Soccer Holds Media Day Ahead Of 2017 Season
August 14, 2017 | Soccer
STARKVILLE, Miss. – With the regular season just four days away, the Mississippi State socccer team held its annual media day Monday morning at the Babe McCarthy Media Room in Humphrey Coliseum.
First-year head coach Tom Anagnost, Catalina Perez, Mallory Eubanks and MaKayla Waldner all addressed the media.
State enters the year with 10 seniors on the roster, including Perez—a graduate student playing her final year of eligibility after transferring from the University of Miami.
Anagnost highlighted the importance of having 10 seniors on this season's squad.
"We have 10 seniors, and they have been awesome since day one," Anagnost said. "It's an incredible group of young people that you just want to be around. They have really tried to be the reason for the change, and they are great ambassadors for the program—just fantastic kids all around. They just lead in all those areas and make it extremely enjoyable for everyone who meets them. As Mallory stated, I think our season will live and die with them. What's happened is, they've created a culture and environment of serving each other and playing hard for each other. When you are good people, you attract good people, and with good people great things happen."
He also stressed the importance of his players' role each and every day.
"Their role on this team is pretty easy--to get better every day," Anagnost said. "If we can do that there's tons of things that can happen that we never thought possible."
Additional quotes from today's press conference can be found below.
The Bulldogs will open the season on Friday, Aug. 18 against Stephen F. Austin. First kick at the MSU Soccer Field is set for 7 p.m. and fans are encouraged to help the Bulldogs set a new single-game attendance record. Admission is free. The match will be streamed live on SEC Network+ via WatchESPN or the WatchESPN app.
For more information on the Bulldog soccer program, follow on Twitter, like them on Facebook and join them on Instagram by searching for "HailStateSOC." You can also find all-access coverage of the program on SnapChat by searching for "HailStateSnap."
MEDIA DAY QUOTES
Head Coach Tom Anagnost
Opening statement…
"Welcome everybody. Thanks for coming. We're anxiously looking forward to our home opener. We're trying to break our attendance record, and we're encouraging all the community, all the fans, and all the students for support for that big first game. From a staff standpoint and player standpoint, we are excited."
On what he has learned from the two exhibition matches…
"I think when you play an extraordinary team like Florida, it's going to expose a lot of things; and we were exposed. I think from watching them as a group, we learned a lot. I think one of the things that the kids saw was some of it was soccer stuff, but it was a lot of simple things. To be honest with you, they were so good with possession I felt that it broke us mentally. In the next game, I felt our team was stronger mentally throughout the game; and it made a big difference in our play."
On how important senior leadership will be this season…
"We have 10 seniors, and they have been awesome since day one. They are an incredible group of young people that you just want to be around. They have really tried to be the reason for the change, and they are great ambassadors for the program—just fantastic kids all around. They just lead in all those areas and make it extremely enjoyable for everyone who meets them. As Mallory stated, I think our season will live and die with them. What's happened is, they've created a culture and environment of serving each other and playing hard for each other. When you are good people, you attract good people, and with good people great things happen."
On MaKayla Waldner's impact on the team…
"She's an incredible athlete. She challenges and stretches the back line to the goal very well. She's improved significantly—tactically and technically. She's dangerous in front of the goal. Defensively in our box, she's very good. Her role is to score goals. Her role is to make the other team uncomfortable, and create scoring chances. She becomes even more efficient as each day goes on. She's a leader by example. Like all of our players, we want them to be leaders with their voice. That means on the field when she doesn't get it tell them to pass the ball more. Also, just a ton of other leadership roles like communication to your teammates off the field, which can help us culturally and help our team grow everyday."
On Mallory Eubanks' scoring ability…
"In the end, we want all our players to pass Mallory the ball, and we want Mallory to get the ball from all of our players. I think she's an extraordinary facilitator of the game and creator of scoring chances. For our team, we also want her to be putting herself in more scoring situations and shooting the ball more, etc. That's been a focal point of our team. She's so unselfish. Everything about her is about her team. I want her to be a little more 'alpha'."
On his expectations for this season…
"Coaches in soccer can't coach results. This game is very different than all the other ones. You can completely dominate a team and lose by multiple goals, or you can get smacked in for 89 minutes and win by two goals. For me, I look at it past the results. We can put ourselves in great positions to be in and win every game. For me and my staff its 'put us in the best position to win game.' We're looking to improve on last year's team. This is a brand new team, and that's what I expect. I'm looking for us to improve from this morning. If we do that and our kids individually learn from every session, it will create individually better players and collectively, a better team. Their role on this team is pretty easy--to get better every day--and if we can do that there's tons of things that can happen that we never thought possible. I am a little short-sighted, but it has worked out and am going to keep it that way."
