Latest / The BIG LIFE / Leah & Kate Break It Down: Underdogs, Upsets & Big-Time Ballers

Transcript

Leah & Kate Break It Down: Underdogs, Upsets & Big-Time Ballers · The BIG LIFE

0:00
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Big Life Podcast. I'm Leah Klinke.
0:05
And I'm Kate Phillips and we are so excited to be here today to recap some more
0:09
games, discuss upcoming matchups,
0:11
and meet with one of the top players to watch early in the season.
0:16
So this week, now we're on to the second week of the NCAA Women's Soccer Games.
0:20
And it's been a very exciting week with tons of good matchups,
0:24
some very interesting results, and a lot of upsets too.
0:29
Um later in this podcast we'll also have a
0:32
special guest joining us shay o'rourke she and
0:35
she was named the woman's soccer player to watch last week after
0:39
her first week of games she had some really good
0:42
individual performances and her team tennessee they
0:45
also did very well last week so we'll be hearing from her in a
0:47
minute but first we're going to catch up on how
0:51
this week of games went yes yeah
0:55
I think the first thing that kind of jumps out to
0:58
me was the Houston Texas game
1:01
from Sunday Houston beat Texas
1:05
four to one which is like a huge deficit I mean Texas has been having like not
1:12
a great start to the season so far but what are your thoughts on that yeah that
1:20
was a great game. I was able to watch most of that game.
1:22
I'm from Texas, of course, so I have a lot of friends or teammates and past
1:27
teammates and just people I know on both U of H and UT.
1:31
So that was a fun game for me to
1:32
watch. One of my club teammates actually scored for U of H in that game.
1:36
But yeah, it was a good game. It was very back and forth. UT was kind of more
1:41
desperate at the end, trying to get their goals back, but none of them came.
1:46
They actually scored one, but it was called back offside so
1:50
but yeah overall U of H just dominated that game and they got a new head coach
1:55
this year also which was actually one of my old club coaches so that's kind
1:59
of interesting but and he's so great so he seems to be doing great things with
2:04
that program so hope I hope the best for U of H and it's a really good performance from them.
2:10
Yeah. And then also I feel like another good game was when Mississippi State
2:16
beat Wake Forest, who was ranked number 10.
2:19
So Mississippi State beat Wake 2-1.
2:23
And Mississippi State is not ranked right now, but I'm sure they might climb
2:26
into those rankings. And last year they were really, really good.
2:30
They made it to the Sweet 16. And actually we played them in the Sweet 16,
2:34
Notre Dame versus Mississippi State. Yeah, how'd the game go?
2:38
Notre Dame came off with the win. We won, but nonetheless, they're a very good team.
2:43
And Wake, also another good team. But Mississippi State really making some strides
2:49
and winning that tough game 2-1.
2:52
Yeah, last year they had a lot of transfers. And this year, kind of a little bit of a rebuild.
2:57
Not a rebuild, but a new coach, one of their assistant coaches took over as head coach.
3:02
So I think that they're kind of getting back into their rhythm a little bit
3:06
from how they were playing last year.
3:08
And I think it's huge for them. I mean, beating Wake Forest,
3:12
who's been a powerhouse the past two years, is like huge.
3:17
So I think that's going to help them a lot, like kind of get started here.
3:23
Right. And just build their confidence up, especially early in the season. Yeah.
3:27
And then next we have number 24 Memphis upsetting number 11 Vanderbilt.
3:32
What do you think about that game?
3:35
Yeah. I haven't even seen a lot of like close from that. I think they end up winning 1-0.
3:41
Memphis and Vanderbilt, both
3:42
are very technical teams. I know Memphis has a lot of foreigners on it.
3:50
So I think that game was probably pretty back and forth.
3:57
Probably the ball a lot in the midfield. I think both teams are very technical
4:02
and like to keep the ball.
4:04
I think it's huge for Memphis, though. And we play them actually on Thursday.
4:08
So that'll be exciting to go there and get to play them.
4:13
I don't know if they're probably ranked, got a little bit ranked higher now after that game.
4:17
So it'll be exciting for us to go down there and play them after they just had
4:21
a big game against Vanderbilt.
4:24
Yeah, that's so exciting. That'll be a good game. I'll have to make sure to watch that.
4:28
I also wasn't able to watch the Memphis-Vanderbilt game, but we have played
4:32
Memphis before. I think when I was a sophomore, Notre Dame, we played Memphis.
4:37
And they're a very good team.
4:38
I feel like they're underdogs a lot, but they really can come out in our top
4:42
team and can really beat these top teams.
4:45
Kate, who else do you guys play this week or do you only have one game?
