Player Journal: Erin Scott - March 2017

Last week you committed to Campbell University so you have a lot to catch us up on. Walk us through the steps that led you to Campbell.

Well I am very fortunate to know the people that I do because the opportunity I had with Campbell was possible because of some people that have seen me play and basically put in a good word. There was a lot of thought that went into my decision but ultimately, when I got on campus at Campbell there was a culture within their team that was truly top notch. When I took my official visit, the entire time I could see myself at Campbell in the fall. Spending time with the team was a blast and I felt like I fit in right away. The entire coaching staff at Campbell are so invested and truly committed to what they are doing and have an end goal and I knew I wanted to be a part of what they were trying to accomplish.

To be completely honest, I left Campbell knowing I wanted to be there in the fall. Of course I had other amazing schools and offers to consider, but the feeling Campbell gave me makes me so excited for the first day of preseason.

Is there any advice you’d give to a player thinking about transferring?

Everyone always thinks of transferring as a terrible process but I have been very lucky and it truly has not been hard for me at all. I actually knew I wanted to transfer back at the end of the fall semester and I had asked for my release then, planning on transferring at the end of the fall semester. When I realized my intended timeline wasn’t going to line up, I had a conversation with my coach asking if he would allow me to train with the team in the spring since I was still going to be there. He was supportive of me and my decision and allowed me to continue to work out with the team.

I approached the entire situation in a very respectful manner and I am very glad I did because I realize that the respect is truly mutual. My teammates were completely supportive of my decision as well and have not treated me any differently in the spring while I have been training with them, knowing I am transferring. I have a leadership role on the team now and that also has not necessarily changed much. The entire process of transferring is not as bad as it is perceived to be. Approaching the situation with respect and transparency is definitely the best way to go. Just being honest with your coaches, and hopefully they will support you and want you to be successful wherever you go.

I think there’s a perception that a player only leaves a school if they hate every aspect of that school, which doesn’t seem to be your case. So how do you look back on your time at Creighton? 

That is definitely not the case for me, in fact, one of the reasons I chose Campbell was the similarities it has with Creighton. The one thing I love the most about Creighton, and Campbell for that matter, is the community aspect of the school. I will look back on my two years at Creighton and be very grateful for them and truly cherish the friendships and experiences that I have had. I am incredibly grateful for my teammates now because,  although everyone knows I will be transferring, I am not treated any differently on or off the field. Some of my teammates now will truly be friends for life and I have them to thank for so much.

My coaches have also had a bigger impact on me than they know. I cannot possible begin to thank everything my assistant coach, Stephanie Rigamat, has done for me. She has shaped me into the player I am in many ways. My goalkeeper coach, Luke Baxter, has also been vital in where I am today on and off the field. He has developed me and made me a better player and makes coming to early morning practices worth it. It is truly inspirational to have coaches that love what they do so much. Although my time at Creighton is wrapping up, I am ecstatic for the future and whatever it entails. I can’t even express how excited I am to get to Campbell and start this next chapter of my life.

Player Journal: Noah Heim - March 2017

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.

Player Journal: Eric Klenofsky - January 2017

Eric Klenofsky just recently finished his senior year at Monmouth University and without a moment's rest, was on trial for Everton. Klenofsky joins the site's player journal section where he'll be giving us an update on his career once every other month. This month, Klenofsky elaborates on what makes Monmouth unique and how he ended up training with Everton.

For anyone that’s followed you, you’re obviously a big supporter of your school, Monmouth University. What about Monmouth makes it a great school?

I think my affinity for Monmouth runs much deeper than the school itself. Loyalty is very important to me in all aspects of my life, not just with Monmouth. Supporting what makes me, me, has always been the way I’ve done it from a very young age. For example, I could have played in the US Development Academy when I was younger but I chose not to. I started playing with TSF Academy at eleven years old and I played for them every single year all the way up to the U23 level. Same goes for my high school. I went to a private school named DePaul Catholic and I could have transferred, I could’ve gone to a few other schools but I’m loyal to the people who believe in me and support me and that will never change. If you support me and genuinely care for my well-being I’ll never turn my back on you. That’s why I stayed at TSF, DePaul and Monmouth. All three of those institutions were full of immensely knowledgeable people and they all provided me with resources that could get me to the next step in my life, but more than anything they were full of people who cared about me. And that genuine care is something I value and one of the reasons I love Monmouth so much. The campus is beautiful. The facilities are great. I had everything I could ever want in that school, but it’s the people. It’s the people that make the difference for me.

I was committed to Southern Methodist University from April of my junior year to the spring of my senior year and a day before signing day it all fell apart. But I want to be clear: there is no malice when I say that. What is meant to be will be and the coaching staff was just doing what they felt was best for them to keep their jobs and I have no grudges or anything like that for the decisions they made. That being said, the Monmouth coaching staff had nothing but belief in me. They gave me an opportunity and went to bat for me when many others looked away and they’ve done that time and time again throughout my whole college career. People like that are what makes Monmouth, Monmouth; a small division one school that does it the right way and will gladly punch above its weight whenever asked. And if you cut me open I’d happily bleed Monmouth blue.

Monmouth isn’t in the typical powerhouse conferences when it comes to national exposure. Now you’re getting a lot of buzz from not only training at Everton but also the MLS draft coming up here in January. How has the school responded with you moving on to the pro game?

