Latest / The BIG LIFE / Freshman Breakthrough: Abby Forsgren’s Big Impact at Memphis

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Freshman Breakthrough: Abby Forsgren’s Big Impact at Memphis · The BIG LIFE

• 0:06
  Welcome back to the Big Life Podcast. We are in week 11, and today we're going
• 0:11
  to just kind of catch up on our week, and then we're going to be bringing on
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  a guest, Abby Forsgren, to talk about her freshman season at Memphis.
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  You want to give us your rose, your bud, and your thorn for the week?
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  Okay, thorn. I have been so stressed out. I've just been having a lot of stuff
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  to do, like with soccer and school, just life.
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  Like, I've literally just been like so stressed out.
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  And when I get stressed out, I have to like go in my notes app and write everything
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  down that I have to do for a day.
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  So I've done that for the past couple of days. I would say my bud is I'm playing
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  a new position. I'm playing like left diamond, which is like basically left
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  outside wing slash left mid.
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  It's quite a bit different, but it's an opportunity to grow. We're grateful to play.
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  I get to play too. So it was actually low-key kind of fun. And then my rose
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  is we won our game two to one. And so we are still sitting in top 10 rankings
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  and we are in a really good spot for SEC tournament.
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  We didn't win the SEC because we lost to Vandy, but it's okay because second is fine.
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  It's all right. I didn't want to win. I didn't want to win. I didn't want to
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  win. I don't want to win. I was like, no. Yeah. Okay. Okay, you go.
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  Okay. Rose, I played a lot.
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  Like, low-key, I played a lot again, which was nice. And it was good to play,
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  like, two games. And I had a lot of fun when we were in Nebraska and Iowa with my friend Allie.
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  My thorn is I didn't play to my standard, so I was very upset about it.
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  We tied the game that I was pissed about. We tied 0-0 to Nebraska,
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  and I just didn't play to my standard that I set for myself. So I was lucky.
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  I was lucky trying after the game, I can't lie. I was so frustrated.
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  It wasn't even bad. It was just not there. That was my thorn.
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  And then my bud was that I had a better performance the next game, which was good.
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  I guess I'm just looking forward to closing out the season strong because we,
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  are not making it any farther.
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  We're in the point in the season where it's just it's done but excited to finish
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  the season strong and get healthy again so i'm looking just excited to heal
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  and like get my body back to 100 okay one word go boom you first bro,
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  one word surprise dude i literally found out the day before our game the day
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  before you're playing pulls me aside he goes hey i'm gonna start you a left diamond i was like.
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  Sure yeah fine it's fine mind you for our practices we like if we're splitting
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  we split like defense and offense to go work on stuff
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  and sixes are always with defense so i haven't done a lick of offense this entire season,
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  like i haven't practiced any one-to-one's haven't done barely any shooting other
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  than they sent you in that group no because we the day before a game we just
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  go straight into like 11 11 and then we do like stop and go,
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  so i basically just had to lock in and i was like oh base knowledge base knowledge
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  but you know what it's okay i actually did pretty well so.
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  Hey i'm proud of you hey i'm proud of you this season will be so different we just,
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  just reflecting on like the other games like if we just close out games differently
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  just individual i don't know the whole thing's just like that's all that's all i have,
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  there's no explanation for it what's something i don't know what's something
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  that's been going on outside of soccer that's like positive let's go let's go
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  positive oh something that's been going good is I'm in a rhythm.
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  I'm in a rhythm of my own daily routine. My routines, everything is great.
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  I found myself in a good rhythm, so that's low-key what's been getting me through.
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  So getting in my rehab, getting in my journaling, my reflecting,
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  my homework's done, my room's clean.
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  But every little aspect that could be going wrong for me, despite having a fourth
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  season, it's going well, so...
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  Loki, what about you? What's been
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  going on recently is also kind of just getting in a rhythm, knowing my,
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  self and knowing when I can be around people and when I have the social battery
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  and know when I'm not, just being okay with being in my room by myself.
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  It's good to be by yourself sometimes. And then outside of soccer,
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  I've been getting some good pictures, football game, that was fun.
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  I mean, I got to see my parents. this like like last week or yeah like the week
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  before i mean it's been good everything's been pretty stressful i would say
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  like the reason why my room is dirty right now is,
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  i feel like my room is always a reflection of my mind and so,
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  like whenever it's messy that just means my brain is in a jumble and i'm already
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  i'm done with everything now so literally after this i'm going to be cleaning
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  my entire room it's okay you're gonna get back in your flow ready for tournament
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  And that's all that really matters.