On his team's focus on academics…
"Academically these three are amazing. Mallory got her first B, and she almost broke down in front of me last spring. She takes some pretty difficult classes, too. Catalina has something like a 3.9. Obviously, MaKayla studies and her grade point average is very, very high. It's all-encompassing. It's the character traits that get better. They keep growing, and it spills into soccer. It spills into school, and it spills into their jobs afterwards."
#7 Mallory Eubanks – F – Sr.
On her upcoming senior season…
"I'm really excited for our senior season and I think that we have a lot going into the senior season. Obviously, we have not just me, but a lot of seniors; and a lot of people are just putting everything we have into the season. I think even the younger players are playing for our senior season, and I just feel like our team is in a good place right now, coming off of this spring. I feel like this has been the best preparation we could have had going into this. We're just excited, and we're playing every game as if it's our last game of our senior season. We're excited."
On her experience playing with Motor City F.C. this past summer…
"It was exciting to play for the summer and get good touches and be with the coach up there who challenged us every day and expected a lot from us. I think it was a good experience to be up there with Carly [Mauldin] and also players from Florida State and be surrounded by an environment with such great players and people who wanted to get better every day. I think part of being a pro is wanting to do it every day, and it was good going out there and being in Detroit in that environment with people who want to do that every day. We went up there for soccer, so everything there revolved around when we had practice and meetings. It gives you a taste of the kind of environment you'll be in."
On head coach Tom Anagnost…
"I feel like the biggest thing with Tom that I've never had in a coach is he has such an urgency with the way he coaches. He uses that word a lot, but it's true. Every single day, we get something out of it. There's no wasting a practice. If you waste a rep, he lets you know that that was a complete waste. It's just every day, his motto is 'Every day get better.' I feel like every day with him, he's pushing me every single day to get better. With the ups and downs, he's just pushing me. That's his role, to push me to make me better. I think he does a really great job of that."
#1 Catalina Perez – GK – Gr.
On what attracted her to Mississippi State…
"The culture here, it's to get better every single day. It's good to be around people that sincerely are working to do that every day. I want to do something special. I'm very happy and very blessed to be here."
On her aspirations to play professional soccer…
"I definitely want to continue playing with my national team and hopefully play professional."
On working towards a Master's degree while playing soccer…
"I think that it will be challenging, but I think that hopefully it'll help me to get a mental break from soccer and school when I'm doing the other. I'll get a mental break from soccer when I'm doing school stuff. My parents have always pushed me really hard in the classroom, so I just hope I can give my best in both and have my options open."
On what makes her a good goalkeeper…
"I think about what Tom talks about every time getting better and giving your best on the field that day. I'm very process-oriented and am not just playing for results but playing to be as good as I can be, not just as an athlete but also as a person. I feel that now that I get the chance, even though I wasn't able to be coached by Tom in the past, just knowing him has helped me push to do better in school and in soccer."
#10 MaKayla Waldner – F – So.
On what she learned during her freshman season…
"Freshman year was kind of crazy, even with the coaching change. Last fall, I didn't really know what to expect. You see the movies where the college kid has to do this kind of workout, and you would be in practice and think, 'Okay, this is what I thought it was.' I feel like I came in pretty prepared, and then at the end of the season we got Tom [Anagnost]. I felt like I was not prepared at all. I remember my first conversation with him, and I was just so intimidated. After everything he asked me, he would pause, and I thought I answered it wrong. I was like, 'I don't know how the spring is going to go and didn't know what to expect.' As soon as we started practicing and I realized what kind of coach he was, it was amazing. What he's done for our program has turned us around, and we are very grateful to have him. Even though freshman year was kind of up-and-down, I think we're on the right track now. It's all up to Tom."
On head coach Tom Anagnost…
"Tom is straight to it. If something is wrong, he's going to keep telling you to fix it. In a way, he's a perfectionist, so if you're not doing something right, he's going to make it right. He's very motivational. He stays on you and just makes you realize there's more in you than what you actually think. You think, 'Okay, that last run was the last I had in me,' and Tom will get five more runs out of you."
On balancing soccer with a major in mechanical engineering…
"It's a lot of work. Whenever I decided my major coming in, I didn't really know what to expect between class and practice, and I didn't realize how demanding soccer was. But then I sit back and think about it, and even when soccer's not there, engineering will be. I will always be able to help people. With mechanical engineering, I want to end up designing prosthetics. Right now the struggle is so hard, but it's definitely going to be worth it. That's what my dad always tells me: 'Struggle now, and it's going to be so much better later on.' So any time I have a test, I study – anyone on the team can vouch for me, I'll study for seven hours straight. It's time-consuming, but in my head, I just have to keep telling myself that it's worth it. Eventually it's going to be okay. I'll graduate, and I'll be a mechanical engineer."