4:48
Oh, we play Memphis on Thursday and then we play Missouri State on Sunday.
4:52
How about you? We play, we have two games as well.
4:56
We play Michigan on Thursday and then we play Oakland on Sunday.
5:01
Two home games for us. So it's good to be back at home for a bit before we head
5:05
out and travel next week. Thank you.
5:07
Yeah, we have two away games. So we go Memphis on Thursday, like I said,
5:13
Missouri State on Sunday.
5:15
So we'll leave Wednesday, play, play on Thursday, practice on Friday.
5:23
Probably, I don't know, off day on Saturday, practice. I don't know.
5:28
I haven't looked at the schedule too much. But we're going, yeah,
5:31
we're on the road for five days.
5:33
So I think that'll be a good challenge for us.
5:37
Like two road like away well three road road
5:40
games away because we played slew last night on sunday i
5:44
think that's huge for us because in past years we
5:46
had struggled a little bit on the road and i think going
5:50
and playing i mean we just played slew they were ranked number 23 and
5:53
then we lost 1-0 it was a good
5:56
fought game we should have uh i
5:59
think we should have won the game but we gave up an early goal
6:02
and just couldn't finish our chances played
6:05
great in the second half not our best soccer
6:09
in the first half but you know we learned from it started
6:12
playing better in the second half just need to kind of put
6:16
our chances away because we we did
6:19
well defensively obviously I'm upset
6:22
about the loss and the goal that they scored but I.
6:25
Think we can learn a lot from that game as a team and.
6:28
Then going in and playing Memphis who's also ranked is I
6:31
think is going to be huge for us but I think the road game wins
6:34
are like I think that's those games are
6:37
the ones where you like learn about a ton about your team because it's
6:40
like your way they're always like pretty
6:43
like I feel like road games are always pretty like gritty
6:46
games like you're not at home it's not your normal routine
6:49
so like how can you go out there and find a way
6:51
to win like when you're not in your normal environment
6:55
with your fans cheering you on sleeping in
6:58
your own bed so I think those games are like huge
7:01
and I would love for our team to kind of like sink
7:05
into that a little bit and like go out there and win two
7:09
away games and then come home and I think
7:11
we play Illinois as our next game when we're home but I think
7:14
it'll be huge if we can go win two away games yeah
7:18
definitely away games are definitely more tough
7:21
as again like you said you're not in your own bed you don't
7:24
have your own resources that you
7:27
do at home just like your whole routine is kind of thrown off so
7:29
definitely there definitely is a home advantage but if yeah when
7:33
teams go and win big road games that's definitely a big
7:35
statement to make and but I bet for you guys like
7:38
I mean it obviously sucks that you guys lost but you guys learned a lot and
7:42
then also like you're saying like you guys were kind of on top of them like
7:46
you guys could have won in a way that could give you guys like some confidence
7:49
going forward like they're a top 25 team and you guys were right there with
7:53
them so that's like okay you guys can hang with anyone so yeah.
7:57
Even though it was a loss, I'm sure you have at least some positives to take out of it.
8:02
Yeah, definitely. I mean, I know that the rankings, like we always say this,
8:06
don't really mean anything.
8:08
I mean, there's a couple of teams on here that we had already talked about that
8:11
we're going to play that a lot of the teams we're playing. SEC are all ranked.
8:15
But I think that we go into those games saying, like, I don't care what this team's ranked.
8:20
Like, we know we can hang with them. but i would
8:23
love for us to like start some other games that were like on
8:26
the front foot like knowing that like we got scored 10
8:29
minutes obviously we can hang with teams but
8:32
like we have to start on our front foot like ready for
8:36
that because you can't really ease into games because
8:39
obviously anything can happen yeah like
8:43
early stages if you're not on the front foot yeah for
8:46
sure for sure and now that you're talking about
8:49
or you're kind of talking about traveling how you guys are going to be gone for so
8:52
many days also both you and i
8:55
we just talked about this we we talked about this before the podcast we
8:58
started school this week so kind of going
9:00
into academics like how does that work with like are
9:03
you guys gonna have to miss school with the first week how does that
9:06
work for you guys yeah so we just started school today but
9:09
yeah we'll probably miss we'll miss thursday and
9:12
friday which usually like these are
9:15
the only classes we'll miss for
9:18
non-conference I'm pretty sure yeah
9:21
so yeah so you kind of
9:24
have to just be pretty honest like go up to
9:27
your professors like today I went and talked to my professor and was like hey
9:31
like I'm gonna be gone Friday my academic advisor is gonna like probably email
9:36
you that I'm not gonna be here but I just wanted to let you know and then like
9:40
usually I'll get somebody that's not obviously an athlete in one of my classes.
