Stephanie Rose is in her third year at UNC Wilmington and is wasting no time contributing to the women’s soccer team as a midfielder and forward. When she isn’t on the soccer field scoring goals, she is in the classroom studying Exercise Science. Sporting her number 14 practice jersey, Rose sat down and talked about what it’s like being a collegiate soccer player.

The Seahawk: Why did you choose to come to UNCW over other schools?

Stephanie Rose: I actually didn’t really look at any other schools. I always pictured myself here and pretty much knew it was my first and only choice. I wanted to play college ball, so it helped that it had that and it was so close to home (Rose is from Jacksonville, N.C.).

TS: How is playing at the college level different than playing in high school?

SR: Everything. You have to be smarter, faster and stronger. The practices are also harder. But that is what makes the game a lot more fun and challenging.

TS: What is your most memorable moment playing for UNCW?

SR: Winning freshman year. It was nerve-racking coming in as a freshman and not really knowing what to expect. Then for our team do so well in our first year, it set the standard for the rest of the years to come. Even though we haven’t done as well as we did that year, we know what we can do. It’s definitely something to work off of.

TS: What has being an athlete taught you?

SR: A lot. How to stay focused and work hard, which also transfers into my personal life. I know I have to be persistent when things get hard, just relax and take a deep breath and work it out. It has made me very competitive, even in small things. If I’m playing a video game, I want to win (laughs).

TS: How do you balance school and athletics?

SR: I still haven’t figured out how to do that exactly! It is definitely challenging. For example, one weekend we came back from a 10-hour trip from Delaware and I had two tests and two quizzes Monday. So it’s still stressful; I haven’t got it down and I don’t know if I will before I graduate, but I’m almost there.

TS: Describe your team.

SR: We are very supportive of one another whether you play or not. Everyone is always cheering no matter what your play time is. We definitely work hard and strive to be the best that we can.  It’s hard to focus sometimes because we are all kind of weird (laughs) and we like to goof off, but we snap into it once Paul (Cairney) comes. 

TS: Do you guys hang out outside of the soccer field?

SR: It’s weird, you would think being together as much as we are with soccer, we wouldn’t really want to hang out outside of it. But they are the closest thing I have to family around here. We hang out a lot, we room together and we have fun.

TS: What are your plans for the future?

SR: I actually don’t know what I want to do yet with my major, which is pretty sad (laughs). I’m still figuring that out as I go.

TS: What about your plans concerning soccer?

SR: Of course I would love to continue playing.  Not sure exactly what I’m going to do, but hopefully soccer will still be in my future after I graduate.

TS: If everything were to fall into place, where would you be?

SR: The national team! That would be awesome! But we’ll see. I’ll have to take it day by day.

TS: If you could give a young player advice on how to succeed in the sport what would you tell them?

SR: Definitely never to give up. I was not the best player when I was younger; it took a lot of hard work and extra work outside of practices. There will be plenty of times when you’ll actually want to give up and quit, but you have to keep trying.