Off the Ball with Callie Pike
10/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Oct. 24, 2008
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - For Callie Pike, playing anywhere other than the University of Alabama would have been a foreign experience. As a native of Tuscaloosa, the senior midfielder takes special pride in representing the Crimson Tide and being the local girl on a team that features players from all across the United States. For Pike, there could not be a more perfect scenario than being close to home and playing for the school she grew up supporting.
"Callie has been great because the first thing that you see and you feel when your around her is her love for Alabama," head coach Todd Bramble said. "She's from the state and she grew up in Tuscaloosa, so it's been a part of her life forever. That extra passion that she brings to the training field and the games is contagious and that's really been an asset for our team."
"The atmosphere here at the university is awesome," Pike said. "Everybody supports athletics here, and I know football is the big thing, but everything else is supported also. It is fun to win here and we've done really well winning games at home so it's been nice to win in front of a home crowd. The support that this town has shown us has been really nice."
In addition to the supportive atmosphere created by the fans, the athletics department at Alabama puts forth a tremendous effort to make sure players like Pike stay close to home. Although the home-cooked meals that she eats on her frequent trips home are a plus, the facilities at Alabama served as the tipping point when deciding where she would play her collegiate ball.
"I decided to hang around Tuscaloosa and play here because it's hard to pass up the facilities we have," Pike said. "By far we have the nicest facilities I've been to in the past three years, and even this year I think we top all the SEC schools and it's hard to pass that up."
With her senior season well under way, Pike is focusing on her remaining days at the Capstone while making sure that the Crimson Tide finishes the season strong. Being one of nine seniors on a team that has yet to reach post-season play, serves as extra motivation to make her last year the best yet.
"This group of seniors, we've been playing here for three years and have never been to the SEC Tournament," Pike said. "We've put in nothing but hard work and for the past three years these seniors have given their blood, sweat and tears for this program and have never been to the SEC Tournament. Since we've never been, I think that would be a really high note for us to end on."
In hopes of achieving that goal, Pike brings her physical style of play to every game and leaves nothing on the field. As a smaller player, she uses that aggressiveness to make up for what she may lack in size. According to Pike, it is either the ball or the player, but never both.
"I will fight for a ball in the air but I have trouble with that because a lot of these girls are several inches taller than I am," Pike said. "So my style of play is to try to win it on the ground. I know you will win it in the air but I'm not going to let you by on the ground, so I try to go in for tackles hard and not let them by on the ground. I've always been taught to never let the ball and the person get by you, so I try to never let that happen."
As a senior the role under Bramble has changed as Pike has been a key member of the squad off the bench. The intensity off the bench has been key to a squad that has not just been more productive in the points column but in the physical aspect of the game as well.
"For a player from Tuscaloosa to be a key member of an SEC team I think is a huge testament to how hard she's worked," Bramble said. "She's occasionally been in the starting lineup but more so this year she's had a reserve role for us but she's bought into that.
"Every time she's come into the game for us in that reserve role, she's added something to the game--she's changed the complexion of the game with her intensity and aggressiveness--and she's had a great senior year."