9:45
Like number or something so that I can like text them and be like,
9:48
hey, what's happening today in class? Just because...
9:52
Like you need sometimes sometimes professors
9:55
aren't very lenient and like yeah you in
9:58
that way so it's like being able
10:01
to like get somebody's number and kind of yeah like
10:04
figure out what's happening in class that day but some professors are
10:07
like I feel like every professor I've had I've not
10:10
had an issue with but some of my teammates like obviously
10:14
there's people that have had issues so yeah that's
10:18
kind of how yeah that's how ours is too it depends on
10:21
the professor are some are more lenient some get it some
10:24
just don't get it but you have to talk
10:26
to them like and just take responsibility be organized and
10:29
yeah with your work and but it's
10:32
like kind of all up to you that's how it is in college so but
10:36
obviously with the help of your academic advisor too so that's nice
10:40
yeah but ours is our process at Notre Dame is very
10:42
similar to how y'all's is one-wingness class okay so
10:46
now we went over last week now for
10:50
this upcoming week let's go over some of
10:53
the top matchups that we're excited to see first personally
10:57
my the one that i'm very excited to see is number four duke versus number six
11:02
arkansas that is gonna be a good game it's gonna be a fight it's gonna be a
11:07
battle it's gonna be so competitive but it's gonna be good i feel like Duke and Arkansas have very,
11:14
very different styles of soccer.
11:15
Duke is a very passing soccer team. They have very technical players.
11:21
Arkansas is big, strong, fast. They play more direct. So two different styles
11:25
of play, but it's definitely going to be an interesting one to watch.
11:29
Yeah, two different soccer spectrums right here.
11:36
Duke is, I mean, they've been fun to watch the past two years.
11:41
And they very, like you were saying, possession team. And then Arkansas is fast, big, and strong.
11:49
So that'll be a very good matchup. Like, I mean, that can go either way.
11:56
Like, both those teams score, just score goals.
11:59
So it could be a really fun game.
12:01
Yeah, it's so good. It's going to be so good. I feel like Duke is going to have
12:05
to match Arkansas's physicality, but Arkansas is going to have to deal with Duke's technicality.
12:11
So anything can happen. Yeah.
12:15
Another game that's pretty interesting is No. 16 Santa Clara versus No. 11 Penn State.
12:22
Penn State's been doing really well the past couple of weeks.
12:25
They had just actually beat SLU 4-1.
12:28
And they have a lot of forward power also. So that'll be a fun game to watch.
12:33
I don't know a ton about Santa Clara, but I think that'll be a good game.
12:38
I just know, I mean, Penn State's always a great team, so.
12:41
Yeah, yeah, that'll be a good game. Both teams very good, well-renowned.
12:46
Penn State's been doing very well, so that'll definitely be a good game.
12:49
Another one we have is another Texas matchup, which is number nine TCU versus
12:55
number 19 UT. so UT coming off,
12:59
Big loss, I'd say, to University of Houston. So they're going to be hungry,
13:03
ready to battle, ready to play against a higher-ranked TCU.
13:07
So we'll see how that one plays out. That's going to be a fun one to watch for sure.
13:12
Yeah, and then a rivalry, number 21 South Carolina versus Clemson.
13:17
South Carolina, I know, I think last Thursday they won't beat Ohio State 1-0.
13:24
They're a fun team to watch. Katie Shea Collins is a goal-scoring machine.
13:30
Forward but yeah that'll be a good one two teams
13:34
that are very close to each other it's always a fun rivalry I think when they
13:38
play each other yes yes that's gonna be a good rivalry yeah Katie Shea Collins
13:42
has been doing very well yeah I know her pretty well she's a great girl shout
13:47
out to her but yeah she's doing great she she always seems to be doing great,
13:52
so yeah and Clemson obviously always really good too so that'll be a good game
13:56
to watch Definitely. Yeah.
13:59
So, so many exciting games. Those are all going to be super exciting to watch this week.
14:03
But now that we're talking about exciting matchups and moving to exciting players,
14:07
it's now time to welcome our special guest.
14:11
Today, we welcome Shea O'Rourke. This is her first year at Tennessee after transferring from Texas A&M.
14:17
And last week, she was named the Women's Soccer Player to Watch after the first
14:22
week of games. And she scored both goals for Tennessee in their matchup against UNC.
14:27
Yes Shay first congratulations and then
14:30
before we get into some serious stuff why don't you
14:33
tell us a little bit about yourself where you grew up and what do you like to
14:37
do for fun my name is Shay Rourke I'm from Buffalo New York and something I
14:42
like to do for fun is honestly just play with my dog on walks with her and hang
14:46
out with friends anything other than soccer that's that's what I do.
