January 10, 2025 • 52 mins
Thank you for tuning in to "Beyond the Game"! We hope you found valuable insights into the world of sports medicine and the importance of health and wellness in athletics. Remember, whether you're an athlete, a parent, or a sports enthusiast, this podcast is designed for you.
Stay connected with us! Subscribe to the podcast, share it with your friends, and don't forget to send in your questions and topics you'd like us to explore in future episodes.
Join us next time as we deliver sports-related topics right to your doorstep. Let’s continue this journey together—beyond the game!
For more resources and to connect with Dr. Brandon Hardin, visit TheRealSportsDoc.com or HardinSportsMed.com to learn more.
Keep pushing your limits, and see you next time!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Hardin (00:04):
Thanks for tuning in to Beyond the Game with your
host and my dad, Dr BrandonHardin.
Hey, what's up everybody?
I got Ethan Crump over herewith me in Mississippi and we're
going to talk about soccer,right, Ethan?
Yep how you doing today.
I'm good man, you.
Ethan (00:20):
I'm good, I'm good.
Dr. Hardin (00:21):
Yeah, so Ethan came in earlier this week for some
treatment on a few things and wewere started chatting up and
not that he's broken or anything, we didn't have to fix much,
right?
I asked him to come on thepodcast because what better
person, right?
So Ethan is a soccer player inPortugal.
Actually, he's from here inhere, mississippi.
(00:42):
I helped him a little bit herein in high school, right?
Yeah, dude, that means I'mgetting old, me too.
But what I've discussed, likeyour, your career in sport, and
I think you and I kind of sortof had a conversation like he
has a few brothers that thatplay soccer as well and I was
(01:06):
asking him you know, hey, whatdo you think your brother might
fall in your footsteps?
And you know Ethan is superpassionate about soccer and he
knew at an early age that that'swhat he wanted to do.
I think that's the biggest gamechanger for you as more of a
professional now is seeing youngpeople kind of phase out, right
so like you're either in it oryou're not it happens.
Ethan (01:26):
It happens a lot, like either kids don't have the
resources to go into it or it'sjust they find something else
that they enjoy more.
And I mean it happens a lot.
I think the younger kidsespecially like in the States,
they have all these biggersports yeah and so they see all
these big things like football,baseball, baseball, basketball,
and they choose that becauseit's a big thing in Mississippi,
(01:48):
big thing in the States,instead of soccer.
Dr. Hardin (01:50):
Yeah.
Ethan (01:51):
So it's a tough sport to get into if you live in the
States.
Dr. Hardin (01:53):
No, absolutely man.
Actually, I put that in one ofthe questions I'm going to ask
you in a little bit.
I think it's like you hit thenail on the head, dude, like why
soccer right, especially whenyou don't have the resources
that, like the football playershave Like up in Hattiesburg,
they've got 60 yards of amazingturf and an indoor facility that
they train at you know what.
(02:14):
I'm saying Down here, it's likeI tell my youngest son, my
youngest son's into soccer.
I tell him all the time you hadto pick the coldest sport.
You know you guys are wearingshorts and t-shirts and it's 18
freaking degrees outside.
I mean it's crazy.
Obviously he's in Portugal now,so it's pretty sunny right?
Ethan (02:32):
I mean it can be.
Sometimes the weather's quitebipolar.
Yeah, some like you'll getMonday and Tuesday.
It'll be hot and then.
Dr. Hardin (02:41):
Wednesday.
Ethan (02:41):
Thursday it'll be raining and cold.
You never know what's going tohappen.
Never know, right?
No, especially in the winter.
The winter is crazy, like whenI was there before I came home
for break.
We had a week where it wasstraight super hot and then the
next week was raining the entireweek.
Dr. Hardin (02:53):
That's crazy and it's just back and forth, yeah.
Ethan (02:55):
Yeah, you're just playing in all kinds of climate, yeah,
and you love it, but you doExactly.
Dr. Hardin (03:01):
Yeah, man.
So what sparked your interestin soccer at a really young age?
I mean, obviously you had thatconnection there.
What was that spark that yousaid I want to go pro at that?
Ethan (03:13):
I mean, honestly, it was just growing up watching all
these dudes on TV doing stuff Icould never imagine seeing and
just falling in love with, likenot just like the simple stuff
but like the magic of it.
Like there's certain playersthat have like a aspect of the
game that just makes it somewhatmagical and that, for me, like
(03:33):
sparked an interest as well asmy dad loves the sport and so
growing up watching it with himlike drove me to wanna.
