Latest / The BIG LIFE / Insights From the Soccer Journey; The Shifting Landscape of Youth Soccer.; Canadian Maya Antoine Opines About the Differences Between Canadian and U.S. Soccer

Transcript

Insights From the Soccer Journey; The Shifting Landscape of Youth Soccer.; Canadian Maya Antoine Opines About the Differences Between Canadian and U.S. Soccer · The BIG LIFE

0:04
Hey everyone and welcome to episode two, season two of The Big Life.
0:10
Jordan, we're back. We had our debut.
0:12
The world knows, I should say like, they'll come in. I know very little Swedish.
0:16
So we're doing great. Jordan, how are you today?
0:21
I'm great. I'm great. I'm doing good, Sam. Any day here recording with you is a great day.
0:26
We had an amazing guest on you know it's
0:29
simple you just you get to be with me who wouldn't want that oh
0:33
I may have inflated your ego too much we
0:36
need some humbling um we had
0:39
an amazing guest on an incredible episode I am
0:42
so happy with how it turned out we got
0:45
real honest answers which I think is what
0:48
everyone wants to hear because you get such you know polished
0:51
version most of the the time and we finally got
0:53
like I feel like real honest conversation so no I
0:57
agree I mean I think I know I'm so guilty of
0:59
the media answer and it's things you have to do sometimes like let's
1:03
be honest there is a time and a place for a media answer in
1:06
certain situations and I'm so thankful for Maya
1:09
Antoine our amazing guest to sit down with us and give
1:12
us the real and she even acknowledges she's like shoot should I give you
1:15
the real answer or the real answer and so her
1:18
being willing to sit down and have that conversation like I
1:20
said I think she might be on that edge of maybe being sick
1:23
around of being with me all the time but she's my
1:26
fellow North American here in Sweden and she's required to so I'll
1:29
take it as I can get it awesome awesome
1:32
yeah so Sam we talked a lot about your transition to here um in last episode
1:38
what's the what's last week looked like for you how are you doing yeah I'm doing
1:43
good I actually scored my first professional goal last weekend so we'll take
1:47
that as a win who would have thought Sam Carey scoring goals.
1:50
So we had our final preseason match last weekend, and I'm super excited for this week.
1:57
This weekend is officially my first pro soccer game.
2:00
We've been in preseason, so I don't know if I really count those.
2:04
You don't really count spring games and all that stuff.
2:06
So first conference professional soccer game this weekend, we square off against BK Haken.
2:14
Haken Dries was in the quarterfinals of the Champions League and lost to PSG.
2:18
So an extremely good club. They won the league last year.
2:22
They're extremely talented. I found out I'll be marking a forward who is on
2:28
and is a frequent on the Swedish national team.
2:30
So huge challenge ahead for me. But I am going to be getting my first official
2:35
professional start and an opportunity to play in the game.
2:39
So I'm so grateful for it. I'm excited for it. So when this episode drops,
2:43
it'll be over. So let's just hope it goes well.
2:46
Oh my God. That is so incredible. Oh, that's so exciting. You guys already have
2:50
like starting lineups all set as you go into the game.
2:53
We really talked about it today since we're recording this on Thursday, the game's on Saturday.
2:57
So we have, you know, one more day before like that real pregame,
3:02
but in our practice today, we're going over our attack, how we're breaking things
3:06
down, how we're going to look.
3:07
So with that, it's like mostly the starting lineup.
3:10
And then you have the team that was like basically the scout team.
3:13
So it's pretty clear. We've had the same starting lineup for a while now.
3:16
So yeah, I'm extremely excited.
3:17
And so crazy, crazy time, but it'll definitely also be a moment to celebrate
3:21
and to say we finally made it as a starting professional soccer player.
3:25
Oh my god, that is so incredible.
3:28
Thanks, I'm giddy. How are you? How's this week ahead been for you? How's the knee brace?
3:33
The knee brace, it is still straight. So it has been four weeks since injury now.
3:42
Still have yet to bend my knee. I'm meeting with the surgeon later today who
3:46
hopefully will tell me I can bend my knee at the very least.
3:50
I had been measured for a new knee brace that I can be more dynamic in and hopefully
3:55
play in as soon as it comes in here and start to get that rehab and process going here.
4:01
But for right now, not much has changed. Can't bend my knee.
4:05
So I'm hoping my birthday is Sunday.
4:08
So fingers crossed. Best birthday gift I could ask for is just...
4:13
Him telling me that it's all good and I can take this stupid thing off and at
4:17
least bend my knee and drive. That's all I want to do is drive myself.
4:20
But yeah, so we'll talk a little bit in the post-interview, I think more in
4:25
depth about the injury and things like that.
4:28
We got a bunch of questions and a lot of them had to do with how you deal with injury.
4:32
So I'll talk about that in a little bit. But as a team update,
4:35
we're still in Spring Cup.
4:36
We have our last game here this Saturday in Grand Park.
4:41
So Indiana and then we will be done. You know, spring season's over.
4:46
It's coming to an end here super quick.
4:48
So it's really, really just weird time, you know, as you kind of ramp up and
4:53
soccer's ending, but you still have two weeks left of school here.
4:56
You're looking at finals and all that stuff.
4:58
But yeah, I think the team's excited. Have one last game together and then,
5:02
you know, we'll finish it out.
5:04
Sounds good. Well, hopefully this interview brings you a little bit of joy.
5:08
I know it made me laugh a good amount of times and we hope it does for you as
5:11
well. And everyone, please welcome the amazing Maya Antoine.
5:15
But first, before we get to our interview, I want to tell you guys about our
5:19
amazing sponsor, Unilink.
5:22
As you all know, I am loving my time in Europe playing soccer and I am so excited
5:27
to tell you about a program that I learned about at the United Soccer Coaches Convention.
5:32
If you're in college and playing and you want to keep a foot in the game after
5:36
you graduate, listen up.
5:38
Unilink Soccer has opportunities all over the UK for players who want to keep
5:43
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5:45
For example, let's just say you want to continue your mechanical engineering degree like Jordan.
5:51
Unilink may have a place at a university in Manchester or London to continue
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5:59
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6:14
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Unilink is truly a really unique and amazing platform, and I'm so happy for
6:31
them for being a sponsor of our podcast.
6:34
All right, now back to the interview. All right, everyone, thank you so much for tuning in today.
6:38
And we have a very special guest, someone who I feel like is almost attached
6:42
to my side by need and by force instead of by actual circumstance,
6:48
my built-in roomie now on the road, and my fellow English speaker in Sweden,
6:53
in Maya Antoine. Thank you for coming on the pod.
6:57
Thank you for inviting me. I know it's great to be here. Quite the introduction right there.
7:01
So a little bit of background about who this lovely person sitting in person
7:05
next to me is. I feel like this is like very rare in-person guests.
7:09
Maya came to Norrshipping about a week after me and we've kind of been thrown
7:14
into this ringer of figuring out playing and living in Sweden together.
7:18
She's a really unique journey and something that I think is going to be really
7:21
interesting for our listeners to hear. So we're We're so thankful for you.
7:24
Thank you. Okay, first things off the bat, we claim that you're like a North
7:29
American because you're not from America, but everyone kind of just assumes
7:33
you are because obviously you played in the States, but you're from Canada.