14:53
What type of dog do you have? I have a golden retriever. She's sleeping on the
14:57
bed right now, actually.
14:58
Aw. Super cute. Aw, that's so cute. What's her name? Her name's Lila.
15:03
Aw. Wait, that's so cute. Yeah. Okay, cool. Okay, now tell us kind of about
15:09
your journey to college soccer and your club and high school years when you were younger.
15:14
So I played for Western New York Flash, so it's kind of an upstate area.
15:18
And then I played for St. Mary's of Lancaster for high school.
15:23
And I actually committed before the rule change happened. So I committed freshman
15:27
year of high school to the University of South Carolina.
15:31
That was crazy. I don't know how I did that when I was that young,
15:34
but I went there for two years and then transferred to Texas A&M and left there in December.
15:43
And now I play at the University of Tennessee.
15:46
So yeah, that's kind of been my upbringing with soccer.
15:49
Yeah, can you tell us a little bit more about like your college soccer experience
15:53
so far? Like why'd you choose South Carolina?
15:57
And then how did you end up at Tennessee?
16:00
Yeah, so I chose South Carolina because when you're so young,
16:04
you just wanna be supported.
16:05
And they were immediately so supportive of what I wanted to do in college and in high school.
16:11
That was really important to me to have that connection. So,
16:14
you know, I loved playing for them for those two years. but for me personally,
16:19
I didn't see myself growing there.
16:21
So I decided to take myself to Texas A&M, which I had an amazing time,
16:26
unfortunately, for my ACL when I was there.
16:30
So I didn't really get to play for them. But due to coaching change and everything,
16:35
and a couple girls leaving, I decided to take my talents to Tennessee, which I'm glad I did.
16:40
And I'm having the best time here. So.
16:43
Good. Awesome. What are you majoring in? So I majored in sport management with
16:47
a minor in business Oh, nice.
16:50
Cool Moving into more about kind of this season What did you do?
16:56
What is your kind of your plan or what did you do over the summer that prepared
16:59
you for the preseason at tennessee?
17:01
So I actually had another surgery in april on my other knee So honestly just
17:07
recovering getting fitness back.
17:09
That was just my priority was being able to actual play
17:12
the game but honestly getting close with my
17:15
teammates because in the spring I got hurt so really finding
17:18
that connection off and on the field was really important during
17:21
the offseason how has being like hurt
17:24
and kind of you said you tore your ACL and obviously had another like knee issue
17:30
how has that kind of shaped you as a player so far as in the past like three
17:35
years yeah I mean I didn't know how much work it was coming back like you you
17:41
tear your ACL and you're like okay okay,
17:43
yeah, I have a lot of time to recover, but it just goes like that in your back.
17:47
And I think, honestly, just being patient.
17:51
And trusting the journey because, you know, when I got hurt again,
17:54
I was like, oh my God, again, like another knee.
17:57
But honestly, just getting back to it, being the person I am and just,
18:02
you know, I miss soccer so much.
18:04
So having that time off just really made me want to come back. Yeah, that's great.
18:08
And that's good to hear for a lot of like the younger girls who listen to our
18:12
podcast just about coming back from injuries. And obviously you've had a couple
18:17
injuries, one of them being ACL.
18:19
So hard to come back to. But I mean, you're an awesome player.
18:22
So you'll come back stronger and better than ever.
18:25
Yes so last week was a
18:28
good week for you and for your team walk us
18:31
through kind of your mindset and your team's mentality first
18:35
going into that game against unc oh my
18:38
god we are so fired up because i mean i
18:40
love being the underdog at times just because like that
18:43
honestly feels a team like in general so we.
18:47
Were so excited and we actually got a good amount
18:50
of fans than we like normally do so I
18:52
think all that energy built up and like I don't.
18:56
Know we've been so close this summer and this preseason like.
18:59
We were just so ready to play them and then obviously you
19:02
saw the result oh there she is oh my gosh
19:07
she's so cute oh my gosh oh
19:13
my gosh she's so cute so talk a little bit more about kind
19:16
of the underdog mentality and how you guys
19:18
well now you guys kind of have established yourself as like oh
19:21
yeah we can like beat UNC they were number one at the time how
19:24
is that mindset like continuing for you guys in
19:27
the season or like what kind of is your mindset now knowing that
19:30
you guys are maybe not the underdogs anymore and you're ranked really
19:33
good team yeah I mean I've said
19:36
this before but we just take one game at a time because
19:40
you never know in college soccer like a team can come
19:43
out and like win a game like any team on any given
19:46
day so I think that's been our mindset but we're
19:49
also trying to focus on still being the under underdog in
19:52
general because we're like okay they didn't rank
19:55
us before the season like we got to keep that going like we
19:58
don't know what next week's gonna bring like we just want to stay
20:01
the underdog like we're just in our mind we're like we're the underdogs we
20:04
have to prove something and just win
20:07
games that's all we've been talking about this week yeah that's a really good
20:12
mindset to have okay diving deeper into the unc game walk us through kind of
20:17
those the two goals you scored obviously you scored both the goals you guys
20:20
beat them 2-0 so and the shutout but walk us through those goals how did it
20:24
feel scoring those goals for your team.
