Alumni Comments

Travis Siebert

It took me three and a half years to make the reserve team…

- Story of coming to Greenville

-Tried everything to get into UM Rolla. My Dad did so much for Rolla and everything he could to try to get me in there because it is where “I” wanted to be. He spent his free time which he didn't have with me being one of seven and holding down two jobs calling in to people he knew who knew someone else to try to get me into Rolla…. It had become such a big ordeal…..

- One night I couldn't fall asleep, sometime late in April, this is after we have figured out what I could do to get into the school of “MY CHOICE”, but then I couldn't get Greenville out of my head, tossing and turning until around 2 in the morning….finally said to myself that I am going to Greenville and that's where I needed to be. Never understood why but I was just at peace about everything and I feel right to sleep. I woke up the next day walked downstairs and, I'll always remember my Dad standing at the sink of our house and I said, “Dad,” He turned and looked at me and said, “yea?” I said I want to go to Greenville . (I'll never forget his face, after all he had done for me after all those countless phone calls and favors and paper work and just everything he had done and spent those last three months doing he said…”ok.” I was so sure that he would be upset or frustrated but he wasn't he looked at me and just said, “ok,” ill call them.”……..

-So I called Coach Mac up and asked if he was still in need of a goalie and he said definitely, and there I was, starting a journey into the next part of my life and not really understanding how I got there or why, I just knew this is where I was suppose to be, I didn't, “GET IT” yet….

- What do I mean by getting it?

-For most athletes, and for me for most of my life, “getting it” is was a trophy, MVP award, All-Conference, Player of the week, or whatever. And even as a college athlete the high point of a degree is the driving force for them, the titles, the material things they can show all and be honored for, but that's not what I am talking about. You always hear about Pro athletes and their problems with drugs and women and breaking the law and drinking and driving, and just all the things that they are having problems with, they're pro athletes getting paid to play a game, how sweet is that, you could even say that have mastered what they do, they don't “Get It.”

-Here at GC we are not Pros, we aren't getting paid to play, but we do have our own share of awards and things that we get that I mentioned earlier, (list all awards and our records the last 4 years, was something around 49-27 with around 10 All-Conference players, 10-15 2 nd Team All-Conference, the first ever Player of the year in the nation for the NCCAA and then we also have had a hand full of NCCAA All-Region and a couple of NCCAA All-Americans. Then lastly rounding out with about 5 NCAA All-Region players, that is a great 4 years here at GC for me to be apart of.

- I had an epiphany my last eight games!

-I remember realizing what this life and soccer and everything is all about, this was the time in my life when I was found in a sense. God had come into my life and I felt his hands come around me and lead me, I was saved. I accepted him into my life and wanted to live the life that he had laid out for me. I wanted to understand what gifts I had and to live this life to the fullest and honor him in all I do. We have a meeting every year during pre season, as a team, to meet and decide on what our team goals should be. We usually have around ten to fifteen goals and they are usually like what certain goals against average we want to have or a certain number of shut-outs, certain wining percentage, goals like that. But our number one goal, every year, is to Glorify God on and off the field in everything we do, I realized my last eight games what that means…. That's why my overall career record isn't 49-27 , it's, 8-68. .

-It took me until my last eight games to make the reserve team. The team I look up too and have more respect for than they would ever know or realize. I look at the Josh Sheldons, a guy that would use a whole year of eligibility just to play in one game his freshmen year, and the Brett McDaniels and the Kevin Kirchners, who everyday they walk on to the field you know what they are going to bring. All those guys who don't play every game or don't get to dress on the varsity team they are the guys who lead me the last of my career. I know in my heart if I was in their positions and had to play on the “reserve” team and didn't get my name in the lights I don't know if I would have made it 4 years here. They show up everyday, not for those awards or All-Conference honors, they show up to play a game, a game that lost its meaning to me for a lot of my life. The meaning and understanding of getting to play everyday this amazing game of soccer, a game I love with all my heart. And most importantly they are going to glorify God in the way they play and love the game. I lost that LOVE, I lost the HONOR and RESPECT, I took it for granted. This can even be looked at in the way of school, chapels, core classes, my relationship with Laura and all the relationships in my life, those things I either didn't understand or realize that I had and how lucky I was to have them. Such abilities and people in my life should not be taken for granted. I now know and understand just how lucky I am for the gifts and people I have in my life and I am so excited that I realized this so early in my life and I got to experience my last eight games of my career with this understand and respect. I finally made the reserve team! I finally got it!

-TO CLOSE I would like to tell you a little story of the end of my career. Most of you in here were there and experienced it either in watching or participating. The Fontbone game, for the conference championship here at GC. For those who weren't there we had just beat Principia, a really good team in our conference for the third time, the game before in a good back in forth battle in the semis of the conference tourney just to get here. So I was already a little nervous as I'm sure the rest of the guys were after such an emotional win. I found my self like I had in the previous 7 games doing the same stretch on the same spot of the field and saying the same prayer thanking God for this great chance of getting to play today and I prayed that I would play the best that I can and that no matter what might take place this game that I would walk away with a win. The game was very intense and I could argue it was the highest point in my career and by far the best I had ever played. I was told later that I had done so much to keep us in the games, I made saves I had never made I had done so many things that I know I had God with me on this day, so in the end it was very ironic that I had the game in my hands. We made into overtime tied 1-1 after coming back from down 1-0 early, we tied it. During overtime we both had our chances and it came down to the last 3 minutes or so in the last overtime and it happened; a questionable call and I honestly think it was a call that could have gone either way. They had played a threw ball into the box and I came out, I slid, we hit ball slipped away, whistle, PK! The game that many had said I had helped keep us in was now in my hands to either make it or break it. I look back now and kind of laugh because I know that is how it was suppose to be. So it's me and the player of the year in conference, First Team All-Conference, Dane. The two guys in a situation they had played in their heads over and over again growing up, to win the game on a save or to win the game on a kick. (We all have had those dreams to make or break a game when we were little whether in soccer, baseball, etc.)

-The kick came in; I guessed right I knew he was going to my left, I dove, and the ball came in and I missed it. The guy who never missed hits a kick missed hit it, he told me later. It went underneath me. Game over. As I laid there completely exhausted and in tears from the emotional roller coaster that had lasted for over a hundred and 15 minutes, it was over. My career was over, no more preseason's, no more overtimes no more road trips and bus rides, my career as a GC soccer player died on that kick. But I look back now on what was a heart breaking loss and realized my prayers were answered that day. I ended my career in a sense with the last of my eight games being wins. I won, in my heart and my mind I won, not on the scoreboard or on paper, but I won, I played the best I could, I wasn't suppose to win on paper, because I had the bigger win in my heart. The win that no one could argue or could say I didn't accomplish, I won, "I Got it!"