far.
“They pump themselves up,” said Cromwell. “I don’t really need to give any rah-rah speeches.”
So when the Bruins head up north to face the Washington Huskies and the Washington State Cougars this weekend, they’re going to pop in that same old CD and get the adrenaline flowing.
“We keep saying that none of us are sick of it yet,” Mewis said. “Which means it’s a good warm-up tape because we’ve been playing it all season.”