7:38
I think a lot of American people are extremely confused about the fact that
7:42
our youth system is very weird compared to the rest of the world.
7:45
So can you explain a bit about like, what is youth soccer in Canada like?
7:50
You, soccer in Canada is, well, more specifically Ontario, has changed a lot over the years.
7:58
When I was playing, you basically had your house league teams when you're really, really young.
8:05
And then you had rep where you're representing a club.
8:08
And then from then on, you had regionals for a short period of time,
8:13
which was when you got invited into training sessions in between your regular
8:19
club training sessions.
8:21
So let's say you trained with a club like Monday, Wednesday,
8:23
Friday, you train with regionals like Tuesdays and Thursdays.
8:27
And then each region in Ontario would compete and we'd get to play against each
8:31
other and it'd be this huge thing.
8:33
So I got to learn a lot of like got to meet a lot of people that way.
8:36
So basically, when you say Canadians basically know all Canadians,
8:41
yes and no, in terms of strictly soccer speaking, yes. But...
8:48
Because of that, we got a lot of development, especially with different coaching coaches.
8:54
But what ended up happening is that they disbanded the original program.
8:58
I think my age group was the final age group for that happening.
9:02
And they brought in this new league called the OPDL, which is the Ontario Player Development League.
9:08
And that kind of ended up becoming more of what you guys have in the U.S.,
9:14
which is more of a pay-to-play type thing.
9:17
So it's more or less if you have the funding, then you can play in the quote
9:22
unquote elite level that the province can offer you.
9:27
On top of that, Ontario and Quebec, I think Saskatchewan also has one,
9:35
out east in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
9:40
I think Alberta also has one.
9:42
There's these development centers specifically geared to the Canadian Women's
9:48
National Team, like developing the younger groups.
9:51
So each of those provinces that I listed have their own development center,
9:55
and all of them are run completely differently based on who's working it.
10:01
But I ended up joining I was a
10:03
part of the Ontario recs program that's what it's called and I
10:06
went out to BC and spent lived a year out in
10:09
BC and was in their white caps
10:12
recs program as well so very much
10:16
so very different but I'd say there's a lot more focus
10:19
on if you can't afford to pay to play
10:22
like there's other leagues that you can play that are just equally as
10:25
competitive competitive but it's not forcing you
10:28
into this you have to pay to play like a lot of parents were fighting a bat
10:33
back against the obel system and found other leagues and went to other clubs
10:39
so that you could get the proper training and competitive environment that kids
10:43
wanted and needed so yeah.
10:46
Yeah, that sounds honestly a lot like our ODP system, but a lot more organized
10:51
for your entire experience, which is really interesting because that's way different
10:56
than the way things are here.
10:58
It's strictly pay to play. You do high school, club.
11:00
Maybe you play all year round in an academy, but that's really it.
11:04
You'll have like our ODP system, at least in Ohio, is like non-existent.
11:08
So there's really just high school, club, and then you go to showcases,
11:13
whatever, and then you go to college.
11:14
Like that's pretty much the laid out path for you I'd say like what I also thought was interesting,
11:19
like moving from Canada to the states is how much
11:22
like how glorified high school soccer is that
11:25
was my next question for you like that makes no sense
11:28
because for us high school soccer is ass so what is the alternative like a lot
11:34
of girls get trapped playing high school myself included because at the time
11:37
there was no alternative to play high school so what is like the setup for like
11:42
how do you continue like what's that partnership with your club and your school like I mean there is no.
11:49
Partnership there okay like if that makes sense yeah honestly it depends who
11:52
you ask here because a lot of the academy girls feel that way where they're
11:56
just like high school sucks and they'll go and they'll just play with their
11:59
club team year round uh-huh and you're getting I think more of that where you're
12:03
starting to be more specialized in soccer and play at these higher levels and kind
12:07
of just bypass high school altogether.
12:10
However, I am one of the few girls who like, all I ever wanted to do was play high school soccer.
12:14
Like that was the end all be all for me. So like, I loved it.
12:18
And I just can't understand not playing for it.
12:20
Like that's your school. Of course I want to like play high school soccer.
12:25
But you guys also have this weird, not weird.
12:28
The American connection to your school, that's like a loyalty thing.
12:33
There is no school spirit for Canadian schools.
12:38
There is no school spirit for athletics geared to your Canadian school. That's just not a thing.
12:45
In any high school, it doesn't matter how good your team is.
12:48
There is no homecoming. There is a homecoming, but that's just not it.
12:53
The way that you guys go all out, that's not a thing in Canada at all whatsoever.
12:57
River the more and more like I've learned and talked to
13:00
like girls over here about like life I feel like one of the first questions I
13:03
got asked when I moved to Sweden was a girl like and she goes so
13:06
did you go to prom and I was like yeah and she's like oh I saw that in vampire
13:11
diaries and like that shook me like I was like oh my god that is such a uniquely
13:16
American thing like it's so interesting when you kind of pull yourself back
13:21
for a little bit about what you're used to Yeah.
13:23
I didn't even, I guess that is an American thing. I thought everyone went to
13:27
prom. MJ went to prom. I know that. Yeah. Yeah. No, we had prom in Canada.
13:31
Yeah. That's very much so with me. I say it's not American.
13:37
So transferring over in your soccer career, you play college soccer in the States.
13:42
Was that always something you saw yourself doing?
13:44
Like what is that kind of pathway of growing up in Canada then going to college in the States?
13:49
I'm a bad person to ask, especially as a Canadian, because
13:52
i'd say for most people who
13:56
play in canada and want to get a like it's a means to an end so they get they
14:00
want to get a scholarship so that they can get their degree paid for in the
14:05
u.s and then that's about it i never saw myself going to the states to go get it like that wasn't,
14:14
where i that's not what i was thinking of i just wanted to play okay.
14:19
But I got introduced into the Canadian Women's National Team,
14:23
the youth program, very early.
14:25
And because of that, that obviously opened up my options a lot faster and definitely
14:30
easier than most people, I'd say.
14:33
So while a lot of my friends on my club team had gone to showcases,
14:38
like they went to Surf's Cup or whatever the heck the one is in Florida,
14:41
like but and went to a bunch of different ones like I didn't get to do that
14:47
because I was training with U17 national team and because of that my recruitment
14:53
process slash looking at schools was really really different mainly because
14:58
I don't know shit about the U.S.
15:00
Like the only schools that I really know of were Ivy League schools and then
15:05
other schools that I knew that that older players had gone to and attended.
15:11
So those are the only ones that I could be like, yeah, like maybe what about these ones?
15:17
So one of the first schools that I was looking at was West Virginia because
15:21
at that point in time they had two national team players, two Canadian national
15:26
team players, Kittiesha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence.
15:29
And even she was in and out of the pool.
15:33
Riley Foster, she's actually playing pro in Australia now.
15:37
But those are the players that I knew. And I'm like, okay, so if this is an
15:41
environment that they're getting good at, maybe let's check it out.
15:45
And I went there and then I was like, I can't live like this.
15:48
I was like, really? Sorry.
15:51
I really cannot live in the middle of nowhere where the school is the city and that is it.
