Ask Me Anything! with Sam Cary

Every Monday on our Instagram story, we ask our Socceristas to submit questions to our content creator Sam Cary. Sam is a senior at the University of Iowa, where she is on the women’s soccer team. She is a Big Ten Champion, the team captain, and a 4x Academic All-Big Ten Honoree. Here are her responses to four of the questions you submitted. Check out the Instagram story every Monday to submit your questions to next week’s Ask Me Anything!

Q: What is something that really surprised you about being a college athlete?

A: One of the biggest things that surprised me about college soccer was the way I have grown as a person. I love soccer, and through my time at Iowa, I have grown as a player, but I have grown even more in my character.

I have been challenged and developed into a leader, an advocate, and a more empathetic person through college soccer. I expected to grow as a soccer player, but I never thought about how proud I would be of the person I would become in four years. 

Q: How old were you when you started playing soccer?

A: I started playing when I was four years old. As the story goes, I had a lot of chaotic energy that my parents did not fully know how to channel, so they put me in sports. I did not really like soccer at first, I didn’t like to sweat, and I was often found picking daisies on the field. But slowly, I fell in love with the game, and it has been the center of my life for the past 18 years. 

Q: Do you think it’s good for girls to be involved with a boy’s team as well as a girl’s team?

A: I think this is a great idea. Growing up, I never played with a boy’s team, but it was always a dream of mine. At Iowa, we have male practice players who train with us, and I absolutely love it. They are all great athletes that push me to be stronger and faster, but they also play a different style of soccer which adds versatility to our training sessions. Training with boys surely isn’t a requirement, but I do think it can add to your game. 

Q: How was your recruiting process?

A: This is a hard and very broad question. First, I want to acknowledge that the recruiting rules were very different when I went through my process than they are now.

I knew I wanted to stay in the Midwest and go to a big school, this made the Big Ten Conference a very clear choice for me. I went to a lot of ID camps and contacted a lot of coaches to come to my games (I played in the ECNL, so a lot of these games were at national showcases). From there, I started going on visits and receiving offers.

This is very stereotypical to say, but I knew that Iowa was my home as soon as I stepped on campus. I love Iowa City, but it was the program and staff that really drew me to commit there. I loved the values of the program, and what they were building and I knew I wanted to be a part of it. This decision was made 8 years ago (which is terrifying), but I am so happy with my choice.

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