Ok well as most of you know, I have become a new fan to the sport of soccer. Contrary to popular belief (my friends beliefs) my love of soccer has nothing to do with Erin Clark being nice when she visited the marketing table or Meghan Cunningham being amazing. Really it has to do with 3 people, O'Brian White, Akeem Priestley and Stephanie Labbe.
I remember my first soccer game at UConn. I went with my roommate Errol to a game in August 2006. It was the Men's soccer game that all the freshman go to. I was really cold, UConn was ranked really high...and lost. Needless to say that didn't do much for me.
The next season Aggrey, from the goal patrol, and my roommate Josh, who was in the goal patrol convinced me to go to a game. Finally I went again and saw UConn play South Florida...I was hooked then...We won 5-0...and their goalie pissed me off...Then I saw us against Virginia Tech...enough said. I found out that O'Brian White wanted to meet me and I did meet him and Akeem Priestley at a Goal Patrol meeting. They both were down to earth and just like any other person on campus. I wanted to root for them. Every time I saw them from then on they said hello to me when I past by. On top of that they were so good. O'B could just take over a game and score goals at the right time...like the Tulsa game...or the Cincinnati game. Akeem amazed me with his ability to control the ball.
The last player would be Stephanie Labbe. She is so nice and is so good. I loved watching her play. I never saw the women play until 2008. Ryan Grace convinced me to go. Labbe was so good in goal and was so much fun to watch on TV against WVU and ND in the Big East Tournament. I met her after her soccer career at UConn was over...but I was impressed with her as a person and I feel like if she is representative of the rest of her teammates...then they are good people, who are talented and worth rooting for.
Those 3 people have gotten me interested in soccer...finally...
They are ultimately the reason that I started to watch the Premier League, follow their professional teams and leagues and bought a soccer ball.
On another note...Shauna Musser is really cool...I was introduced to her at a lacrosse game by my friend Meghan Nanfeldt. I was immediately asked by Meghan to tell her who she is. I did... making her the 4th women's soccer player that I've done that too. Today I saw Shauna and she asked me to recite Elizabeth Eng's favorite soccer team...I got it too...Manchester United.
Shauna also looked like she was pretty good at wiffle ball.
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