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  Let's see. I feel like we kind of already went over like our games.
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  I mean, for me, like playing a new position, it was different.
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  But I think it's good, like growth to kind of get myself in uncomfortable situations
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  and kind of learn how to deal with it.
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  And I think honestly, it was the most fun I've had playing in a while because
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  I didn't really think about like, hey, I'm going to come off the field if I mess up.
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  I was just thinking about like, bro, you just need to cook. hook and and like
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  i all i did was work my hardest and when i came off the field i knew it was
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  because i put in my all and i was he was just putting someone else in because i was dead,
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  and that's great and that's something to be proud of also the fitness of playing,
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  a left outside back compared to a six is very different the six is very much
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  like like you're just kind of moving all the time.
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  You gotta back press you gotta you gotta you gotta press and then once you get
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  v you gotta back press and then if you don't back press,
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  you're hitting the bench. We were playing Iowa, like, played like a,
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  they had a weird game plan. Worked, obviously, because we lost.
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  But, weird game plan, and they were just throwing their wingers, like, up 3-4-3.
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  I wanted to play winger, because it was to the point where, like,
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  I wanted to try something different than what we were doing,
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  because obviously something wasn't working.
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  And low-key, I floated out there, it was kind of fire. But I wish I could play,
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  but it was to the point where I wouldn't have to back press,
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  so, that's why I wanted to play there, because then there was not much running.
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  Like, it was not as much running as normal. like a normal we're going to do
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  so dude and I appreciate I respect your change of position so I don't know if
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  it's like finalized I'll probably go back but like,
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  you know it's okay we kept the ball honestly it was the most we've ever kept
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  the ball nice that's good Tennessee's a good team too yeah you have any Halloween plans?
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  Oh yeah I'm going out on one day with my friends and my team which will be super
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  fun we've got a Halloween party tonight that's all we can do too because we
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  have a game this weekend so yeah okay Last couple things.
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  Since our guest, Abby, we're going to be talking about our freshman season.
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  Let's think about one thing from our freshman season.
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  What's the biggest takeaway from your freshman year? I need to learn how to
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  control my emotions and don't let them get the best of me because they did every single time.
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  Every single time. I would say for me, mine is also like on the lines of that.
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  It's kind of like the mental side, knowing that like it's good to talk to somebody.
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  Like it's okay to have like a sports psychologist and like it's been super helpful.
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  Like even now, like it helps so much just with like mindset.
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  Mindset's like such a big thing. Mindset and like emotions and letting your
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  emotions dictate like every day was just not like the way to go.
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  Hope you guys enjoy our segment with Appy. Yeah.
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  Moving into our guest for this week, we are joined by Abby Forsgren,
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  a freshman at the University of Memphis.
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  And she has already been making a really big impact as a freshman,
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  making number 24 on Top Jar Soccer's freshman list so far midseason.
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  And Abby and I have known each other through playing in California.
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  So we're excited to have her on here, catch up, talk about her first college
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  season, moving away from home, recruiting and what playing in the AAC is like. Nice. Welcome.
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  Welcome. we're excited to have you thank you for having me before we get into
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  like memphis let's kind of talk about like how we're connected like between
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  like pdp cal storm and i swear we like always played against each other or with each other,
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  what's any memories like from back then that kind of like i don't know stand
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  out to you well with pdp going to gothia cup in itself was a big memory,
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  making the finals was really cool and then in terms of storm just like beating,
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  beating oakland soul was pretty,
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  first time for people that don't know gothia cup it's like it's this youth tournament,
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  in sweden it's like it's basically like a youth world cup jayden do you know
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  what it is have you ever you ever you've never heard of it i think i've heard
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  of it like i think i've heard of it but it.
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  Was it was looking a really cool experience like especially in youth soccer
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  like you don't really, you just play people around you.
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  So it was kind of cool to play like different countries. Who do we play?
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  That year. We played a team from Iceland, a team from Sweden, a team from Japan.
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  Dude, the Japan girls kicked our butts. Yeah, they woked us.
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  Yeah. Oh, and you have some girls from Japan on Memphis. Dude, they're so good.
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  They're so good. It's funny because actually some of them are from JFA.
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  So like those scrimmages that we did against them, they still have like,
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  one of my teammates still has like the shirts from it.
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  Oh my God, wait, did she play against us? Yeah, she played against you.
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  She didn't play against me. When you played for like Mustang,
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  that was like your club team, right?
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  How do you think like playing at like an ECNL club level prepared you for college?
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  Well, ECNL has really helped me get ready for college because it's like the
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  highest level of girls soccer in the country.