15:58
Couldn't do that. But yeah, my process moving from high school to university
16:05
was more coaches reaching out to me versus me reaching out to coaches.
16:11
I think the only coach that I really reached out to was Michigan.
16:15
Not Michigan State, sorry.
16:19
And that's mainly because my friend was also going there.
16:23
And then they replied back to me like way too late and was offering me half
16:26
a scholarship. And I was like, I'm not going to go spend money in the States
16:30
when I could spend that and my
16:34
same amount of money and get a doctorate in Canada. Like, not necessary.
16:38
So, yeah. No, it makes sense. So what was like the process for you being a Canadian,
16:44
narrowing down these schools and ultimately descending on Vanderbilt?
16:47
How did that kind of come about?
16:50
I want to say really, it really, really came from a lack of general knowledge.
16:57
Because there's so many schools out there and I had no idea,
16:59
like absolutely no clue.
17:02
And knowing what conferences to be in, like wasn't really sure.
17:06
Like I knew the Big Ten. I heard of the Pac-12.
17:09
I kind of heard of the SEC, which is weird because I ended up in the SEC.
17:15
But it basically ended up coming out down to getting, I've been here for four
17:21
years. I need a degree that's going to do something for me.
17:24
And then can I enter a program that's where, let's say, I'm not necessarily competing against.
17:33
Like, trying to be the star. Yeah. Like, still fighting for a position on the
17:36
field, but not enough where I'm like, just going to get benched the whole time. Yeah.
17:41
So that's kind of what led me to Vanderbilt, basically. I'd say very much so on the academics.
17:49
That was the main seller.
17:53
There's the logo. Basically, the slogan for Vandy is the SEC, the city, the degree.
18:00
And that's what keeps everybody there those
18:04
three things keeps everybody there
18:07
like it doesn't matter what sport you play for and
18:10
if you end up like not playing at all like those three things
18:14
like handcuff you and you're like you know what
18:17
i'm gonna wait it out like it's
18:20
a great it's a great school it's a great city and it's
18:23
a great conference everything else side of that
18:26
that might impact that that's what makes you question your life but
18:29
those three things for sure so this
18:32
podcast originated a college soccer podcast and
18:35
it's been expanded to the bigger life now that i am no longer a college athlete
18:39
like looking back on your college career though like what do you think your
18:44
biggest takeaways after your five years of andy like what do you walk away like
18:47
feeling you learned or growed or like what are the main main moments for you main moments.
18:55
Definitely was, gosh, COVID year. That was a huge moment.
19:01
Not just because like everything basically was thrown out the window.
19:07
Our team was really going through it and we somehow managed to gel at the very,
19:13
very end of the season and was like, you know what?
19:16
This year was completely crap, but it's going to be okay because we're just
19:21
going to go out here and have fun.
19:23
And we did and we balled out and we won the SEC tournament and beat Arkansas
19:29
for the fifth time in a row in the finals.
19:32
I told Sam about the curse that they had but it
19:37
was a great moment I'd say for everyone especially because we we didn't think
19:42
we're gonna make it that far at that point in time because of how poorly we
19:45
played during the season but it was it was great to see everyone come together and really just say,
19:54
we're going to do this together.
19:56
Like we made it this far. We can't go home with a loss. Like this is it.
20:00
So that was a fantastic experience.
20:03
Senior year was a great year, mainly because our team was gelling really well. And I was.
20:12
I think that was the first year I was selected to be captain by my team,
20:16
which I hated, by the way.
20:18
I didn't want to be captain. Really? No, I hated it because I knew there were other people on my team.
20:24
I was like, they have so much better qualities than I do as a true captain.
20:30
And I guess from that, I took that growth to be more, I want to say,
20:35
confrontational and fight for more for my teammates.
20:40
Teammates like if someone's having a really hard time I tell either let my coaches
20:44
know that hey like you need to back off on this person like that they're not
20:48
responding well like can you,
20:50
do something else so that
20:54
was I'd say growth personally from that because it was it was a ride that time
21:01
period but I'd say college athletics as a whole teaches you a lot about yourself
21:08
living with other people that you don't know teaches you a lot about yourself especially,
21:13
when you're in rooms that are way too small so that
21:16
all being said now here we are now across
21:19
the world did you always have
21:23
playing professional in your plan or at what point in your career were you like
21:26
yeah i do want to be a professional soccer player playing with the u-national
21:30
team impacted my scope I want to say a lot and I'd say after the U-17 World Cup in 2018 in Uruguay.
21:41
That was the basically point in time where I was like yeah like I'm gonna go
21:47
pro basically everyone on that team had had the same idea that we all wanted
21:51
to go play pro where that ended up actually coming through post-college was
21:57
an entirely different story.
21:59
But from that point in time, I was like, yeah, I do want to do this for as long
22:05
as I can the rest of my life. I wish.
22:08
But yeah, I do want to do this for as long as I can because...
22:12
Why not? And I would heard from other like older players who had played in Hungary,
22:16
who played in China, who played like all over the world. And I'm like, that's really cool.
22:21
You get to do what you love and you get to travel while you're at it.
22:23
Like that's what more can you ask for?
22:26
Yeah. So how did you get to Sweden?
22:29
How did that happen? Because I saw you had entered NWSL draft.
22:35
Yeah. And then now you're in Sweden speaking English with only Sam Carey.
22:41
Are you guys the only two?
22:42
There that that speak english or how does that work speak only
22:45
english yes yeah we're the only two we have
22:48
three internationals on the team right now there's more
22:51
there's one more coming but the other one's norwegian so she doesn't count she
22:56
doesn't count actually it's very helpful no it's just us two yeah so long story
23:02
short everything happened extra extraordinarily quickly because i didn't get
23:08
drafted and i kind of knew i wasn't going to get drafted as an
23:10
international i kind of was
23:13
planning to be spending this time at
23:16
vandy actually it was not expecting to be here in sweden but you know stuff
23:21
happens sorry to cut in i do think it's important to know i don't think that
23:25
everyone understands that there's only a certain amount of international players
23:28
you can have on a team yeah so on an nwsl roster i believe the number seven
23:32
yeah and so So that being said, it's very,
23:35
very, very rare for a NWSL team to use an international slot on a rookie draft pick.
23:42
So that's kind of why you had that presumption in your brain,
23:45
because it's a very big rarity for an international person to also be a draft pick.
23:50
I feel like there's also the point where it's easier to take the risk on a rookie
23:56
who's a forward and an international than a defender and an international,
24:01
because at least to them...
24:04
Your scoring goals. Mm-hmm.
24:06
They don't see stopping goals as also a benefit, but whatever.
24:09
I think in general, looking at the staff of the draft in general,
24:14
it is a lot more favorable as a forward than as a defender. Yeah, for sure.
24:19
I'm not sure exactly how it works, but there is benefits to still entering the draft,
24:23
even if you're under the impression you're not going to get drafted,
24:25
because that allows you the ability to then play in the NWSL after a certain
24:29
amount of years, like re-enter,
24:31
because if you don't enter the draft, then you're
24:34
not allowed to go back to the states within like five years
24:36
of playing or something one air so it's not five it's one
24:39
so if if you didn't enter the draft you are not allowed
24:42
to play in the nwsl for one year yeah that being said there also is so many
24:46
other perks of keeping your name in the draft versus the visibility you know
24:50
going to camp as an nri and all these different things yeah so i was invited
24:54
invited into camp with for the washington spirit and i I got to train with them,
24:59
which was an amazing experience.