20:26
First of all, like that was my first college game really back.
20:29
So that was really exciting.
20:32
And I don't even know how it happened. She just kicked the ball right up to me.
20:36
And the goalie came so far, I was like, okay, I just have to kick it and score.
20:40
And then I got dogpiled. It was so fun.
20:43
It's just this team, I just want to keep playing well for them.
20:46
They really do support me in the best ways.
20:49
And the second goal, like that girl came in as a sub, passed it.
20:54
And it was just like the perfect ball. It was literally just the perfect game.
20:58
Like, I don't know. Our defense has played so well this season, too.
21:01
So we haven't conceded a goal yet. So we're just going to keep trying to do that, I guess.
21:06
That's awesome. Yeah. You mentioned your team hasn't gotten scored on yet.
21:12
How, like, huge is that for you guys, like, going into these hard games?
21:17
Like, obviously winning the games and, like, scoring multiple goals is huge.
21:22
But not getting scored on is even a bigger accomplishment than you guys having
21:27
gotten scored on this season. Yeah.
21:29
Yeah, I just, I, we've just worked so hard on that side of the ball and we've honestly showed it.
21:36
And we just want to continue that because that's going to win you games is even
21:40
if you score as many goals, if you don't let any, like you're undeniable,
21:44
like you can't defeat us.
21:46
So I give them kudos because I'm up there. I'll stay on the top.
21:51
I don't need to do that, but yeah, kudos to our goalies too.
21:55
Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Obviously important to have both A good offense and
22:00
a good defense, especially. You guys have conceded zero goals.
22:05
Who do you guys play this week? And what is kind of the next big game?
22:12
Or what is one game that you're looking forward to the rest of this season?
22:17
Yeah, so we play Western Carolina on Sunday. We don't have a Thursday game this week.
22:22
So having that time off coming back from L.A. yesterday will be good for us.
22:27
And just really focusing on Western Carolina because it's away.
22:31
So that's important for us. But I'm just excited for SEC play.
22:35
We play Memphis and we play Georgia Southern. But it's so different once you start conference play.
22:40
And that's what I'm most excited for. And hopefully the tournament.
22:45
Yeah. You mentioned you guys were in L.A.
22:50
Could you walk us through your guys' travel trip, going there?
22:53
Obviously, it's far and you guys were there for a while. So what did that go?
22:57
So we left last Monday. So we played a game on Sunday, left Monday morning.
23:03
And we got there kind of later in the day. I just had dinner as a team.
23:07
Next day, we practiced at UCLA at like 10 in the morning-ish,
23:12
just so we could like sleep in, kind of adjust to the time.
23:16
And the next day, we played on Wednesday. So we had to prepare for the game anyway.
23:20
So then we played UCLA kind of late at night, like 10 p.m. Eastern time.
23:25
So that was that was cool we played them we beat them 1-0 and
23:30
Then next day, we had a technically off day.
23:33
Obviously, if you didn't play as much, you did more. Others did recovery.
23:39
The next day, we went shopping a little bit. We went to Air One.
23:43
Oh, fun. Yeah, we went to Santa Monica Pier.
23:47
Some girls rode some roller coasters, got some ice cream. Just did little small team things.
23:53
And then we slept, and then we played LMU on Saturday.
23:58
And yeah then finished that game off 3-0 came home that's a fun week that sounds
24:06
so fun have you guys started school yet?
24:09
We started last Monday so we missed the whole first week of school so yeah but
24:14
had my first day today gotcha,
24:18
well I'm sure you don't have to miss much because it's just syllabus week yeah
24:23
I didn't really miss much and I have two online anyway so it wasn't that bad
24:27
Oh, yeah. Okay, that's nice. Yeah.
24:30
After, do you have any plans after this year, after this season?
24:33
What, what are you going to be up to?
24:35
So I have my redshirt year, so I'm probably going to take that.
24:40
So yeah, that's kind of my plan right now. You never know what's going to happen.
24:44
But yeah, I definitely want to stay here in Tennessee and just continue something that we're building.
