One Sam Houston State University soccer player is giving fans an interesting perspective on the program. Freshman defender Ellie Chapple is publishing a blog periodically on the SHSU Athletics soccer website called “Chatting with Chappy: Inside the Season”.
“The first one was kind of weird for me,” Chapple said. “Just thinking about all of the things I want to write about, I mulled over it more than the others.”
Head Coach Tom Brown went to Chapple earlier this season and asked her if she liked writing. He wanted on of his freshman players to start this blog so that fans and potential players can get an inside look at what the life of a collegiate athlete is like.
“I wanted to break the blog up into soccer, school, and then everything else,” Chapple said.
Chapple is a business marketing major, and was an academic standout at Bishop Kelley High School where she was awarded Academic All Frontier Conference and Academic Team State Champions. Finding the right balance between soccer and schoolwork has been a fairly painless transition for her.
“As for balancing homework, it isn’t as bad when you have all the other girls who are trying to stay on top of their classes too,” Chapple said. “We’re all making sure that we are getting our stuff done.”
Not only does Chapple want to cover sports in her blog, but she also wants to convey that student-athletes like herself have the same obstacles when they get to college as everyone else. Her transition period to SHSU was earlier than most students as she arrived in July for soccer, but her struggles were similar.
“I’m an out of town student, so I was getting acclimated to being away from home,” Chapple said. “I’ve only been home once since I’ve been here. Just getting used to being away from your parents and getting used to doing things yourself takes time.”
Writing her blog continues to get a little easier for her each time she publishes one. So far, she has written three, and they can all be found in the Soccer- Archives 2017 section of their athletics page online.
“I think going forward it will be a lot easier,” Chapple said. “It makes me more aware about what we did each week and what’s going today at practice and how everybody is doing.”