25:02
Despite the short period of time, I grew a lot, which I was extraordinarily grateful for.
25:07
And because of that, I actually ended up meeting Sam and I's mutual agent.
25:13
Because he reached out to me shortly before I ended up going to Washington Spirit.
25:22
So I was talking to him, Gabriel. I was talking to Gabriel a little bit before that.
25:28
And then I got to see him in person before we went to camp at IMG.
25:35
And then from there, I found out at IMG that I wouldn't be receiving a contract from the Spirit.
25:42
And I needed to figure out my next steps. And obviously, as an international,
25:48
it's more beneficial for me to have an agent because I know that I'm more likely
25:53
to be traveling abroad than not.
25:56
So I really like Gabriel. I reach out to him. I'm basically like,
25:59
hey, can you help me out here? Because I'm running out of time.
26:04
The international window is closing.
26:08
And do you have anything for me? So lucky enough, Sam here just moved her butt to Sweden.
26:19
So if it actually wasn't for Sam, I don't think I'd be here at all.
26:22
So once again, she's stuck with me.
26:26
But yeah, because he found this opportunity for Sam, IFK, I ended up also getting
26:34
the opportunity to meet with our coach Torane.
26:38
I actually found out, he told me Monday that there was an opportunity to have an interview.
26:45
You I met with Tarane Tuesday morning
26:49
Wednesday I get the
26:53
message saying okay you have to make a decision you have to make a decision
26:59
like the next like five hours I'm like great and then yeah that was basically
27:05
it and then I was in Florida trying to make a decision to move not even all All of my stuff,
27:13
like just the little stuff that I had in Washington from Florida to Washington all the way to Sweden.
27:20
Yeah. It was like a four-day decision, you know?
27:24
Two-day decision, four-day interaction.
27:28
Yeah. Wow.
27:30
That is absolutely insane. So, like, were you, you were always open to going abroad then?
27:36
Like you wanted to kind of you weren't stuck in the states or doing anything
27:40
like that or wanting to go back to canada or you were always open i guess to
27:45
traveling yeah always open to traveling mainly because i have so many friends
27:49
like a lot of players that i grew up like playing with have moved here like here is in europe here.
27:56
Like I know I'm friends with another girl who's playing actually in this league.
28:01
I can't remember what team she's on right now.
28:03
Another friend who's, I have a bunch of friends who are playing in Denmark.
28:06
One who's actually playing in Norway and lots of friends who are playing in
28:11
France. I know one girl who's playing in Italy.
28:14
So there's a lot of Canadians spread out all over the place, especially in Europe.
28:20
So I knew it was always an option, like always something to look forward to.
28:23
If I could stay in the NWSL, like yeah sure
28:27
it's great because I'm closer to home my parents don't have to book a two
28:29
thousand dollar flight to come see me but you know
28:33
it is what it is it's part of the sport so
28:36
yeah the other thing that's coming around is like that USL Super League was
28:42
that ever something you looked into doing not really not in depth mainly because
28:47
it's just starting and I feel like while other Other teams really might have
28:52
all their stuff together,
28:55
like all their stuff really well organized. I feel like other teams don't.
28:59
And I would rather not be a part of the learning pains process.
29:05
I mean, obviously there's opportunities that are going to be there in the USO,
29:11
but I live in Europe or live in the US for a year.
29:17
I like i think i'm you know i spent my time in the u.s i'm sorry i could leave
29:22
so so you've now been a professional soccer player for what month is it even
29:28
this is literally insane period of time yeah in 2024 what would you say the
29:33
biggest difference from college soccer to professional soccer is,
29:37
Biggest difference I'd probably say is, like, this is all you're doing, basically.
29:45
Like, not to make it sound like anything less than what it is,
29:51
but you're basically now dedicating all your time to being the best version
29:57
of yourself so that you can perform at the highest level you possibly can.
30:01
Like, I don't think I can afford to function off of six hours of sleep and then
30:06
go show up at training and then go to class.
30:08
Like, I would do that shit all the time in college.
30:11
Did it very often, just staying up, doing readings and homework and all that stuff.
30:18
And I'm so glad I don't have to do that anymore. I'm so glad I don't have a
30:22
10-page essay living on my head.
30:24
Like, the lack of stress that
30:27
you have outside of no it's so true it's so
30:30
nice it is interesting because i
30:33
still feel like we have moments like we're at the facility all the time like
30:36
we are working like i feel like people are like oh you just go to training and
30:39
that's it like there is a lot more detailed things like even and like there's
30:44
just aspects of your life that you can focus on more but no i mean we were in
30:48
the facility like even with the nutritionist so that like they had
30:52
us log our food for five days and apparently I extremely under eat
30:55
I've learned but yeah I've never thought about it like I'm like oh
30:58
yeah three days a meal like three meals a day yeah but she's
31:01
like no you need like sufficiently more and yes in the
31:04
weight room more watching film more and all those things so it's like you definitely
31:06
find time to fill your day but it's not the pressure of like oh shoot I have
31:10
a test later yeah yeah and that's very very nice I can like read my book could
31:15
I like to read you know I get to relax yeah I just can't relate in the slightest,
31:22
how's that mechanical engineering degree going gosh it is on earth every single
31:28
day I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking to compete at this level.
31:35
I it's it's just too much it's too much I cannot wait
31:38
for the day where I can just not have an exam just one day no exam that's all
31:43
I want but your guys's life sounds great I'm so happy for you guys so I know
31:52
you guys have only been there for a little bit but can you walk us through kind
31:54
of the day in a life of a pro athlete.
31:58
You should go first me yeah you know you're the guest thank you my voice all the time,
32:03
a very fun day for us and a lot of scenarios
32:06
like our schedule on monday is different than our
32:09
schedule on tuesday but i would say like our most interesting
32:12
days would be like our tuesdays for example so like we
32:15
wake i wake around seven and she lives
32:19
20 minutes away from the stadium you can see the stadium from my
32:21
window so i have a bit of an advantage there and we.
32:25
Have team breakfast at 7 45 once that's
32:28
kind of due activation a little bit of a team meeting
32:31
before training around nine and then
32:34
after training change chill for a
32:37
little bit go eat lunch and then we'll have
32:40
meetings we'll have meetings like we've had meetings with the nutritionists our
32:44
sports psychologists meetings with the coaches watching
32:47
film positional group meetings a bunch of just different
32:50
stuff might be in that chunk of time then i had
32:52
an adventure in Swedish hospital earlier this week because I had to get blood
32:55
worked on so nothing extreme but man that was
32:58
humbling and then like
33:02
from there then we lift around like 1 32 we'll
33:06
do a team lift in our gym in our facility and then
33:09
kind of get home around three and then the rest of the
33:11
day sorry I think that's the best part is like when you're
33:14
at the facility like your brain can be at the facility yes but when
33:17
you're home like you're you're just home yeah you're completely unplugged relax
33:21
yes not okay now
33:25
i need to finish this essay so bad
33:28
no that's the biggest difference it's like i need to like put on my netflix
33:32
and like chill for that yeah for real yeah that's the biggest difference yeah
33:37
that sounds wonderful very very nice so as you go through this process what's
33:42
the biggest takeaway or any sort of advice you'd have to a younger girl who
33:45
who kind of wants to follow your path, GoPro.