24:50
What are your like specific goals for yourself, if you set any,
24:55
or for your team for like the rest of the season?
24:58
Yeah, I think just making an impact in general. Like, I like to be relied on.
25:03
So just making an impact and honestly being a good teammate in general.
25:09
Because I've seen teams fall apart when their team's not together on and off the field.
25:14
So just really focusing on that side.
25:17
Because soccer, you know, you can always work on stuff.
25:20
But you can't build those bonds unless, you know, you have them off the field
25:24
as well. So that's kind of our...
25:27
Yeah yeah me and Kate talk a lot and we have
25:30
in this podcast before about how like team culture is so important
25:33
and it's like you can be the best soccer team but if you don't
25:36
like each other or the coaches or any of that or if
25:39
it's not like one together then the whole thing falls apart it
25:41
doesn't even matter how good you are I think that's like so important and
25:45
especially for like recruits going in like sometimes
25:48
it's just like oh I'm gonna go to the top soccer school but it's like
25:51
do they have like are they all best friends do they all
25:53
hang out outside of soccer like how close are they with their coaches
25:57
and stuff and i think that's all super important no definitely
26:01
definitely important yeah and it
26:03
seems like okay sorry no you go you
26:06
go it seems like your guys's team like has like such great
26:10
like chemistry from what you've said and i i'm
26:13
at missouri but i know kylie simmons from what
26:17
i've seen from like her and everything like you guys have
26:20
such good like team chemistry that's like it's showing on the field so it's
26:25
just like a testament to like team culture team chemistry that if it's like
26:29
good then you're probably gonna play better on the field as well yeah I think
26:35
it was important for us like mesh all the age groups like we,
26:39
don't consider anyone seniors really we don't consider anyone like upperclassmen
26:44
we're we kind of focus on that a lot.
26:48
Also, we do a lot of team things together, like the most random things.
26:53
Also, I don't know if you guys see me. We have vlogs now.
26:56
Oh, I haven't seen that. They're on YouTube. We did all of preseason,
27:01
and we kind of try to put that out there so people can see how close we are
27:06
to the team and all that stuff and just the toughness of preseason.
27:12
But Kylie's great. I love her. Unfortunate ACL injury.
27:16
But yeah i feel awful for
27:18
her just it's a bad situation like i
27:23
had texted her the other day and i was just like
27:25
i'm so sorry like no senior year
27:28
too like yeah and her
27:32
second one it's like i mean
27:35
she's she's she'll be
27:37
all right yeah she'll be fine yeah yeah
27:41
dang that's tough wait that's so fun though the vlogs i'm gonna have to go watch
27:46
no yeah they're all in this like little gopro like oh that's so fun our captain
27:51
like literally sucked to her hand like breakfast workouts after the deep test
27:57
like everything you can imagine is on that vlog.
28:00
That's so fun what is the best what is your the best thing that you've done
28:05
with your team outside of soccer like during pre-season or like what activity team bonding anything,
28:12
we did like an olympic games together so we
28:15
each divided in teams and did all these games like
28:18
right in the beginning of pre-season and we
28:21
did like tug of war we did water balloon
28:25
fight awesome that's so fun
28:28
yeah no i feel like you've hit on a lot that me and
28:32
leah have already kind of talked about even like in past episodes
28:35
a lot about like team culture i love
28:38
how you said like you just want to come in and make an impact
28:41
and hope that the team relies on
28:44
you and obviously you've done well that your team can rely on you in moments
28:48
that they need to so kudos to you you've had a great season so far and thank
28:53
you yeah watching you play the rest of the season yeah definitely cheering for
28:58
tennessee now um one except if we play you guys yeah.
29:04
Other than that, go Tennessee.
29:06
The last question we have is what is one piece of advice that you would give
29:10
to younger girls who may be listening?
29:12
I think for me, it was that you'll find your place and you'll find where you fit in.
29:19
You'll find your school and it's okay to admit that it's not your school,
29:24
but you'll always find your home. It doesn't matter. You'll find your people.
29:29
You'll find your place on the field but you'll also find like what school is
29:33
going to make you better so that's my one piece of advice,
29:38
That's good advice. Very good
29:39
advice. Well, Shay, thank you for joining us today and sharing your story.
29:44
Yes, thank you. It was incredible hearing about your soccer journey so far.
29:48
And I want to wish you the best of luck the rest of the season.
29:51
Thanks, guys. I wish you too. I'm going to watch.
29:54
Thanks. I'll be watching.
29:57
Shay was amazing. Well, thank you for asking her to be on.
30:02
Of course, of course. She's, I mean, a good old friend of mine from we played
30:07
together in many different like random events throughout club and high school,
30:12
random ECNL events, some national events.