First-year head coach Tom Anagnost, Catalina Perez, Mallory Eubanks and MaKayla Waldner all addressed the media.
State enters the year with 10 seniors on the roster, including Perez—a graduate student playing her final year of eligibility after transferring from the University of Miami.
Anagnost highlighted the importance of having 10 seniors on this season's squad.
"We have 10 seniors, and they have been awesome since day one," Anagnost said. "It's an incredible group of young people that you just want to be around. They have really tried to be the reason for the change, and they are great ambassadors for the program—just fantastic kids all around. They just lead in all those areas and make it extremely enjoyable for everyone who meets them. As Mallory stated, I think our season will live and die with them. What's happened is, they've created a culture and environment of serving each other and playing hard for each other. When you are good people, you attract good people, and with good people great things happen."
He also stressed the importance of his players' role each and every day.
"Their role on this team is pretty easy--to get better every day," Anagnost said. "If we can do that there's tons of things that can happen that we never thought possible."
Additional quotes from today's press conference can be found below.
The Bulldogs will open the season on Friday, Aug. 18 against Stephen F. Austin. First kick at the MSU Soccer Field is set for 7 p.m. and fans are encouraged to help the Bulldogs set a new single-game attendance record. Admission is free. The match will be streamed live on SEC Network+ via WatchESPN or the WatchESPN app.
For more information on the Bulldog soccer program, follow on Twitter, like them on Facebook and join them on Instagram by searching for "HailStateSOC." You can also find all-access coverage of the program on SnapChat by searching for "HailStateSnap."
MEDIA DAY QUOTES
Head Coach Tom Anagnost
Opening statement…
"Welcome everybody. Thanks for coming. We're anxiously looking forward to our home opener. We're trying to break our attendance record, and we're encouraging all the community, all the fans, and all the students for support for that big first game. From a staff standpoint and player standpoint, we are excited."
On what he has learned from the two exhibition matches…
"I think when you play an extraordinary team like Florida, it's going to expose a lot of things; and we were exposed. I think from watching them as a group, we learned a lot. I think one of the things that the kids saw was some of it was soccer stuff, but it was a lot of simple things. To be honest with you, they were so good with possession I felt that it broke us mentally. In the next game, I felt our team was stronger mentally throughout the game; and it made a big difference in our play."
On how important senior leadership will be this season…
"We have 10 seniors, and they have been awesome since day one. They are an incredible group of young people that you just want to be around. They have really tried to be the reason for the change, and they are great ambassadors for the program—just fantastic kids all around. They just lead in all those areas and make it extremely enjoyable for everyone who meets them. As Mallory stated, I think our season will live and die with them. What's happened is, they've created a culture and environment of serving each other and playing hard for each other. When you are good people, you attract good people, and with good people great things happen."
On MaKayla Waldner's impact on the team…
"She's an incredible athlete. She challenges and stretches the back line to the goal very well. She's improved significantly—tactically and technically. She's dangerous in front of the goal. Defensively in our box, she's very good. Her role is to score goals. Her role is to make the other team uncomfortable, and create scoring chances. She becomes even more efficient as each day goes on. She's a leader by example. Like all of our players, we want them to be leaders with their voice. That means on the field when she doesn't get it tell them to pass the ball more. Also, just a ton of other leadership roles like communication to your teammates off the field, which can help us culturally and help our team grow everyday."
On Mallory Eubanks' scoring ability…
"In the end, we want all our players to pass Mallory the ball, and we want Mallory to get the ball from all of our players. I think she's an extraordinary facilitator of the game and creator of scoring chances. For our team, we also want her to be putting herself in more scoring situations and shooting the ball more, etc. That's been a focal point of our team. She's so unselfish. Everything about her is about her team. I want her to be a little more 'alpha'."
On his expectations for this season…
"Coaches in soccer can't coach results. This game is very different than all the other ones. You can completely dominate a team and lose by multiple goals, or you can get smacked in for 89 minutes and win by two goals. For me, I look at it past the results. We can put ourselves in great positions to be in and win every game. For me and my staff its 'put us in the best position to win game.' We're looking to improve on last year's team. This is a brand new team, and that's what I expect. I'm looking for us to improve from this morning. If we do that and our kids individually learn from every session, it will create individually better players and collectively, a better team. Their role on this team is pretty easy--to get better every day--and if we can do that there's tons of things that can happen that we never thought possible. I am a little short-sighted, but it has worked out and am going to keep it that way."