33:50
The only thing I'd say is like, keep your options open, like keep an open mind.
33:55
I feel like you'll never know what's going to come up. Like literally you'll
33:59
never know what's going to come up.
34:01
And I don't know, I'd say if you can utilize your network as much as you possibly can,
34:07
like, do stay in touch with people who are going to play pro or going overseas
34:13
or just doing different things just to give you a perspective.
34:17
Because like basically me keeping my network like basically allowed me to figure
34:24
out more what it's like living here in Sweden overseas playing pro but yeah
34:33
that's definitely my takeaway,
34:36
for sure if you would have like seen me sitting on this couch in Sweden like
34:41
five years ago like do you think five years ago you would have ever believed
34:45
like that you ended up here or like what What do you think that journey like you could look back on?
34:49
I think five years ago, like post.
34:53
So I'd be like going into your freshman year. Yeah, going into my freshman year of college.
34:56
I don't think like I'd say like, yes, I would have been able to see that.
35:01
If you'd asked me three years ago if I saw that. No. Absolutely not.
35:06
Definitely getting injured was a huge blow to my confidence.
35:09
And then like playing for my coach, playing in a new formation.
35:15
There's a bunch of other things that happened in my collegiate career that basically
35:20
kind of changed the way I had to play, changed my own playing style a little bit.
35:26
And that was definitely hard to adjust to, especially when you go from playing
35:31
to get better, playing to develop, to playing strictly for winning.
35:35
And I think going from high school to university, that was a huge like mental chain. Yeah.
35:42
Where literally winning means everything and not saying like in other places,
35:48
like winning doesn't mean everything.
35:49
It does, but it's just not, you don't feel that same level of psychological
35:53
pressure in order to win, in order to make sure that you can like stop balls
35:59
and score goals and things like that.
36:03
I'd say that pressure shift is really different because they put that pressure
36:09
on you for four months straight and you don't feel like you're getting any air.
36:15
And then as soon as it's over, okay, now you get to decompress a little bit.
36:21
While here, I feel like it's already an anticipated environment mentally.
36:26
So you already know that, yeah, you are competing to win each week,
36:30
but you're also not playing two games a week.
36:33
Yeah playing Thursday and then like Sunday like that's just I don't know how we did that,
36:40
I'm so thankful I don't have to do that anymore I really don't know how we did that that was,
36:46
feels ridiculous or even in
36:48
I think in the Super League if you're in the Super League and you're like
36:51
in Champions League at the same time too you're playing like three games a week yeah
36:54
i don't know how people do that
36:57
but outside of
37:01
that like do you you kind of know like yeah like you're here to compete you
37:07
are here to do that but this is this is what you're here for you're not here
37:12
to do much else you know you're here to have fun and enjoy the sport that you've
37:18
been playing since you were a little kid.
37:21
Your jersey was too big and it was down to your knees and your shin guards were
37:26
taken up from your entire shin and you were kicking the ball with your shin
37:30
instead of your foot. Yeah.
37:34
No, I feel like that's how it goes at every level you change though,
37:38
where it's like looking back at high school, I'm like, how in the world did
37:41
I wake up at 725, go to school all day, go to practice, then go to club and
37:46
then get back, do homework, I'm like, I couldn't do that now.
37:49
And then like at every level, I feel like you achieve. You're like, how did we do that then?
37:53
Because the older you get, the more I'm like, I need naps. I need more rest. I need less.
38:00
But touching a little bit on, because I think we'll talk about this later,
38:04
because right now I'm currently injured.
38:06
And it's one of the questions I feel like I get the most is how do you deal with an injury?
38:11
How do you deal with that mental kind of turmoil you have to go through to get back and all that?
38:17
It's like, do you want the answer that you want us to tell other people or what
38:22
we actually know for ourselves?
38:24
Because what we actually know is two different things. I agree.
38:29
We're getting a real here. We're getting a real, real different things.
38:33
Because, I mean, obviously, once you get injured and depending on the type of injury it is to.
38:39
It kind of really messes with your head. And I'd say like one thing that's really
38:45
huge is if you can let your coach know that, like to keep checking up on you,
38:51
if you're comfortable with that relationship,
38:54
to keep checking up on you so you don't feel like you've just been discarded.
38:58
Because I feel like depending on your coach, you kind of feel like you're not on the team anymore.
39:03
So, and that's like, with that being such a huge part of your life,
39:07
like that's incredibly massive like
39:10
you can't afford to not be feeling that way like I've
39:15
seen teammates who basically go
39:18
through like really really bad times because that's exactly
39:21
how they felt like they basically didn't care anymore and that's like the hardest
39:27
thing I'd say like as a teammate is to see someone like basically lose their
39:32
ability to care not only for the team but but almost for the sport itself because
39:36
of how hard the injury is on them.
39:40
I'm not going to tell you, stay positive. It's going to be okay.
39:43
No, it sucks. It sucks. It's terrible.
39:47
Speaking from someone who was out for six months last year, like,
39:49
yeah, no, it's really hard to stay checked in, like stay present and in the
39:58
moment while you're watching your teammates.
40:00
But for me, I took more, I ended up taking more of a coaching role.
40:06
That's like, so that ended up helping my game a little bit more,
40:08
just talking to players and telling them, like, yeah, this is what you can do better.
40:13
Like, this is, I see you doing this, you're struggling, that's fine.
40:17
But this is also option. This is also an option. This is what you can do better.
40:22
But I'd say as an injured athlete, like, don't forget the other things that make you happy, too.
40:27
Like, make sure you get to spend the time, like, if you like going to the movies
40:31
with your friends, make sure you, like, schedule that time in and make sure
40:35
you do that because that's more important so that when you do get back on the field,
40:39
you're at a happier state overall and you're not just like,
40:43
okay, finally I'm back on the field, but I'm still miserable as a person. Yeah. Yeah.
40:49
That's, yeah. That's the truth of it. it and the other
40:52
thing I think people get wrong about injuries is they feel like you have
40:55
more free time now because you're not playing no like
40:58
you still have to go to lifts and trainings even if you're
41:01
not competing then you have to do additional rehab and then
41:04
once you can do actually like running or anything else
41:07
you're adding that in on top of everything you have to like it's
41:10
so much more time consuming and people are
41:13
like oh like you have all this free time now you're not playing like
41:16
no i still have to go to everything plus more it's like
41:20
no it's worse it is way worse like
41:23
i'm getting there before everyone and leaving last like
41:26
no well even in like and in jordan's case you know i'm
41:29
sure as many like you also can't really walk there on your
41:32
own so you're relying on rides and friends and roommates for
41:35
rides and teammates and so it's like hey can you
41:38
take me to this doctor's appointment can you take me here like that has
41:40
to be like the extra burden of that that too yeah yeah and
41:44
because I can't drive myself too it's like you're there
41:47
but then I'm also like waiting around for people to
41:50
finish their classes and their things to take me so it's like
41:53
these weird gaps from where I could go home or do different things like I'm
41:56
just staying at the facilities because like I'm not walking home like I can't
42:02
so it's like these weird time consuming just scenarios that you're in that people
42:06
I think just a huge misconception around injury is that it's more freeing and it's just not.
