Santa's Helper!

It is not everyday that you can say you have a teammate who is close personal friends with Santa Claus. Yeah you read that right.. the man, the myth, the legend, SANTA! I had the opportunity to get to talk to Sophomore, Judith Hepburn, who is from North Pole, Alaska!

1. How is Santa Claus as a person? 
Santa is a very nice person I found out. He is always happy and is "always spreading the joy of Christmas to everyone in the North Pole."

2. I know you have lived in multiple places. How did your family end up in Alaska? 
"I have actually lived in 4 different places in my life. I was first born in Wuhan China and was adopted when I was baby. My parents and I then lived in Alaska for a couple years until when I was 3 and we moved to New York. We stayed in New York for about a year, went back to Alaska, then North Carolina, and then back to Alaska." Both of Judith's parents were in the military so they moved around for their jobs.

3. How did you find Gustavus? 
"I had a friend, Maddi Ackiss, who already went here who I knew from Alaska. She talked to the coach about watching me play because I was here for USA cup.  Coach came to watch me and we stayed in contact and I eventually came for a visit and met the team."

4. Do you work for Santa in Alaska?
Unfortunately the answer was no. Judith actually worked for a cruise company. She worked at a tourist hotel and helped the tourists find good places to eat and explore all of the great things that North Pole has to offer.

5. What is your favorite part about living in Alaska?
"I really like the outdoor aspect." We talked about how she grew up hunting and fishing and how she can go to a mountain and hike whenever she feels like it. She also talked about being able to snow board on the mountains in the winter and kayak during the summer.

6. What is the biggest fish you have ever caught?
"When I was younger I caught a 110lb halibut."




7. What is your least favorite part about living in Alaska? 
Judith and I talked about besides the outdoor stuff, there is not a lot to do there. Especially compared to Minnesota, it does have nearly as much there is in the cities She also does not like how hard it is to travel to other places from Alaska. "Living in the middle of the country would be nice, it would be nice to be able to drive or fly and not have it be a 10 hour flight."

8.  Do you want to live in Alaska when you are older?
She definitely wants to move from Alaska. Going to school in Minnesota she really likes it here or she would want to live in North Carolina. Her mothers family is from North Carolina so they go there often for holidays and to visit family.

9. What do you want to do after you graduate from Gustavus?
Judith could see herself moving to Minnesota. She said that she definitely does not want to stay in Alaska. She is a business management major and she wants to get a job in some sort of Sports Marketing. She thinks that it would be really cool to work for the Minnesota Vikings or a professional team like that.

10. Do you have a pet reindeer?
"No but I do have a be black lab, his name is Jack."

11. Is Christmas your favorite holiday?
It actually was! But not because she lives in the North Pole. "I like it because it is the most comforting and chill holiday." Being able to hangout with her family and opening presents on Christmas day was her favorite part!

Our triple sport student athlete!

Some people find that playing one sport in college is difficult.... but have they tried THREE? I (Emily Skogseth) sat down with first year, Maddie McDermott, to find out just how much of a super human she really is! Not only is Maddie involved with three different sports teams on campus, she also takes being a mulitasker one step further and is the 1ST CHAIR (not to mention as a first year) Oboe player in the Wind Symphony
at Gustavus...


1. What three sports teams do you play on and what instrument do you play? 
Maddie is on the soccer team, the track team, and the nordic ski team. She plays the Oboe in the Wind symphony and I want to emphasis that she picked it because, "it just sounded the weirdest."


2. What is the best part about playing three sports at Gustavus?
"Well you are definitely never bored." She expressed how she gets to meet a bunch of different people all on campus. Being in different sports allows her to meet different groups and get to know a lot of people while competing in the sports she loves!

3. What is the hardest part about playing three sports and an instrument?

Maddie said that the hardest part about playing three sports and an instrument on campus was managing her time. She is usually going from one thing to the next so making sure to find time to study and do her homework is sometimes challenging. It's called athlete-student right?! 

4. What is your favorite part about playing an instrument? What is your favorite genre to play?

"There is a lot of different instruments that come together to sound good and to play a song." She expressed how she likes that part about music in general and likes to be apart of that little piece that makes a song sound good. Her favorite genre of music to play is Christmas music of course!

