COLUMN: The Mark of a Golden Pen

He got acquainted with his team, gained their respect and then challenged them. What he asked was for his players to examine themselves. In return, he got a revamped roster, with only 14 field players at his disposal. Thirteen old faces became memories, many of them one-time starters. Brian Foote. Gone. Morgan Blackwell. Gone. Austin Root. Gone. The list keeps going. More important, though, is what remains. There is no longer any player on the roster who does any less than eat, sleep, breathe, study, shower and brush his teeth soccer. Some would argue that he made his job more difficult by cutting down the roster in such a fashion. But Fuller has put a team together that can meet adversity and shake its hand. "We have really trimmed the team down to the players who really want to be a part of it and really do what it takes to be successful," Fuller said. If you recognize a soccer player on campus, stop him and ask him if he was happy with last weekend's results (two 1-0 losses to Old Dominion and William and Mary). What you'll find is a stark contrast to George O'Neill's team from a year ago that bordered on apathetic if not unconfident after four disappointing losses early in the season. It is completely irrelevant that William and Mary is No. 11 in the national rankings and Old Dominion is a top-40 team. This team has one goal, to win the Ivy title. Fuller's team went to Virginia last weekend to win. When Fuller put his team on the field Friday, what he saw was not an outmanned team, but one that could compete with anybody. Against Old Dominion, the Quakers played a man down for 75-plus minutes and lost by one goal. William and Mary scored on a rebound that got away from Mike O'Connor. Penn was not dominated. But they lost. There were no moral victories, and to the players, the two losses were just that -- two losses. Fuller may be the only one happy with the weekend. And for good reason -- his players aren't. This is not the same team -- or at least the same half team -- that did not recover from four consecutive losses early last season. Fuller made sure of that. After a victory over Harvard, the 1996 Ivy League Champions, to open their 1997 season, the Quakers were at their highest point. From there, the team plummeted toward apathy following four straight losses. "To me they had a good team last year," Fuller said. "They were at a critical juncture in the season six games into the season. They were 2-0 and nationally ranked, and went to two tournaments and lost four close games. "That's when the problems began. It wasn't reinforced to them that they were 1-0 in the Ivy." Rudy's first priority is to win. But as a coach, he found solace last weekend in the fact that a team that allowed an Ivy League high 31 goals last season only allowed two goals against excellent teams. What pleases Fuller is the fact that his players want to go to Dartmouth Saturday and exorcise the demons of last weekend -- now. The Ivy match is the focus because perspective has been restored to a team which had none in the opening weeks of last season. The question Fuller shaped this team to answer was how they would react when they suffered growing pains. Fuller knew when he saw the schedule that the first four games would be the toughest of the season. Last year, when the Quakers lost four games early, the season was over. This year, it may just be starting.

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