42:12
I think Jordan really wanted to get something off her chest there.
42:14
And it did. It's so annoying.
42:17
It's like my own father too. And my parents are like, oh, like,
42:20
what are you doing with all this free time? I'm like, what are you talking about?
42:23
There's no free time. There's no free time. There's no free time.
42:28
And I was, because I was injured during like my last semester,
42:31
like before graduation, like it just felt worse because I was exhausted.
42:36
Because I was trying to do I'll try to get my fitness up so that when I got
42:40
back to running it wouldn't be as bad so what I'd be doing I'd get in the pool and swim in the pool,
42:48
instead of running so I'd be in the pool in the morning and then go watch practice
42:53
lift with the team like do my own lift with the team and then go to class and
42:59
then in class I'm like physically
43:01
exhausted because not only have to do with the fact that like,
43:05
I can't walk properly, like I'm walking in a boot or I'm taking my scooter around.
43:11
Like it was just so, it was just so mentally draining overall as a whole,
43:14
like not even losing the time.
43:17
Like you are constantly mentally exhausted.
43:21
Know it's tough it's just it's just not easy to deal with oh my gosh jordan
43:27
you got anything else no no i think you covered it.
43:35
Well maya i honestly think this is one of my favorite interviews thank you so
43:40
much for being so real telling us honestly the reality because like i haven't
43:44
even thought about like an international going to college and yeah the differences
43:47
in life and then doing it again so I'm doing it again.
43:51
Here we are. I'm so happy you're stuck with me and Steven.
43:54
I don't know if you're as happy about it that I am, but it's fine.
43:58
I'll grow on you. If it makes you feel any better, I'm very,
44:00
very excited about anything.
44:03
So I am happy to be here with you. But while your energy may be up here, I am.
44:09
No one can match Sam Carey's energy. I have learned that. She is on a whole
44:14
different planet with that.
44:16
Yeah. I'm definitely for both me and you. It's all right. It's all right.
44:20
You shouldn't see nothing the hotel you guys like you the roommate dynamics
44:24
and everything you're like polar opposite on absolutely everything and it was incredible.
44:31
Not everything just most things just most things i
44:33
like to be about 30 minutes early to everything she's like right on
44:36
time not late but right on time yeah i'm like
44:39
blast music taylor swift like let's go she's like
44:43
singing her adele turning tables sad songs
44:46
in the shower i'm like early to
44:49
bed she's chilling up a little bit later we had
44:51
our vibes yeah yeah we did i feel like we'd be more similar we're more on the
44:56
same level than than you sam i see just come to sweden and come hang out it's
45:01
simple all right i'll book at the flight say let's ready that's true oh my gosh
45:07
well thank you so much for coming on you've been an absolute legend i'll let you walk home now,
45:11
i kidnapped her to be here oh no you're right
45:14
that walk-ins it's fine it's not
45:17
writing anymore more it'll be fine valid valid sun came out in Sweden yes
45:20
the sun came out all right Maya thank you again
45:23
so much for coming on I really hope people got what I
45:26
got out of that like I had a blast she's an amazing human being
45:29
an incredible soccer player but honestly I'm just so
45:32
glad she was willing to come on here and talk a bit about that journey you know
45:35
I've never really thought about an internationalist perspective of going to
45:38
college and how their system's so different in Canada even though it feels like
45:42
oh yeah it's just Canada it's not that far away and that transition transition
45:45
period of transitioning from being Canadian to the US so so so thankful for
45:49
Maya for sharing her experience and I hope it helps some people out.
45:53
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it was one of my favorite,
45:56
if not my favorite interview we've done thus far.
45:58
And I highly recommend everyone go ahead and give it a listen because it was
46:02
a perfect balance between super knowledgeable on what she was talking about and funny.
46:07
And I can't get over how she called her ankle a loaf of bread.
46:10
So that was my favorite part.
46:11
It's a new thing. Season two is going strong already. Let's go, guys.
46:16
All right, Jordan. I have recently found out that Jordan has been basically
46:20
sleuthing and a ton of people has been asking her questions and the Ask Me Jordan area is hitting up.
46:26
So once again, listeners, our DMs are always open for questions.
46:30
Girls Talker Network's DMs are open for questions.
46:32
Anyway, you can contact us with all this link is always in our podcast notes.
46:36
Please do if you have questions for the pod. So Jordan, I know you said a lot
46:40
of them were kind of talking about injury and different things like that.
46:43
What were some of the questions about injury and what is your response?
46:47
Is that something you're living through right now?
46:49
Yeah. Yeah. One of the questions I got out a lot was dealing with injury.
46:52
It is a huge part of the game, unfortunately, especially with women's soccer.
46:57
I think we are one of the highest injury sports that you see in terms of,
47:01
especially with your knees.
47:03
And it's just, it's an unfortunate part of the game that you deal with at all levels.
47:08
You know, there's obviously varying levels of injury from soft tissue to ankle
47:12
injuries to knee injuries where you're out for weeks compared to months and all of that.
47:16
But no matter, I think the timeline of it, being injured is hard.
47:20
And you heard it in the interview, it is just incredibly difficult.
47:24
And I think for me, and I can only speak to my experience because that's all
47:28
I know, I was injured and we talked a bit about it coming into my junior year
47:34
and the difficulties surrounding that injury where I was out for three months with an ankle injury.
47:38
And that was hard because I couldn't train, I couldn't practice,
47:41
I wasn't cleared until the first day of season.
47:43
But I wasn't missing anything with my team. It was individual development time
47:48
in the summer that I was missing and preseason.
47:52
And then I was cleared and it was working my way back into things.
47:56
And I think I struggled with confidence that took a huge hit because I didn't
48:01
feel like I was prepared for season.
48:03
I wasn't fit enough. I wasn't technical enough or tactical enough because I hadn't been training.
48:08
I just wasn't prepared or confident with my ability to perform.
48:11
And I think it strongly impacted my junior year.
48:14
I mean, I wasn't happy with my performance on the field. And I think a large
48:18
part of that was because of that.
48:21
I think with this injury that I'm dealing with now, which is a torn PCL.
48:27
It's harder because of the timeline, along with the fact that I'm sitting here
48:34
watching my teammates train.
48:36
I'm sitting here watching my coaching staff coach, and I don't get to be a part of that.
48:43
And I think what Maya said was like, you don't really feel like you're a part of the team.
48:47
And for me, I loved high school so much. I loved it and the biggest lesson I
48:54
learned from it was how quickly it goes.
48:58
This impending feeling of almost doom where like you're waiting for the clock
49:03
to end because you know how much it's going to hurt and I knew how much it hurt
49:06
saying goodbye to high school but for high school there was a very clear path for me.
49:12
There's a story already written and while you know the pages weren't filled
49:16
the title was there. I was going to Michigan State.
