Oct. 29, 2008

This edition of Tiger Talk goes offsides with the ladies of the junior class. The junior class is made of up of three very talented midfielders. They say that the best part about them, is that they're fun.

Brittany Baldwin is a local girl from right down the road in Collierville, Tenn.Victoria Dalton is from Belleville, Ill a town just outside of St. Louis to the east. Laura Laufenberg (Lauf) hails from Littleton, Colo. which is just south of Denver, Colo. In their third year together, they have developed a bond as both juniors and midfielders. This edition of Tiger Talk asked the juniors a few questions about the experiences they have had playing soccer and some that go outside the lines of Mike Rose Soccer Complex.

How would you describe yourselves?

Dalton: We're the junior midfielders. And we're fun!

What's the best thing about playing with this group of juniors?

Dalton: We're just such great teammates. Team bonding and all that stuff

Laufenberg: We're the remaining three from our class and we feel like there is a special bond that we all have.

What's the best part about playing for this team?

Dalton: We're a really good team. We're all really competitive people.

Baldwin: The girls. If it wasn't for all of these girls and the great support that I might not have been able to stick out everything that it takes to be a college athlete. The girls make everything worth it.

What's all the fuss about Brittany Baldwin's Bronco?

Baldwin: Butch is my white 1990 Ford Bronco. Butch has an attitude.

Laufenberg: We love Butch!

Baldwin: Butch is awesome.

Dalton: If I ever get in a wreck I would want to be in Butch because I would know I would be safe.

What brought you here to play soccer?

Dalton: I really wanted to play college soccer. And I could have gone somewhere and played all the time, but I wanted to go somewhere where I knew that it was going to be competitive and I could either sit the bench or play, but how I do is based on my playing time. I wanted to have to compete for a position.

What do your families think of you playing here?

Laufenberg: My family loves it. They follow the team and everything. Even my little cousins that are in different states follow the team. And now because they can see that I'm here, they also want to play in college too.

What do you guys do in your spare time?

Dalton: Study!

Laufenberg: We have an elaborate TV watching schedule.

Baldwin, Laufenberg , Dalton: Oh yeah! Grey's Anatomy, Real World, One Tree Hill, The Hills, The Office, and Lost.

Laufenberg: But only in between practice and homework

Baldwin: We're manage our time well

Dalton: We're very good at time management

Laufenberg: We need a DVR though.

What has been your greatest soccer experience at Memphis?

Laufenberg: Winning a conference championship, and going to Argentina.

What other things do you want to accomplish in soccer by the time you leave here?

Baldwin: We want to lead the team and continue progress as a team. We obviously all want to progress as individual players and become more well-rounded players. We want to take into real life what we've learned on the field.

What do you want to do outside of soccer before you graduate?

Dalton: Get a degree obviously and just fulfill the rest of our college experience.

Laufenberg: We want to tailgate for football games!

What is the biggest difference between the normal student and the student athlete?

Dalton: Normal students can't comprehend the amount of extra time and effort we have to put into everything outside of just school. Soccer is this whole other world that is just as hard if not harder than school. Being an athlete can be more mentally challenging than school.

Baldwin: Being an athlete is a job.

Laufenberg: We get scholarships to go to school, and I don't think that we have more responsibilities than the regular college student. It's just different because people who don't play sports have jobs and we don't have that to worry about. We don't have the opportunities to do the same extracurricular stuff that they do.

What is the best thing about playing for Coach Monaghan?

Laufenberg: He is a great recruiter and a good guy.

Dalton: He makes you a stronger person

What do you plan on doing after college?

Dalton: Going back home and starting to fill out applications to become a police officer.

Baldwin: I think I'm going to try and get into PT school.

Laufenberg: Career wise, I don't really know. I'll probably move back home. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go abroad for a while though.

What is it like for you to be pretty far away from home at college?

Laufenberg: I like it a lot. I miss home, but I like that I'm kind of in my own world and having my own things. I know I always have home to go home to though.

Dalton: I like the freedom that I have here. I can pretty much do whatever I want and my parents are somewhere else. If I do need them, they are only four hours away so it's not a huge distance.

Baldwin: It has its perks. I like it and I like to be able to see my family a lot. It's nice to be around them because my parents are only a half an hour away.

Who has been the biggest influence in your lives?

Dalton: My brother, because he has made a lot of mistakes in his life and I've learned from him and tried to make myself better.

Laufenberg: My mom because she encourages me in whatever I want to do and she is behind me no matter what.

Baldwin: Both my parents especially my step dad because when I was four he got me into soccer and he has been with me through thick and thin. Through it all he's been honest with me no matter what.

What's the best advice you've ever received?

Dalton: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Laufenberg: Always have fun in whatever you're doing.

Baldwin: You don't necessarily have to worry about pleasing everybody else. You only need to please yourself and be happy with yourself and that's all that matters.