I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to sit down with one of my peers, Jack Stone, and discuss what soccer has meant to him throughout his life. In the beginning, I wasn't sure how the interview was going to go because I have never played soccer in an organized fashion so I couldn't get that true heartfelt connection with Jack about the sport. But as the Interview moved on, I realized that I didn't have to play soccer throughout my life in order for me to understand what the sport truly means to him. Luckily I have played baseball all my life including right now at Cal State East Bay and I used this to my advantage in regards to how I structured the interview and what questions I wanted to ask Jack. I really wanted to find out what inspired a CSUEB student to play soccer. The interview process as a whole was very interesting, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect once I clicked the record button on my phone. From my standpoint, I wasn't nervous at all because I had my questions written down, ready to rock. But I was worried about how Jack was going to respond when the spotlight was on him. So I tried my best to initiate the interview with as much ease as possible, I didn't want to get too deep on him straight out of the shoots. I wanted to hit him with a few of the basics such as "How old were you when you first started playing?" That way I can try and build up a little bit of trust with him so that maybe he lets his guard down later when I make an effort to get a little more personal with my questions. Along with building that trust, I wanted to just get him talking while the recorder is on so that maybe his nerves might die off a little bit. I thought my plan worked wonderfully, Jack was more than willing to share everything from distinct memories in his childhood, to the reasons why he continues playing today and on into the future. I didn't even necessarily follow my exact interview plan because I was interacting with him so well, I was able to work off of his answers and try to get more out of him and dig deeper into certain subjects.
