Freshman goalkeeper Noah Heim talks about the past fall and starting a new spring. You can read all the player journals here.
After redshirting last fall, what's something you've managed to pick up or work on that you'll utilize next year?
This is kind of a simple answer, but the amount of reps I can do at a time. I think that this is pretty important because you don’t want to pick up bad habits by tiring yourself out too early on in a training.
With more focus on training instead of in-game play, how has this impacted your growth as a goalkeeper?
Goalkeeper is a position that’s pretty much based on experience and the situations that you’ve seen for knowing how to deal with it. Some situations can be replicated in training, but most of the situations cannot. So in a way, I feel like I’ve been missing out on that portion of the position of goalkeeper through my redshirt. On the flipside, I also get more time to tighten up the bolts of my game on game days that I don’t travel with the team through personal practice. There are definitely pros and cons to not playing.
You've finished your first season with Marquette now. How has your view towards the college game changed, if at all?
My views about the college game haven’t changed that much, but my understanding for it has. The way the goalkeeper needs to play with the ball at his feet is insanely different. The quicker that he gets the ball moving again really affects how much time the teammate he plays it to has. I never really understood this and didn’t think that goalkeepers would have that much weight to carry in buildups and breaks. Quickness and quality of ball movement is something that I’ve really started getting grasp on.
Noah is on the right, in the blue goalkeeper jersey. Photo belongs to Louis Bennett.