49:19
I was going to play soccer. I was going to get a degree.
49:21
College is a completely unique experience to high school. It's almost uncomparable.
49:25
You do so much growing and you're independent, but you're not an adult yet. It's very different.
49:31
But in a lot of ways, it's still the same.
49:34
Whereas post-college, it's just the rest of life.
49:39
There's no defined path that you kind of follow. It's just life.
49:43
And for me, I was hyper people are aware of time and how important it was and
49:48
the moments that once they pass, you can't get them back.
49:52
This is a lesson I think a lot of people learn too late.
49:55
And it's something I was always aware of when I got here. And it's been a blessing
49:59
and a curse because I feel like every milestone that I hit as I went throughout
50:03
my process, it was a countdown.
50:05
It was one out of seven, two out of seven, three out of seven,
50:08
because that's all you get. It's all I get is seven semesters.
50:12
I don't have a fifth year. I don't have a COVID year. It's seven semesters and I'm done.
50:16
The thing that has defined my life for as long as I have known being an athlete is over.
50:22
So I think what the struggle is now for me is as I'm sitting here,
50:26
I'm also watching that clock tick down.
50:29
I won't be cleared until probably end of May.
50:33
Hopefully I'll be fully cleared, but then I'm still gonna have to get back into
50:37
things and all that. So I'm looking at June.
50:41
July, August, September, October, and November. And November is not even guaranteed.
50:46
That's if you're lucky, which is six months.
50:49
And that's six months until I have to figure out the rest of my life.
50:54
Six months until the thing that has defined me, being an athlete, will be over.
50:59
And I think that's the hardest part for me right now.
51:02
It's just like watching the clock tick down. and I
51:06
wish I had more advice for people about it but I think if I were to say anything
51:13
it's been leaning on my other teammates who are injured knowing that I'm not
51:16
alone in this you know being able to relate to them on that level because it is super unique,
51:24
I think it's just this constant bandle with your mind where it's, I want to be great.
51:29
I want to be good. There's things I can do off the field. Like,
51:32
what can I do? It's not like I can really train.
51:34
You know, maybe I can watch film and games and trying to learn.
51:39
But at the same time, I'm almost convincing myself or trying to protect myself,
51:46
I think, that I don't love it as much because it makes it easier when it goes away.
51:52
You're like trying to be okay with not playing right and you're trying to process
51:58
that while also still trying to stay in love with the game and do all this stuff
52:03
and and stay motivated to be good but you're not able to do anything or act
52:08
on any of those feelings and it's this really weird,
52:11
kind of yin and yang going on in your head about what you want to do and I think
52:16
I think what I've learned is that you have to stay in it.
52:21
I think what Maya said about trying to be a coach, watching film,
52:25
talking to your coaching staff, I think is a huge part of it because it's hard
52:30
to keep that connection when you're not playing because you are a player.
52:34
You're a soccer player, right? That's why you were recruited here.
52:37
And when you're not on the field, you feel as if you have no worth.
52:40
So being able to still provide in different aspects, I think is huge to keep
52:47
you motivated and keep you in it.
52:49
But yeah, I think it's just being injured is incredibly difficult.
52:55
That's what I've learned from it so far. And, you know, I'm sure hopefully in
52:59
a couple weeks here when I can start doing more rehab and doing things like
53:03
that, my opinions and feelings on it will change.
53:08
But for right now, hopefully someone's going to take something away from it.
53:13
It's one that you're not alone.
53:14
Everyone gets injured. It happens and that you can't let that one side win where
53:21
you're convincing yourself that it's okay not to play and that you don't love it.
53:25
And this is all like, you know, it doesn't have as much value as it does because
53:31
you're never going to believe yourself, first of all.
53:33
And second of all, it's only going to hurt you in the end when you can do that
53:35
rehab have and you can start training again.
53:39
Yeah, I think that's my takeaway. I think Maya said it best in the sense of it sucks.
53:46
You know, and I'm I'm gracious that it's not something I've had to tremendously
53:50
deal with. Knock on some wood.
53:53
But I think just acknowledging that it sucks, like we don't have to be the optimist and it's fine.
53:58
And oh, my God, I'm so happy for the team. Like you can do that and acknowledge it sucks.
54:03
And I think so much of it is we are very easy to cast aside and be like, oh, like.
54:09
She's fine she's being dramatic it says it's not
54:12
that bad it doesn't hurt that bad like okay i
54:15
could have tough through it like it sucks and i
54:18
think just like being real and honest and saying that like i want to thank you
54:22
in that but also like it sucks and it's okay to say that and you're not a bad
54:27
person you're not a not tough person you're not enough strong person by saying
54:31
that this sucks it's that simple the one thing like i'm gonna say to you jordan
54:35
i understand we're recording this,
54:36
but I think this is a really unique thing that we have is that I am a year older than you.
54:42
And I feel like the same conversation that you're having about, dang, I have six months.
54:46
It's different in a sense of I, once again, I had no idea my path was by far
54:51
from written, but I knew where I wanted to go.
54:53
I knew what the plot point of book number two was going to be in my journey.
54:59
That being said, like you don't right now. And that's okay. hey,
55:02
the number one thing though is you can't look and watch that clock time down
55:06
because time goes so much faster when you're watching it tick down and when
55:10
you're not living in the moment.
55:11
And that's like the stupidest and hardest thing to do.
55:14
And like, I remember my college coach telling me this and I was like,
55:17
David, please shut up. Like you're not helping right now.
55:20
But if there's one thing I wish I would have known going
55:23
into my fifth year is the last thing you can think about is december
55:26
and november it's all about august 1st
55:29
or like whatever the day is at that time and so
55:32
like your last season is something so special and it's
55:36
something like i'm really looking forward to talking about because i think there's
55:39
so many moments in your last season that affect you in ways that you don't realize
55:43
or comprehend you know one try i'm going to draw is like i was talking to my
55:47
mom the other day and like caitlyn clark legend amazing you know i'm so So lucky
55:53
to have been at Iowa at the same time that she was.
55:55
And it was interesting because there was so much correspondence,
55:57
I feel like, about her early games in the tournament being some of her worst
56:00
games her senior year. And why was it...
56:03
I would have to heavily say, and she even kind of acknowledged it in an interview,
56:07
she didn't have the weight of her last game being in Carver-Hawkeye Arena being a loss.
56:11
And that extra pressure of your last game, your last moment, your last tournament,
56:16
adding that to your plate, I can honestly say, man, some of my worst games in
56:21
my college soccer career, I think my worst game was our first round against
56:24
NCAA against Bucknell last year because I was so worried about it being my last
56:28
game at the Iowa soccer field that I didn't play.
56:31
Play and so there's a way or you have to find a way and this is the challenging
56:35
part to separate all those lasts with the reality of it because if you don't
56:40
think it's your last then you also enjoy the weight of it but also not letting
56:44
it weigh you down and so that'll be the journey that you're on now that I had
56:48
to deal with and hopefully I can help you along the way with that.
56:51
Yeah yeah I think that's incredible advice because that's not something I really
56:55
thought about because the number one advice I feel like most people give you
56:58
is to enjoy it because of how quickly it goes.