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  So playing against the best players in my region and the country really helped
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  to get me ready to play against the best players in the country at the college level.
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  What's it like kind of seeing that like girls you grew up playing with or against
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  like now playing against them at different colleges? Like, have you gotten to
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  play other than me, like any other people that you know?
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  Not really, because all of my teammates from Mustang are on the West Coast,
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  so I haven't really played any of them.
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  And then I have a lot of friends in the ACC and the Big 10, Big 12.
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  So I played against one other old teammate of mine, and it was cool to see her.
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  It's so cool to see all the people that I grew up with and played against or
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  played with excelling in their own environments. It's so cool to see.
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  Yeah, definitely. Totally. Talking about your recruiting, what did your recruiting
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  process look like and when did Memphis enter the picture?
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  Okay, so my recruiting process was a little interesting because I had schools,
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  that I thought were going to reach out and then the roster cuts happened.
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  So it kind of slowed down my recruiting process because schools were recruiting a lot slower.
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  Like Memphis entered the picture after like an ECNL showcase in December, like the one in like St.
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  Louis or something like the middle of the country freezing like after that showcase
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  they entered the picture and they offered me a visit and so I went on the visit
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  and just loved it and so I committed.
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  When did Memphis feel like the right like what made it about it like was the
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  visit like it I know on my visit like I was like okay I'm coming here.
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  So I actually had never really heard of Memphis but like I looked into them
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  more I started watching their games I really like the playing style and like
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  how they try we try and keep possession a lot of time.
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  And so then I was like, okay, I can mess with the soccer aspect.
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  Like, what about the school aspect and the coaches and the girls?
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  And then I came and it was just like, the girls were so amazing.
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  They were super competitive on the field, but then outside of the field,
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  they were all going and getting Starbucks and going to class together and like all that fun stuff.
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  And then I wanted like a big school, but not like a private,
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  like also not like a massive, massive school, but also not like a private,
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  like small school. And so this kind of was like a perfect in-between of like
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  it's big, but it's not like super big.
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  And then the coaches just like, I liked how they took control of practices and,
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  they really believed in me and they thought I could do a lot here.
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  And so it made my decision finalized.
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  One of the schools that I went to, the girls were like, it sucks here.
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  I was like, oh, thank you. Yeah, see, one of the schools I went to,
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  I asked them like, what's your coach like?
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  And they were just like couldn't answer like they genuinely had nothing to say
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  and i was like i'll tell you no like automatically cut the cameras like no.
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  But at least they're honest like you would rather that and it's kind of like
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  kind of like girlhood sisterhood kind of thing when they're like they obviously
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  don't want to cook you but they all they like want you to come but at the same time it's like,
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  that's probably not in their best and yeah they're like still trying to be like
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  helpful mentors I guess going from high school life to college life what's kind
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  of been like the biggest difference that you thought like college would be like
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  and then compared to like what it's actually been like,
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  for me I thought I would this sounds kind of like like reverse from normal but
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  I thought I would have more time in high school I was commuting a lot for like
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  school and then for practices and so I felt like a lot of my time I was just driving I was driving,
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  two to three and a half hours a day.
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  And so I was like, without my
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  driving that much, I'm going to have so much more time to just do things.
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  I was not correct about that one because I feel like you just do so many things
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  somewhat spontaneously.
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  You make random target trips. You go randomly play pickleball at night.
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  The side-buster will make it fun, though. Exactly, but it's so fun.
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  It's so fun, but you never expect things like that, so you think you have more
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  time than you actually do end up having.
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  What do you think was like the hardest adjustment for you? Was it like soccer,
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  school, living away from home or just kind of like having to do everything by yourself?
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  I would probably say the biggest adjustment is just like like not necessarily
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  the soccer, but like it's a fatigue.
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  I feel like I was training like two or three times a day back home.
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  But like the level, it's just higher and that's good. But it's also like you
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  get you're going to be more tired.
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  Like i feel like i just was so much more tired and like,
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  like i take more naps like i'd sleep more like,
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  i just i'm more tired than i was even though i was felt like i was doing like
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  the same somewhat schedule just like the level of it is higher so it's like
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  i'm just more tired i think that was my biggest like,
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  adjustment so like how to manage my fatigue level energy.
