ous injury.
Then instead of play-
ing, they are sitting on the
bench feeling helpless.
“I know my body and I
have to do everything pos-
sible to prevent my body
from breaking down. That
includes stretching, stay-
ing well hydrated and rest
between games,” stated
Vanderbosch. “This past
season I ended up help-
ing out some teams that
had keeper problems and
it ended up with too many
games. Luckily some teams
were very good defensively
and it gave me time to rest.”
While teams might have
been good enough to cut
down her work load, it
still didn’t help that Van-
derbosch was playing on
the turf. More and more
schools are moving to turf
fields. While it’s good from
a cost stand point, less care
of the fields, the cost of
playing on turf can serious-
ly take a toll on the body.
Players complain about
being more achy after a
game on turf then they do
when playing on grass. The
heat factor is another rea-
son why turf can take a toll
on the body. This past sum-
mer Vanderbosch and her
GPS team traveled to Vir-
ginia where they playing
games in the dead of sum-
mer with temps reaching
the turf at 120 degrees.
Try standing on anything
that hot and your feet be-
gin to burn and the heat
from the turf is just beat-
ing on you for entire game.
As a keeper playing on turf
tends to take a toll with the
turf buns you get from div-
ing and making saves.
With the grass, the burns
are there and it’s softer then
running on a hard surface
for 80 minutes.
“As a keeper it is a relief
to play on grass when the
spring rolls around. Turf
is hard on a keeper’s body.
On hot days the turf gets
super-hot, at regionals
in Virginia the tempera-
tures were 120 plus on the
turf,” stated Vanderbosch.
“It would burn your feet.
Playing on turf is smooth
but easily gives you turf
burns, grass is much easier
to slide on. Once I’m in the
game it doesn’t change the
way I play.”
The way Vanderbosch
plays is someone who you
will see being aggressive
form the opening whistle.
She is the type of keep-
er that will come out and
challenge you, while mak-
ing the net look small.
You could say she is the
new type of keeper – those
keepers that are more ag-
gressive then the ones back
in the day.
Gigi Buffon is an aggres-
sive keeper. He comes out to
challenge and wants you to
make mistakes. He doesn’t
sit back and wait for the
forward to make a move. If
Vanderbosch doesn’t have
bruises and burns then she
wasn’t doing her job. If her
jersey isn’t dirty by the end
of the game then she wasn’t
doing her job.
“I love playing goalie, a
lot of people ask me how I
do it, or how it’s fun stand-
ing in the goal, but I’m al-
ways involved in the play
even if it’s a drop pass back
to me or always being an
option to my teammates for
them to play back to me,”
said Vanderbosch. “Diving
around and keeping the
ball out of the net is some-
thing I love doing. It’s al-
ways fun keeping my team
in a game with just a save.
I love making the big saves
even if it’s a good save, a
big save or a game winning
save. Of course the scratch-
es and turf burns are pain-
ful, but I enjoy them at the
same time because it shows
I’m putting my best effort
forward and doing my job.”
Vanderbosch did her job
to the best of her ability
this summer when her and
her GPS team made the re-
gionals in Virginia as a wild
card. Not much was expect-
ed from the group, but they
acquitted themselves ex-
tremely well.
The wild card team out of
Buffalo made it all the