Written by Student Assistant Ben Dines '15
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara Broncos (SCB) spoke with Alfred "Alfie" Edmonds (AE) of the men's soccer team. Edmonds comes to SCU as a junior from Belmont University, and though he may be new to the Mission Campus, he is neither new to the area nor to competitive collegiate soccer.
SCB: You transferred to the West Coast all the way from Tennessee. How did you land at SCU?
AE: I am actually from the Santa Clara area. I attended Bellarmine College Preparatory and played for a local soccer club, De Anza Force with Santa Clara's assistant coach Eric Yamamoto being the head coach during my time there. After being away for two years I felt a longing to come back and play in the Bay Area, and Santa Clara gave me that opportunity.
SCB: You guys currently have a few games under your belt for the 2014 fall season. What has the team done well so far?
AE: In these first few games I felt that our team has shown our capability to compete and play with some of the top teams around the country. No matter the score, we always give everything we got to put ourselves in the best situation for a result. That can be seen in our game vs. Omaha-Nebraska, where we went down early by 2 goals, we never gave up, stuck to the game plan and came up with the victory, even though we were a man down! Performances like those, although they may not be pretty, help our team gain confidence in our ability to overcome the most difficult of circumstances.
SCB: What are you guys going to work on as the season progresses?
AE: We have come into this season with the mindset of defending first. We were a little shaky our first few games when it came to that, we gave up goals that we all felt could have been prevented, however over the last few games we have tightened things up in the back and have recorded shut outs in each of those games. Now that we have set the foundation of our game, the next part is building that defensive success into the attack and score goals!
SCB: With your previous experience at Belmont learning about soccer, school, and yourself, what are you going to bring to the table for the men's soccer team?
AE: The biggest thing I feel like I am going to be able to bring to the team is my knowledge and experience of the college season. The college soccer season is a short and rigorous few months. The main focus will be to play and train, but also it is important to keep the grades up. It is easy to get caught up in the college life, but finding the right balance to keep a high playing level as well as good grades will lead to a successful season!