57:01
But I think there is something really important in realizing that you can't
57:07
add that pressure and it's not the way to the world on it because then your
57:10
performance does get hindered.
57:12
And something I guess I never really thought about. So thank you for that.
57:16
Anytime. All right. Hit us with a happy question. What's another question you
57:19
got hit with that we need to discuss before we wrap this up?
57:22
Yeah. Another question I got with, whoa, another question I got asked,
57:28
there we go, is how accommodating are professors with athletes traveling for games?
57:34
Okay, great question. I think this is, blanket statement, this is going to vary
57:39
by your degree, this is going to vary by your school, this is going to vary
57:42
by your personality and relationships. Those are the three things I think it varies by.
57:47
Myself, I've had a dream scenario. I was at the University of Iowa,
57:51
which is the epicenter of women's sports, if I'm going to be honest,
57:55
in this time period right now, I'll call it that. I know many people in Iowa have.
57:59
It was in a small college. So I wasn't in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
58:04
I was in the College of Public Health.
58:05
So it was a smaller college. And I was the second student athlete to ever be
58:09
the major that I was. Because of all of that.
58:14
Professors didn't know how to deal with student-athletes, and often that went in my favor.
58:18
My classes were small enough that I would walk into class and my professor would
58:21
be like, hey guys, by the way, the Iowa women's soccer team did this last night.
58:24
I had a professor give extra credit for going to my games.
58:28
So the whole class, 150-person class, was at my game with signs for me.
58:33
So incredible experience.
58:35
I also had professors take, like I had classes that were in person at 8 a.m.
58:40
And that was during our practice block. but because my major was so small,
58:43
that was the only time they offered.
58:45
They let me take the class completely asynchronously and online to accommodate for that.
58:51
So I had a dream scenario where everything was able to be accommodated,
58:55
but I also know that that's not a reality for every single person.
58:59
Yeah, I think I had an opposite experience, but quickly follow up to that.
59:03
Do athletes struggle to keep grades up with team requirements?
59:07
Oh, once again, I think this just depends on who you are as a person and what
59:12
you're willing to balance.
59:13
I see my life. I always have, I think since high school, I called it the three
59:18
S's school, soccer, social.
59:21
Those are the three prongs of a triangle. And you're never going to have all three.
59:25
Like, and at certain periods of life, you're going to have two of the three
59:29
over the summer. You don't really need school. That's for social and soccer.
59:32
You know, that being said, fall is for school and soccer and sometimes one more than the other.
59:39
And so it's being able to understand what are you willing to give up?
59:43
Because you're not going to have the normal college experience.
59:46
You're not. You're not going to have all these things. That being said,
59:49
you have soccer and you have school.
59:51
And so when you prioritize it right, I don't think I overly struggled with the balance.
59:58
That being said, you have to be willing to prioritize it right.
1:00:01
Yeah. Me and you, I think, had very opposite experiences with this.
1:00:07
Being an engineer, I struggled a lot with professors accommodating for missed
1:00:14
assignments or things of that nature, more so than other majors,
1:00:19
and I think more so than other universities as well.
1:00:21
I think all of that varies greatly on the major you choose and the school you go to, like you said.
1:00:28
Engineering, Engineering for me, I found at Michigan State, a lot of times they
1:00:31
built into the syllabus that for no matter what reason, if you are missing,
1:00:36
you get a zero, whether that be exams sometimes or attendance points or regardless
1:00:43
of what it was, you get a zero.
1:00:45
And you know I've
1:00:48
had it where I normally thrived
1:00:51
academically because of things out of my control
1:00:54
where I'm here representing the university I'm still getting zeros on exams
1:00:59
which you know there's been times where like completely honestly I had to retake
1:01:04
a course because you get a zero on a 30 exam like there's only so much you can
1:01:09
do to make up for that you know like it's engineering too. It's not like I'm
1:01:12
getting hundreds on everything else.
1:01:15
So it's been hard in that aspect. We've had long battles with my academic advisor
1:01:20
and some of the professors trying to figure out balances.
1:01:24
A lot of times what we've kind of come to the compromises is I get capped at
1:01:30
like 60 to 70% of whatever my exam score is.
1:01:34
So if I miss it and take it, I can only get like a 70%, even if I get a hundred percent on the exam.
1:01:42
And that's hard. You take a hit academically there.
1:01:47
So yeah, I found that they're a lot less accommodating for me than other majors.
1:01:50
I've had people where they'll take online exams or they'll get released late
1:01:54
or early, and it's really no issue at all.
1:01:56
They are super accommodating. They love their athletes, things of that nature.
1:02:00
For me, I think it's just been a bit harder, and that's because of the degree I chose.
1:02:05
Do athletes struggle to keep grades up with team requirements
1:02:08
again this is largely dependent on your major I'll
1:02:12
speak to engineering because like I said that's all I know I've seen a
1:02:16
lot of my teammates thrive we have a high GPA I think overall like yes you struggle
1:02:20
but you have to be super disciplined with it and I think there's a lesson in
1:02:24
that you know just being super time focused time management if you're disciplined
1:02:29
in your academics a lot of times it translates to the field where you are able
1:02:32
to be more disciplined as a player.
1:02:34
With engineering, there's only a handful of us that I've seen.
1:02:39
I've found that it's very hard and very rare. I haven't really seen someone
1:02:43
thrive at both academics and athletics.
1:02:46
Usually one of them suffers and it will switch. You know, sometimes you'll be
1:02:51
great academically, but not thriving athletically and vice versa.
1:02:57
Other thing I found is that it depends on sport. With soccer,
1:03:00
you can't go and train on your own if you have a class at that time or a conflict.
1:03:04
You have to go to training. It's a team sport. My roommate, she's on gymnastics
1:03:08
and she's also a mechanical engineer.
1:03:10
She makes up a lot of her trainings with just her coaching staff.
1:03:14
You can do gymnastics on your own, which I thought is super unique and not as much with soccer.
1:03:23
Personally, yeah, I think you struggle with that aspect and you have to be hyper
1:03:26
aware of that when you're picking a major and deciding on competition level of soccer.
1:03:30
How high of a level do you want to compete at? And if you want to compete at the highest level,
1:03:35
I would recommend either picking a major that isn't going to be a full-time
1:03:38
job on top of it or extending your degree to the point where you'll have extra
1:03:43
time to make up some of those harder classes.
1:03:46
The other thing I would recommend that I wish I knew when I was younger is once
1:03:50
you commit, go on your school's website,
1:03:52
your transfer portal, see what credits transfer in
1:03:55
and take some like community college classes before you
1:03:59
go in that summer or look at them take some ap classes whatever university
1:04:03
offers that will transfer in and you can get ahead
1:04:05
of your degree which will make it a billion times easier once you get here to
1:04:10
manage those expectations but yeah that's what i advise all right well i've
1:04:17
talked enough about school and i am not a college athlete anymore sorry bud
1:04:20
that i'm exhausted from hearing you talk,
1:04:24
so for those who tuned in thank you so much once again we're always here for
1:04:28
questions we want to keep answering them we want to be honest and real and raw
1:04:32
about our experiences thank you again to maya for being an incredible incredible
1:04:35
guest and thank you for tuning into the big life bye guys.