On his team's focus on academics…
"Academically these three are amazing. Mallory got her first B, and she almost broke down in front of me last spring. She takes some pretty difficult classes, too. Catalina has something like a 3.9. Obviously, MaKayla studies and her grade point average is very, very high. It's all-encompassing. It's the character traits that get better. They keep growing, and it spills into soccer. It spills into school, and it spills into their jobs afterwards."
#7 Mallory Eubanks – F – Sr.
On her upcoming senior season…
"I'm really excited for our senior season and I think that we have a lot going into the senior season. Obviously, we have not just me, but a lot of seniors; and a lot of people are just putting everything we have into the season. I think even the younger players are playing for our senior season, and I just feel like our team is in a good place right now, coming off of this spring. I feel like this has been the best preparation we could have had going into this. We're just excited, and we're playing every game as if it's our last game of our senior season. We're excited."
On her experience playing with Motor City F.C. this past summer…
"It was exciting to play for the summer and get good touches and be with the coach up there who challenged us every day and expected a lot from us. I think it was a good experience to be up there with Carly [Mauldin] and also players from Florida State and be surrounded by an environment with such great players and people who wanted to get better every day. I think part of being a pro is wanting to do it every day, and it was good going out there and being in Detroit in that environment with people who want to do that every day. We went up there for soccer, so everything there revolved around when we had practice and meetings. It gives you a taste of the kind of environment you'll be in."
On head coach Tom Anagnost…
"I feel like the biggest thing with Tom that I've never had in a coach is he has such an urgency with the way he coaches. He uses that word a lot, but it's true. Every single day, we get something out of it. There's no wasting a practice. If you waste a rep, he lets you know that that was a complete waste. It's just every day, his motto is 'Every day get better.' I feel like every day with him, he's pushing me every single day to get better. With the ups and downs, he's just pushing me. That's his role, to push me to make me better. I think he does a really great job of that."
#1 Catalina Perez – GK – Gr.
On what attracted her to Mississippi State…
"The culture here, it's to get better every single day. It's good to be around people that sincerely are working to do that every day. I want to do something special. I'm very happy and very blessed to be here."
On her aspirations to play professional soccer…
"I definitely want to continue playing with my national team and hopefully play professional."
On working towards a Master's degree while playing soccer…
"I think that it will be challenging, but I think that hopefully it'll help me to get a mental break from soccer and school when I'm doing the other. I'll get a mental break from soccer when I'm doing school stuff. My parents have always pushed me really hard in the classroom, so I just hope I can give my best in both and have my options open."
On what makes her a good goalkeeper…
"I think about what Tom talks about every time getting better and giving your best on the field that day. I'm very process-oriented and am not just playing for results but playing to be as good as I can be, not just as an athlete but also as a person. I feel that now that I get the chance, even though I wasn't able to be coached by Tom in the past, just knowing him has helped me push to do better in school and in soccer."
#10 MaKayla Waldner – F – So.
On what she learned during her freshman season…
"Freshman year was kind of crazy, even with the coaching change. Last fall, I didn't really know what to expect. You see the movies where the college kid has to do this kind of workout, and you would be in practice and think, 'Okay, this is what I thought it was.' I feel like I came in pretty prepared, and then at the end of the season we got Tom [Anagnost]. I felt like I was not prepared at all. I remember my first conversation with him, and I was just so intimidated. After everything he asked me, he would pause, and I thought I answered it wrong. I was like, 'I don't know how the spring is going to go and didn't know what to expect.' As soon as we started practicing and I realized what kind of coach he was, it was amazing. What he's done for our program has turned us around, and we are very grateful to have him. Even though freshman year was kind of up-and-down, I think we're on the right track now. It's all up to Tom."
On head coach Tom Anagnost…
"Tom is straight to it. If something is wrong, he's going to keep telling you to fix it. In a way, he's a perfectionist, so if you're not doing something right, he's going to make it right. He's very motivational. He stays on you and just makes you realize there's more in you than what you actually think. You think, 'Okay, that last run was the last I had in me,' and Tom will get five more runs out of you."
On balancing soccer with a major in mechanical engineering…
"It's a lot of work. Whenever I decided my major coming in, I didn't really know what to expect between class and practice, and I didn't realize how demanding soccer was. But then I sit back and think about it, and even when soccer's not there, engineering will be. I will always be able to help people. With mechanical engineering, I want to end up designing prosthetics. Right now the struggle is so hard, but it's definitely going to be worth it. That's what my dad always tells me: 'Struggle now, and it's going to be so much better later on.' So any time I have a test, I study – anyone on the team can vouch for me, I'll study for seven hours straight. It's time-consuming, but in my head, I just have to keep telling myself that it's worth it. Eventually it's going to be okay. I'll graduate, and I'll be a mechanical engineer."
Players Mentioned
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