5. How do you manage your time between sports, band, and school?
"Its definitely a compromise. I cannot do full sports but I take it day by day and week by week depending on what sport has what each week." We talked about how great all of the Gustie coaches are with being flexible about her leaving practice early or coming late. As for school its really about getting things done on time and keeping up with school work as she gets it. 

5. What is your favorite thing to do at Gustavus out of all of the actives that you are involved in? (No pressure this is just going on the soccer blog) :) 
She actually said whichever season she was in, she liked that one the best! She expressed how much she likes all activities that she is involved in and she couldn't pick her favorite. (But we of course know that soccer is the best)

6. What is your favorite memory of playing any of your sports careers?
"When my nordic team went to state my senior year. The three years before that I was unfortunately one spot off from going to state each year so when we made it my senior year it was really exciting and it was a really cool experience."




7. Whats your favorite part about Gustavus? 
"I really like that my classes are small and that the campus is small. Especially in the winter it is nice that my walk to my classes are short and I don't have to be in the cold for very long."

8. Most importantly, whats your favorite food to eat?
"I would either pick chocolate or chicken strips." This was then followed by all the weird different combinations that you can eat with chicken strips. Waffles with chicken strips, peanut butter with chicken strips, we decided that chocolate and chicken strips would probably be the best because why not put your two favorite food together?

9. Is there any sport that you ever wanted to play but didn't?
"I always wanted to play volleyball but I was too busy. I also used to play basketball but quickly switched to Nordic."

10. Why don't you play 4 sports? 
(Most serious answer I received through the interview) "Well I don't know, if I was good at another one I would probably play that one too.."

11. How does it feel being the coolest three sport athlete on campus?
My favorite response of the entire interview "Um good."


It was so fun to be able to sit down with our favorite oboe playing, triple sport, student athlete. Thank you Maddie for dealing with my questions and giving us all an insight on what it is like to be the coolest three sport athlete on campus!

ALL AMERICAN ASHLEY BECKER

SO SO SO PROUD! Ashley Becker was named United Soccer Coaches First Team All-America. To put it into perspective, there are 347 division 3 soccer programs in the country. Many of them have more than one goalkeeper on the roster and Ashley Becker was picked as the one goal keeper on the first team!! From every game and every practice we know how much of a deserving honor this is. We are so pumped that Ashley is a Gustie and so excited for great accomplishment! What a STUD!

Ashley Becker Named United Soccer Coaches First Team All-America

Posted on November 30th, 2017 by CJ Siewert

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – United Soccer Coaches announced Thursday the association’s NCAA Division III Women’s All-America Teams on the eve of the 2017 NCAA Championship semifinals in Greensboro, N.C. and Gustavus goalkeeper Ashley Becker (Jr., Farmington, Minn.) has been named First Team All-America. The First Team consists of 15 players, but just one keeper. Becker is also the only First Teamer from an institution that did not qualify for the national tournament.

Ashley Becker

Becker becomes the ninth United Soccer Coaches (formerly National Soccer Coaches Association of America) All-American in program history and first since Alecia Tromiczak in 1997. Becker is also just the third First Team All-American in program history, joining Gustavus Athletics Hall of Famers Ginny Schafer in 1991 and Kerri Pool in 1993.

Becker, who was named MIAC Defensive Player of the Year, started all 20 games this season, the most by any keeper in the league, and played 1897:54 (15th/NCAA) between the posts. The Farmington product made a conference-best 98 saves to go along with 10 shutouts. She finished the year with a 0.66 goals against average (42nd/NCAA) and an .875 save percentage (16th/NCAA). Becker, who also earned her third-straight All-Conference nod, is the first Gustie women’s soccer player to be named All-MIAC three consecutive seasons since Renee Beaudry (1999-2002). After three seasons, Becker has 285 saves with a 0.91 goals against average and an .836 save percentage.

A total of 46 women’s soccer players in NCAA Division III received All-America recognition this year, led by a trio of three-time All-Americans: Brandeis University midfielder Josh Ocel, Lynchburg College defender Emily Maxwell and University of Chicago senior midfielder Mia Calamari.

This year’s NCAA Division III All-Americans, along with their families and coaches, will be formally acknowledged for their accomplishments at the United Soccer Coaches All-America Luncheon on January 20, 2018 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in conjunction with the 2018 United Soccer Coaches Convention in downtown Philadelphia.

United Soccer Coaches Release