Freshman Noah Heim catches us up on his first year at Marquette and gives his viewpoint of what redshirting this fall means to him. You can read all the player journals here.
As a freshman goalkeeper looking to redshirt this year, how has that changed your approach in training?
Being a redshirt, you know you aren't going to travel or play. So for me, this means to work not necessarily harder, but smarter. I spend as much time at the field working on what I need to improve on, but I also lift three times a week. I'm really taking this year to fill my potential so over the spring and summer, I can pinpoint what's left to even out my game. Along with this, the two goalkeepers that are traveling need to get their reps in on the days before games. So I usually try to incorporate myself into the drills by finding something to do on the other side of the ball or work on distribution.
What’s been the biggest transition from your schedule in high school compared to college?
The transition was crazy for me. In high school, I woke up, showed up to school, went to practice, went home, and slept. I could easily get enough sleep. In college though, [it's] 8am's every morning, struggle to find time to eat during the day, go to lift, go to rehab, go to more classes, then go to practice. After all of that's done, there's always a mountain of homework to finish along with tutors. It's a struggle to get enough sleep each night. There's definitely less time to breathe during a day in a student-athlete's life.
What’s been a standout moment so far into the season?
There have been a lot of standout moments of this season, but the one that stands out the most to me is when we were playing Georgetown. Wicho [Marquette starter, Luis Barraza] came out on a 1v1 but hesitated a little. The ball was bouncing and as the attacker hit the ball, Wicho went full starfish. When he came down, both of his cleats were studs up. Wicho straddled him and took him down. Luckily, no penalty and the shot bounced off the post. It had me dying of laughter when I watched the film.