Game Day Feature: Ryan SeymourSept. 1, 2001
MILWAUKEE--Ryan Seymour is the featured player for today's match against DePaul. Q) When did you first begin playing soccer and why did you stick with it? A) I started to play a lot of sports when I was four years old. All my friends played it, so I did too. They played from kindergarten through high school and it was just what I did too. I played a lot of sports in high school, but I think I was better at soccer than the other sports so I just kept with it. Q) What made you come to UWM? A) I looked at bunch of other schools. But I liked the idea of not being that far away from home and UWM was one of the closer schools. I liked the atmosphere of the city and that it is on the lake. I grew up on the other side of Lake Michigan (in Michigan) and my dad had a boat. I did a lot of boating and fishing when I was younger, so I thought that would be cool to still be around the lake. I like Coach Bennett and the team a lot. I liked the fact that everyone on the team was treated the same, whether you're a freshman or a senior Q) Do you remember your first game as a Panther? A) Yeah, it was against Northwestern and we lost. But my first win was at Yale and that was pretty cool. Q) What do you think makes you an effective forward? A) My quickness helps me most. I play simple, one-to-two touch, and I'm good in the box. I'm in the right place at the right time. I'm hard to defend because I'm always moving around and making runs. After so many years of playing forward, I know my job description really well by now-just to play one or two touch and move off the ball. Q) Last season was a good year for you as you led the team with 23 points (9 goals, 5 assists), starting all 21 games as a junior. What do you think led to your break out? . A) I was consistent. And like I said, I was usually in the right place at the right time. I'm not a real tricky player, I just play simple and move around a lot. But I think our freshman class did really well and that helped me. They did a good job getting to the endlines as wide forwards and then crossing the ball in. Also, during the spring season of my sophomore year, I did a lot of one-on-one sessions with Coach Bennett, and that really prepared me heading into the fall year. Q) Has your training over the summer prepared you well? A) Except for this past summer, I've played with Kalamazoo (Kalamazoo Kingdom of the PDSL) for the past few years. That has been really good competition because I play with and against a lot of good players from other universities. But playing for other teams is kind of hard because you play so differently than at UWM. It kind of screws you up because they teach a different way of playing and not many teams play like we do here. This summer, I took time off from playing with a team so that I could stay fresh coming into my senior year. I stayed fit and worked with the ball on my own a lot. Coach Bennett and I both decided that I should relax a little and come in fresh and hungry to play.
Q) Last year, UWM finished tied for third in the conference and lost in the tournament semifinals. But your team had a successful spring season (went undefeated in all nine matches, allowing only 3 goals) and have played 3 intrasquad scrimmages and one exhibition game against Oshkosh (Won, 4-1). What do you see happening this season with this current team in terms of chemistry, talent, etc..? A) We have a lot of guys returning this season that played a lot last year (8). The freshmen coming in are going to help us a lot, including Khaled, Antou and Trent. Khaled is really smart player. And him and Antou should step up into the positions we lost last year with Scott at central defense and Blake as a center midfielder. I think that is the biggest thing we've seen so far this fall. Last year our defense had problems sorting things out and we let in 37 goals on the season. This year our goal is to solidify our defense, and I really see it coming together with what Khaled brings. Overall, I think we have a good start and the team is really excited to see how we've played. We're definitely ahead of how we started last year and we are definitely smarter, which is going to help us a lot. Everyone is excited because we're sorting things out and players know their roles on the team. Q) What are some goals you or the team has set for this season? A) I'm very anxious to see what we will be able to do this year. I definitely want to go out with a bang, and I want to win and go to the tournament. That hasn't happed since I've been here, but I'm confident that this is our year. Our team goal and my goal is to win the Horizon League, go to the NCAA tournament and beat the 2nd round. We want to be the best team in school history. This year we have an automatic bid to get into the NCAA tournament, so we want to get in and just let others how good we are. Q) And for yourself? A) My goal would be to lead the league in scoring. I just want to put a lot of goals in the back of the net because that is what I'm here to do. Also, I want us to win the league championship. Q) What games do you forsee as the biggest ones of the season? A) UIC because we lost to them last year. I would say it's our biggest game of the season since they knocked us out of the tournament (UWM lost 2-0 in the semifinals) last season. That's definitely the game I'm looking forward to most since we play them at Engelmann. Everyone gets excited to play on Engelmann since it's our home field and it means a lot to play well there. I'm predicting that game will clinch it (the league) for us and that would mean a lot because we would play the league tournament at Englemann. Q) What are your plans after college? Do you see or want to see soccer in the future? A) I definitely want to see soccer in the picture. If I have a good year, hopefully, I'll have a chance to play somewhere afterwards. I've always wanted to play professional soccer since I was a kid. Other than that, I want to go into real estate-invest in land and build houses on it. My step dad is a builder and I want to follow in those footsteps of owning a business to develop land. I definitely am not going to work in an office cubical. I want to work hard and do a good job at what I do, but I want to be outside and have my own hours or be my own boss. Q) How do you spend your free time?
A) I travel a lot and then do stuff on the side. I like to fish, golf, surf and snowboard. I just really enjoy the outdoors and being outside.
|