30:14
So, yeah, it was good to have her on and talk to her. I haven't talked to her
30:17
in a while, so that was good.
30:20
Yeah, I think one of the biggest takeaways, I kind of said it when she was still
30:25
on, was that she just wanted to come in and make an impact.
30:31
And obviously she's done that. I mean, she's been putting balls in the net against,
30:36
like, USA, UNC, two great teams.
30:40
But I think that's just something, like, that you need, especially as a forward.
30:46
She said she's, like, the player that you want people to, like, her team to rely on.
30:51
Obviously, she's done that. And as a forward, I think that's huge for the Tennessee
30:57
team, knowing that they can just rely on her to put balls in the back of the
31:01
net. And then obviously they're even doing it on the other side of the ball.
31:04
They haven't even gotten scored on yet.
31:06
So I think that's awesome. It also just seems like she's playing with just like a happy, like.
31:12
Just vibe like she just seems so like happy and
31:16
like carefree and just playing with fun and
31:18
like no worries especially after coming off
31:21
two big injuries I think that's huge
31:25
for any player just playing with
31:28
like confidence fun worry free
31:31
that's when you I think are playing at your best and it
31:35
seems like she's kind of gotten into that mojo a little
31:38
bit and it's awesome to see happy for her yeah
31:41
yeah right you can't even you would
31:43
not even be able to guess that she's come back from two like big
31:46
injuries but yeah like you said I
31:49
mean she's has a big smile on her face she's playing with
31:52
so much joy and happiness and she loves her
31:55
team so I think that's another big thing they can all just play
31:58
for fun and really they have pressure on them
32:00
but if you're playing for fun it kind of just takes all the pressure off
32:03
so that was great and she seems like she really likes it and
32:06
she's been doing great my big takeaways
32:09
from her are I have so many
32:12
I feel like so first off I love Shay she's a
32:15
friend of mine and she actually used to play at Texas A&M with one of my teammates
32:20
now Carolyn Calzada we call her Cece so now Cece's one of my best friends and
32:25
she's still one of Shay's best friends so we kind of have that crossover and
32:30
then I've obviously She played with and against Shea, like, all throughout high school.
32:34
So I feel like she's such an amazing player, obviously, but more importantly, even, a better person.
32:42
You can just tell she has so much confidence in herself and her team and just
32:46
strives to make an impact for others and for her team and just to be a good teammate.
32:51
And I think that's really important for anyone getting into college soccer.
32:56
And even she said, like, you'll find your place on the field,
32:59
you'll find your school, But it's important to be a good teammate first and
33:03
be a good friend and have great teammates around you And that's really what
33:06
makes a team cohesive and like united all towards one goal,
33:11
So yeah, overall, I feel like like that's just the type of person that you want
33:14
on your team confident in herself and her abilities, but really just wants to
33:18
be a good player and Make an impact and help her team in the best way she can,
33:23
Yeah. And I think she's doing just that. And even more. I mean,
33:27
she seems like she's on fire right now.
33:30
Like, nobody can really stop her. Yeah.
33:34
But one of the things that she mentioned was she had torn her ACL.
33:40
And then obviously, I think she said she had another knee in surgery.
33:47
And we haven't really touched on it a
33:50
ton but injuries are a huge part
33:53
of obviously the sport and can
33:57
be really tough to deal with personally
34:01
I've dealt with them my past three years
34:03
my freshman year I was getting good
34:07
like minutes as a freshman which I'm
34:10
so grateful for to have been able to like been put
34:13
into the position to be a starter as a freshman and then
34:16
I ended up having a really bad high
34:19
ankle sprain and ended up being able to medically had a
34:22
medically redshirt my freshman year which at
34:26
the time you can even ask like my
34:29
parents I was like devastated just because it
34:33
was right before SEC play I wasn't traveling I was
34:37
just going through like already a lot a little bit personally and
34:41
then I got hurt and
34:44
then at that moment as a freshman you're like wow my whole world is like crumbling
34:50
to follow me like right not traveling I'm here like at school I'm having to
34:55
do rehab and I didn't even know I had got would be would have been able to like
35:01
possibly get a medical red shirt.
35:05
And so it was just kind of like super upsetting and easy to be like down on myself in that moment.
35:12
And then like my coaches are awesome. Like they were very transparent and like helpful.