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  Yeah no i think loki the same in my freshman year i was tired all the time like
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  i would just go home and nap but i think that also comes with like,
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  you're being around like a team the entire time like you're literally with your
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  team i at least we're with our team a lot of the time like we're always sitting
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  with people like your social batteries also gone too so i think like that's
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  something we're taking into account it's like
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  when you're with your when you're in high school like you're either training
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  by yourself you're training like with your team for what an hour and a half
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  and then you're done and then you go drive and that's like,
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  Yeah, you train a lot and stuff, but you're also using a lot more social battery
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  than you probably would before. At least for me, that was how it kind of went,
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  but I agree on that. Coming into preseason, what expectations did you have for
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  yourself and how those changed?
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  I was trying to hold myself to the expectation that I wanted to play in every game.
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  Now that's changed to I want to contribute in goals every game,
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  whether that's assisting or scoring.
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  Like also like obviously like all the individual goals but I'm not really as
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  concerned about minutes I'm kind of just like concerned about like winning and
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  like putting my team in the best place we can to continue to do so and.
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  Like I think it became more team focused than individual yeah I think that's like that's a,
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  hard thing for people to come from like club to like college is like it's not
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  all about you because obviously you're probably one of the better ones on your
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  club team obviously You used soccer to college.
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  What was the biggest jump? Was it like, we always ask, is it speed of play,
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  physicality, decision making? Or like, is it something that's just completely
• 15:57
  off the pitch? Like what?
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  It's definitely probably physicality and speed of play. I mean,
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  like, it's self-explanatory. Yeah.
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  I think everyone's literally just there to, they're just fighting for themselves
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  at that rate. Like, okay, let's move on to AAC.
• 16:14
  Okay. But how would you describe the level of play and the style you've experienced in the AAC?
• 16:20
  Because I've, I don't know, we obviously
• 16:22
  are all in three different conferences. I think this is a cool...
• 16:25
  Cool topic to go over. I don't know. It kind of depends. Every team is different.
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  Like, some play a more kickball style and some play a more possession-based
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  style. It just, it really just depends on the program, I guess.
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  It's just, like, the SEC, I feel like, is known for, like, having the big,
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  strong, fast girls, for sure.
• 16:45
  Not necessarily, I don't, like, eh.
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  Okay, maybe Paige is the next one. Paige is the only outlier.
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  Like, like, they were big and strong. Like, Like, in the state,
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  they were big, like, in terms of tallness.
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  Yeah, I don't know. I feel like you guys just have, like, the big,
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  like, athletic build people.
• 17:03
  Like, I don't know. You guys are crazy. You guys are so strong for no reason.
• 17:08
  Everyone on my team is texting about how sore we are. But it low-key does translate
• 17:13
  into the games. Like, we do. We are pretty physical.
• 17:16
  Big Ten, I feel like you guys are more possession.
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  Compared to the SEC, and I obviously can't speak for the AAC,
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  but I would probably assume it's probably the most position-based.
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  Especially, like you're saying, it obviously depends on the programs and stuff,
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  but I feel like most teams are trying to play. Like...
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  That's, like, the thought process, but then it might not always get there.
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  Kind of, like, last couple things. What would you tell a high school player
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  who's, like, nervous whether they'll be ready for college soccer or not?
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  Like, what would you tell them that they can kind of get themselves ready for?
• 17:50
  Okay, well, I would say start doing your, like, if your coach is sending you
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  what your tests are, start running your tests.
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  I would say like try get on a good semi-pro team for summer ball so you can
• 18:03
  have games to play and stuff because you don't want to go all summer without
• 18:06
  playing any games like it's just not gonna help you i feel like this might be
• 18:10
  really stereotypical like play with boys like,
• 18:13
  the physicality and the level is like play with like obviously a decent team
• 18:17
  like don't play with like a crappy team but like playing with boys i feel like
• 18:21
  really helped me get ready to like be more physical and be more aggressive and,
• 18:27
  make faster decisions like I think that really helped okay last question what
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  do you want to keep improving as you finish out your first season I want to,
• 18:37
  just like keep gaining confidence on the ball individually because I feel like
• 18:42
  I would kind of lack my confidence sometimes and then I also want to be more
• 18:46
  aggressive like going into tackles defensively and like,
• 18:50
  really just using my body to gain an advantage and stuff yeah well thank you
• 18:56
  so much for joining us we really appreciated you coming on here and.
• 19:01
  Uh yeah thank you guys thank.
• 19:04
  You okay well thank you guys so much for listening to this week's big life episode
• 19:08
  and thank you again to abby for joining us and make sure to follow girls soccer
• 19:12
  network on instagram for my content you can find me on tiktok and instagram
• 19:16
  page thompson underscore 30 Okay, you can find me on Instagram and TikTok at jaynarodriguez.7.
• 19:21
  And thank you guys for watching. And we'll see you guys next week.