Like I said before Monmouth is full of people who genuinely care about my well-being, whether the support is coming from our Athletic Director Dr. McNeil or the student body or even the Student Center workers. (Shout-out to my man AJ!) The support I’ve gotten from the Monmouth community is unprecedented and I can’t put into words how grateful I am for that. I’ve definitely gotten a good amount of "remember me" texts, which are pretty funny for me because like I said, I’ll never turn away or cut someone off that has my best interests at heart.

I think the story that sticks out in my head that just really epitomizes the Monmouth community comes from the day after we lost at Siena. After I lost my last ever collegiate game, after one of my hardest seasons ever both emotionally and physically, I wrote down my thoughts and tried to pay some sort of tribute to Monmouth and I tweeted and posted on Facebook what I had written. I poured everything I had into those couple paragraphs in an attempt to show my gratitude to Monmouth and I think everyone that read it immediately understood how much I cared for my school. So I posted it that night and went to bed. The next morning I woke up to a ridiculous amount of notifications between both accounts. My phone continued to vibrate all day long with nothing but love and support. But that is not what makes Monmouth different and that is not what makes this story so important. With my hood up and my head down, I walked through campus that day still trying to get over the realization that my college career was over. I heard a voice coming from my right side yelling my name, about twenty yards away. I picked my head up and saw one of the groundskeepers raking leaves looking up at me, someone I had never seen before in my life. He walked over and told me how much he liked what I wrote last night and congratulated me on a great career. That’s the kind of thing that makes Monmouth, Monmouth. It’s a family, and I’m so thankful I got the chance to spend four years in West Long Branch.

Tell us a little bit about the journey to England. How does a goalkeeper go from New Jersey to training with Everton?

The story of how I got to England really just screams 2016 all over it. For starters, thank God for social media. I got to Everton through a Facebook instant message from a man named Guil Salgado. While I was playing for the New York Red Bulls U23s he explained how he saw me play, searched my name, found all my videos on youtube, then did the same search on Facebook, found my profile and sent me a message. He said he thought I was good enough and that he was going to send my videos to a few clubs in Europe. Initially when someone random on Facebook starts throwing around names like Everton and a few other big clubs the natural reaction is to be skeptical, as I was, until I got an email from the Everton U23s Goalkeeper coach Andy Fairman. I remember looking at my phone with one of my teammates and saying something like “this has to be some kind of joke”. As we now know, it wasn’t a joke. I talked with Andy on and off throughout the next couple months until the trial was set and everything was in order.

The 2017 MLS draft is on January 13th with the MLS Combine running from the 8th-12th. Klenofsky is one of six goalkeepers invited to the combine and is currently projected as a first round prospect.

Player Journal: Erin Scott - October 2016

Erin continues her player journal with her second entry, this time a mid-season checkup. Creighton is currently 8-4-2, sitting fifth in conference, and are needing to finish in the top six to make the conference tournament. You can read all the previous posts by Erin and the other goalkeepers here.

You’ve split time with freshman goalkeeper McKenzie Meola this season. How has this changed your approach to the season?

Of course, splitting time has been frustrating and a bit discouraging but I can honestly say it has changed my outlook towards many aspects of my life, not just soccer. I have found that I approach practices much differently. I think I am at a point where I am training better than I ever have because I know I have something to prove. Rather than personally fixing problems that may have happened in a game the previous weekend, I really just focus on bettering myself and my skills overall. I have also been very nitpicky with myself in training sessions, really focusing on having clean hands or extending my range on those full extension saves. I have raised my own personal standard drastically. Finally, and I feel most importantly, this season has truly taught me that soccer is not everything. Splitting time has allowed me to step back and see things from a different perspective. I believe that soccer is a huge part of who I am, but I have come to understand that there is more to life besides soccer.

How has an improved season affected the locker room?

There is definitely a noticeable difference in the mentality of the team this year in comparison to last year. I would say the biggest difference is how close all of us are. We basically start every day together at practice and then we all go our separate ways for classes but I personally always eat dinner with a couple teammates at the dining hall. All of us truly like being around each other which is seriously awesome. Of course everyone has people that they are closer to than others but I can honestly say that I could talk to anyone on the team about almost anything. This group is definitely special and I honestly think that has a lot to do with the fact that we are such a young team. We gained 15 new girls (freshmen and transfers) this fall season and I think the fresh, positive mentality that new players bring to a program has helped drastically. We have truly developed a winning mentality.

What’s been a standout moment this far into the season?

 This team always finds a way to have a good time together, whether it be playing “Heads Up!” in the airport during five hour delays or scaring people in their hotel rooms, we always can find something to laugh about and have fun with. But recently before our game against Seton Hall the mood on our team has never been better. In the locker room we were playing music like always but the playlist before this game in particular was very different in the best way possible. We were playing everything from the Backstreet Boys to Nsync to Beyonce but right before we were about to go out for warm up the last song we played was I Want You Back by The Jackson 5. So obviously five people on the team designated themselves as “The Jackson 5” with four back up dancers and one lead singer. The rest of the team surrounded them singing along and dancing and the atmosphere in the locker room was absolutely incredible. It was one of those moments with your team that make those 6 AM lifts and all the fitness tests worth it. We ended up beating Seton Hall 4-0 that afternoon and it was one of the best games we have played all season. Since then, I Want You Back has become a staple in our pregame, locker room playlist.