35:21
Trying to figure out ways for me
35:23
to bring like a different role on the team just because
35:27
obviously you're like for us if you're injured you're
35:30
doing I don't know like recovery stuff so like we'll bike if you can so I would
35:36
be like biking watching practice and something on the field that like I bring
35:41
to my team a lot is like I have a big vocal presence so my coaches kind of like,
35:48
we had a conversation and they were like how can you bring
35:51
that vocal presence like even when you're hurt and
35:55
so I was able to kind of find a role in that not even being on the field still
35:58
being like a vocal presence on the sideline and then this past spring I re-injured
36:04
my same ankle again another bad high ankle sprain and instead of like having
36:11
the mentality of like Like,
36:14
I don't know, being upset, being like, I don't know, feeling you're not really
36:19
part of the team in a way, because it can be really easy to like let that happen.
36:25
Since I'd already been through it, I kind of knew that I still have a role on
36:29
this team and I know what like I can bring for the people still on the field,
36:34
for the people on the sidelines, to the coaches.
36:38
Like, I know that I can still be a vocal presence. I can
36:41
still like bring something even
36:45
though I'm on the sidelines anything during practice so I think like being able
36:51
to find a way to like still feel like you're a part of the team even when you're
36:58
hurt is huge yeah yeah I don't know if you've ever if you've dealt with something like that.
37:05
But yeah, I mean, I would completely agree.
37:07
I think it's important to.
37:11
Realize that once you or once you get injured
37:14
like what's happened has happened you can't control you can't change it
37:17
all that you can control is your attitude
37:20
towards others now how and how good of a
37:22
teammate you can be towards them and that you can really make a positive impact
37:26
on your team even while injured yeah I've definitely had some injuries I sprained
37:32
my ankle spring season my sophomore year that was really short recovery though
37:39
nothing too bad but obviously say it sucks to be on the sidelines.
37:41
And then this past summer, I had also a couple injuries.
37:45
I sprained my MCL in my knee. And then I also had to get an ankle surgery.
37:52
Ankle, it was like a scope, really easy surgery. But so I did that this past
37:56
summer, actually, like right before preseason.
37:58
So that was very stressful on me.
38:01
I was nervous because I was like, well, this is right before preseason. What's going on?
38:05
Like, am I going to be ready? Like, I don't know, all these questions.
38:09
And I could have dealt with it like way better. Again, it's hard.
38:12
I wasn't like a part of a team at this time, I guess.
38:15
So I was just working on recovering and getting back to myself.
38:18
But for me and my injuries, I guess it was important for me to like ground myself
38:24
on other things and help me realize that as much as my life revolves around
38:30
soccer, like I'm not just a soccer player.
38:32
There's so much other things that I value in my life and I have other roles
38:36
that I play that are just as important, if not even more important than being a soccer player.
38:40
So I really, I was tested for sure because I was like, I can't play.
38:45
Like, what am I going to do with my life?
38:46
But I was able to find some, pick up some hobbies, baking, reading, scrapbooking now.
38:56
But yeah, I mean, it's obviously hard, but also when you're at our level and in college,
39:01
like really I'd say there's a very slim
39:04
percentage of people who are players who don't get injured at all or have just
39:09
a smooth ride throughout college like it's gonna happen it's bound to happen
39:12
no matter if it's a few weeks or several months or even years it's gonna happen
39:17
but it's just kind of how you respond to that because again you can't control
39:20
the injury but you can control.
39:23
How you act towards your teammates and how you really live your life even with
39:28
that injury and And then also going off of this, just.
39:33
I want to iterate the importance of resting, giving your body some rest,
39:37
because something also I'm not good at. I just want to go, go, go, push myself.
39:42
But sometimes it's good to rest so that you don't get injured.
39:45
So yeah, that's kind of my experience. But obviously, Shay's been through way worse than I ever have.
39:52
And she seems to have a great mindset about it.
39:54
And obviously, she's come back stronger and better than ever before.
39:58
So that's hopeful to hear for anyone who's struggling with injuries right now.
40:04
Yeah, definitely. And something that you said that I also think Shay talked
40:09
about a little bit was controlling the things that you can and kind of just
40:14
letting go of anything else, especially when it comes to injuries.
40:18
Like you're in the situation, like how can you respond to it and like deal with what you're doing?
40:25
Because I mean you can't really
40:28
like control the situation
40:31
that you're in so like how can
40:34
you how can you respond to it and how can you be a good teammate yeah a good
40:40
person oh I agree we're gonna have to make another episode all about injuries
40:44
and bring on like a special guest maybe for that one just to hear more about
40:48
it yeah and there's a lot you can go we can go into it Obviously,
40:53
we haven't been in the same situation as Shay, so I think somebody that's maybe
40:58
been in a situation that we haven't will be interesting.
41:02
Yes, for sure, definitely.
41:05
We'll be back next week with some more game updates, but until then, see you guys later. Bye!