Shannon Walisch Forms Great Memories and Successes from Four-Year College Career
In the moments leading up to game time, everything is always the same for University of Tampa senior women's soccer player Shannon Walisch. Almost every action she makes from the locker room to the beginning of the game is the same.
Preparation is something any successful individual or team knows is important, but after all of it, Shannon still has her superstitions. She jumps up and taps the "Will Beats Skill" sign as the team heads to the field. She kisses her "Good Luck" heart-shaped rock.
When the pre-game drills start, teammate Jenny Karl takes her spot behind Shannon as the teammates have always done. "Everything I do before a game is done the same to a tee," she assures.
The atmosphere of the team becomes focused and serious. The collective mind of the team knows when it's time to laugh and enjoy one another, but also when to come together and stay true to the Spartan reputation.
Shannon knows every player on the team is thinking not about victory, but what they need to do to get there. So far, the end result has followed suit with Shannon's pregame. The Spartans have gone undefeated in their first ten games of the season.
Walisch had a team-high 2,027 minutes last season and made the All-Sunshine State Conference Team, but this year she's determined to raise the bar. "The next step is for me to make the All-American team." To do that Walisch says she must be a good leader as a captain of the team, both on and off the field.
Team goals are also on Shannon's mind. She says the best feeling she has had with the team is winning the Sunshine State Conference Tournament a total of three times in four years. The desire for that feeling hasn't left her or her teammates, but it takes patience, focusing on one game at a time. If they can reach that goal, the national championship always comes to mind, but the Spartans are focused on the present.
Behind the senior defender has strong support on her side, not just from her coaches and teammates, but from her parents, Ron and Kathy. "They've been very supportive of me since I started playing when I was five," Shannon recalls. She says that her parents have instilled the "play hard, work hard" attitude in her throughout her life and that when she questioned whether she wanted to play in college in or not, it motivated her to keep going in addition to talking with head coach Gerry Lucey.
Outside of soccer, Walisch loves to travel, and she's already had the privilege to visit Ireland, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, the Dominican, and just about anywhere around the U.S. Offshore fishing is another activity that excites her.
After she graduates, she plans on continuing schooling for her allied health major, keeping her options open but looking into schools in California and New York particularly. She wants to use her education for abroad medical services, following her passion for traveling. On top of that, she hopes to coach for a team sometime in the future.
Walisch has enjoyed another dominant season this year, five goals and three assists from her defensive position. That dwarfs her 5 points (1 goal, 3 assists) through her first 3 seasons. The team minutes leader has become more than just a star defender. Against Georgia Southwestern, she recorded her first hat trick, and continues to play aggressively.
Still, the most important thing to her is the relationship she has with her teammates, "The best thing about being here is the chemistry and friendship I've made with the girls on the team."
Written by Jimmy Kelly