By Brant Helms

In this entry of Bulldog Beat, interviewer Brant Helms sat down with Gabriel, or Gabe, Katz to ask questions about his love of soccer as well as aspirations and thoughts he has in the upcoming soccer season. In addition, Gabe gives his inner motivations for becoming a TWU Bulldog on top of the hopes he has during his studies on campus.

Q: What brought you to Tennessee Wesleyan University? What was the driving factor for choosing Athens over your hometown of Knoxville?

A: “Soccer is a big reason why I came to Tennessee Wesleyan. It had always been a goal of mine to play soccer in college and Tennessee Wesleyan gave me that opportunity. The two major things I wanted in a school was a personal academic experience at a school that wasn’t too big and wasn’t too far from home. UTK was far too big for me, and TWU was a decent size and a decent distance from school that allowed me to be my own person while still being close enough to home that I could go home if anything came up.”

Q: What is your major and do you have any career goals in mind after graduation?

A: “My major is sports communication. I started as an exercise science major but after my second of two anatomy classes, I decided that it wasn’t the route I wanted to go. With sports communication, I would like to work as a sports broadcaster or a sports journalist in some capacity. A dream job would be to call games for the Vols or to be the PA announcer or stadium production at Neyland Stadium.”

Q: Why choose soccer over any other athletics, and how did you get started in the sport?

A: “Ever since I was young, I was all about everything sports, hence my career path. My mom wanted to get me involved in sports early on and soccer ended up being the sport that stuck with me. I tried football, baseball, and basketball before I picked up soccer and just kinda ran with it. Basketball would have been my second choice, but I couldn’t get enough of soccer.”

Q: What are some accomplishments you have made on the field with your team or individually, and what are your upcoming hopes for the next Men’s Soccer season?

A: “My senior year of high school I was the district and region midfielder of the year as well as landing a spot on the all district and all region first teams. So far in my 3 years at TWU, I have been named an NAIA academic All-American twice. As far as the upcoming season goes, I just really would like to build on the standard we’ve set since I’ve been here. We won the program’s first NAIA national tournament game in November and being a part of that was something really special. Also for our new coach, I want his first season and my last season to be really memorable so that I can leave the program better than I found it.”

As many have seen this semester, TWU Athletics has had a great many staffing changes and among those changes is the hiring of Codi Crippen as head coach for the Men’s Soccer Program. Any new staff changes bring a difference to a team dynamic in sports and the changing of a head coach is the largest change that could affect players. The interview concluded with Gabe’s thoughts on Codi stepping in as head coach.

Q: Finally, there will be a new head coach overseeing men’s soccer. Do you have any opinions on that, and do you think this will bring good changes or results to the program?

A: “I think that it was a good change for the program. The previous coach [Luke Winter] took the program to great places, and it was just time for a new guy in charge. With our assistant being promoted to head man, I’m very excited to see how he runs things and I want nothing but the best for him. I think he’ll do a great job.”

Gabriel looks to be an aspiring member of TWU Athletics, and he will continue to work hard to deliver on his mission to leave the program a better place than he found it, which should be an aspiring goal for many athletes to help build their team even after graduation.

Photo courtesy of Gabriel Katz