Jenna Shay (Canyon Country, Calif./Canyon HS) is in her fourth season with the Pepperdine women’s soccer program and blossomed into a key player last year. Though she has a year of eligibility remaining, the midfielder may move on after this season to get started with a life devoted to helping others. She talked with pepperdinesports.com about her career, the final home game this weekend against #3 Portland, her mission trip to Uganda this summer and dealing with last week’s fires in Southern California.
Q: How would you describe your four years at Pepperdine?
A: “I’ve learned a lot. It’s been an incredible, joyful experience for me. The people that I’ve been able to get to know, the people that I’ve been able to play with, have been amazing. I’m so glad that I chose to come here.”
Q: This has been a frustrating season both for you and the team, I’m sure, with the Waves having so many ties and close losses, and yourself missing a few games with a knee injury. What’s it been like for you?
A: “It’s definitely been different. It’s one of those years where you just have to take it as it comes. Our team has definitely grown a lot since the beginning of the year. Now knowing what we’ve gone through, this team is definitely headed up. They’ll be able to deal with anything.”
Q: Is this your last year at Pepperdine?
A: “I do have a fifth year if I want it but I’m not sure yet. I had an ACL injury my sophomore year. It’s still a possibility but I’m taking this like it’s my last game and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Q: If this is your last home game, have you given it any thought?
A: “Oh yeah, I’ve definitely thought about it. As the season goes by, you start thinking about how something could be your last this or last that. The practices are even dwindling down. I didn’t think it would ever be me. I’ve seen the seniors in previous years and their last games but that wasn’t something I was thinking about.”
Q: You didn’t play much as a freshman, then were injured your second season. Last year you were a starter and this year you’ve been a key player and a team captain. What motivated you or allowed you to improve?
A: “Coming back from a freshman year where you don’t get to see the field much, and a sophomore year where you’re pretty much on the sidelines, I knew that I had something to contribute. Coming back from an injury like that it takes a lot of discipline. I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to contribute and I knew I could give something. My teammates saw how much I wanted to work for them and I think the coaches did too. I’m happy that I got to be part of this team.”
Q: Do you have any pregame rituals?
A: “Our team definitely has a lot of stuff like that. We pray before each match and I’m happy that I get to say the prayer a lot. I have a Celine Dion song that I sing in the locker room: “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” It’s kind of my solo. I think I get only one more time to sing that. I’m a pretty horrible singer ... I don’t remember how it got started. It was my freshman year. I used to be really embarrassed to do it but now I embrace it. I think it came out in a hyper moment and it stuck.”
Q: What’s it like being a student-athlete at Pepperdine?
A: “There’s so much that goes into it. It’s the best thing. You get to be involved in the lives of all of the athletes as part of the athletic community. You know the basketball players and you go to their games. You know the baseball players. And then you see people in your classes and you’re friends with regular students. I’ve made so many friends.”
Q: You’re majoring in English and education. It sounds like you’re going to be a teacher.
A: “I’ll have my credential when I graduate. I’m not sure if I’m going to go be a teacher my first year out of college. I had so many things that I like to do that I tried to funnel it into a major. I love writing and I love being able to impact people, so I thought, ‘Why not be a teacher?’ I’m still trying to figure it out.”
Q: Do you see yourself continuing to stay in soccer one way or another after your college days end?
A: “I love the game, I won’t be able to stay away from it. But I don’t think I’ll try to play at a higher level.”
Q: Talk about your mission trip to Uganda this summer.
A: “It made me want to go back to Africa, so that’s the thing that makes me skeptical about being a teacher right away. Maybe I can be a teacher in Africa. The trip was one of those things where we could use our whole lives: our soccer, our faith, everything we’ve been given. We were able to bring it over to the kids over there. It was just the most amazing thing and I hope these trips can keep continuing with Pepperdine and our team.”
Q: Describe what you did there.
A: “We stayed at a missionary’s home through some people that we knew that were connected with the Church of Christ. Mckenzie (Hill), Emily (Wynne) and I organized some soccer camps. We would meet a school of kids at the beginning of the day, and we’d take them out to a field nearby. It wasn’t much of a field, just dirt or fields with cows on them. We’d take them out there and try to teach them soccer, but ended up just playing. We brought several soccer balls, which they never really had before, which is crazy. We got to hand out jerseys and shin guards and cleats. And we went to nearby villages and did medical missions and saw that side of it, people who had AIDS and all sorts of different diseases. And then we did some fun things like whitewater raft in the Nile. That was really scary but it was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.”
Q: Were you prepared for what you saw in Africa or was it a real eye-opening experience?
A: “Going in there, I think anyone who does that wants to try to change the world. But I realized that I can’t, I’m a single person. I can do a lot with what I’ve been given. I learned to have the mindset that I’m going to go there, serve people and glorify God, who’s put it in my heart to do this. From there, you can’t really go wrong. I wasn’t really prepared for what I saw. You see it in pictures but it’s so different when you see it in real life.”
Q: What does that experience mean for your future?
A: “I do want to go back. There’s so much I can do here impacting people in the way that I want to but going to another place where their world view is so different, I think I can use my education and the thing I want to do with teaching, and I want to try to broaden their knowledge. A lot of people don’t know that washing their hands can save them from diseases. So it’s little things like that. Things that we do normally, people don’t think about over there. So that’s something I want to do at some capacity.”
Q: What made you decide this was something you wanted to do?
A: “I guess it comes down to in high school I became a Christian. And, I never wanted to be complacent. I’m pretty hard on myself to always be doing something. I’m driven to things that I haven’t seen or done. I want to develop into someone who can be a person that gives for their entire life and do that faithfully.”
Q: Being from Canyon Country, how were you and your family affected by the fires there last week?
A: “The fire came close enough where my family was told that it would be smart to start packing up, but they never had to leave so thankfully we weren’t affected much.”
Q: What was it like playing in San Diego last Sunday knowing what was going on here at Pepperdine with nearby fires?
A: “We knew what was going on but we didn’t know much. We knew people were camping out in the ‘caf’ and in the gym. It kind of inspired us, we didn’t know what was going on at home but we wanted to play well. After the game we were stranded for a while. We stayed at a hotel in Woodland Hills and just being in the hotel with the girls was good. The University really took care of us. It was hectic and people were worried. We have a lot of girls from San Diego, and Mckenzie and myself are from Canyon Country. I was constantly calling my parents. We just kind of rolled with the punches.”