One day he watched me do that,yeah it was a big thing for me
as well see, that's really cool.
Dr. Hardin (03:45):
Yeah, making it family matters, that's just cool
, man, yeah, I like that.
Yeah, ethan's family went andvisited him in Portugal over the
Thanksgiving break, right, yeahover Thanksgiving yeah, and so
now Ethan came back for theChristmas break and he was
telling me it's really nice tobe able to hang out with this
family twice in one year thatreally resonated with me, man,
because I mean I'm, we'reobviously with each other all
the time You're having to playacross the world.
(04:08):
You have to really want to dothat.
Ethan (04:14):
It's tough.
The hardest part is just beingaway from family as you get
older.
Of course you're going to moveout, you're going to live away
from family, but you don't.
Some people don't expect tocome so soon, like when you go
to college.
You always can come homewhenever yeah but like over
there, like you, tickets areexpensive to fly to Europe yeah
so you get to come home once,maybe twice a year?
(04:36):
yeah, so I was lucky to see themduring Thanksgiving and now
here with them over Christmasyeah, yeah, that's awesome man,
that is awesome.
Dr. Hardin (04:43):
So, growing up in Mississippi, obviously we just
talked about it Soccer reallyisn't the first thing that comes
to mind when you think aboutsouthern athletics, right?
So how did you overcome thechallenges of pursuing soccer in
a region that's dominated byother sports?
Ethan (04:57):
I mean I feel like all kids in Mississippi are six
sport athletes Like I grew up, Iplayed basketball, played
basketball, baseball, I was aswimmer and I also soccer.
And then I fell out of baseballand basketball in middle school
, uh-huh, and I was justswimming and playing soccer.
And then right around theeighth grade I was like you know
, I'm tired of swimming because,like, swimming is just, you're
(05:19):
not racing anyone, you're justracing a clock yeah and so the
soccer.
I just love the competitive part, but also like the team part,
like it's 11 dudes and it's notyou're fighting for yourself,
you're fighting for your entireteam.
Yeah, I don't know that partresonated with me yeah sure, I
want to look good as myself inmy position, but I also want my
team to win and want all myteammates to feel good that we
(05:39):
won the game together no,absolutely ourselves.
Dr. Hardin (05:41):
Yeah, yeah, another thing ethan and I were talking
about earlier.
We were playing catch-up,weren't we?
I don't really get to see Ethanat all right, it's just as much
as your own family does, youknow when he comes into town.
But he was telling me yeah, doc, you know a lot of people are
like so you play basketball.
You guys have to know Ethan is6'5" and he's a soccer player.
So obviously, so obviously,when you look at this guy you're
(06:02):
like, yeah, he definitely playsbasketball.
Ethan (06:04):
Nope.
Dr. Hardin (06:05):
No basketball for me , no basketball.
Ethan (06:08):
But I mean, like I said, those basketball dudes, like you
see me, oh, he's 6'5".
And then you'll see an NBAplayer Guy's 7'1", 7'2", he
towers over me.
I can do anything on thosecourts.
Dr. Hardin (06:19):
Right, right.
Oh man, that's funny so who areyour biggest?
Influences and role models as ayoung player like.
Did you have anyone that youlike looked up to in your
younger years?
Ethan (06:30):
gosh, I mean honestly like my dad.
Yeah, because when he was myage he was playing and he he was
supposed to go.
I can't remember what school itwas, but some some I think
Division I school when he was myage.
But he had some bad kneeproblems and back then the time,
like the medicine, wasn't verygood when he was my age and so
(06:51):
he could never get those fixed,so he had to stop playing and so
it was like a he wanted to seeme do it.
And then I was like I want to doit and like I felt like looking
up to see how much he loved thesport grew into me and my love
for the sport.
And so now it's just like Iwant to do that, so he can see
me do that and so I can seemyself do that as well.
But then I guess within thegame that's a tough one.
(07:15):
That's a tough one.
I can't pick out like a singlefavorite player I looked up to
to like go after my game.
Dr. Hardin (07:21):
That's a tough question Right, it's more the
game, the sport of it, versusany particular person.
That got you interested.
Ethan (07:30):
I like that, just watching it, falling in love
watching it and wanting to do itLike I want to do that.
Yeah, exactly.
Dr. Hardin (07:37):
That's cool, man, and you have your own way and
your own perspective on thesport and you're your own player
, so, realistically, it's kindof like you're your own player,
so realistically, it's kind oflike you put your own hodgepodge
of talent together and that'sthat's why you are where you are
now.
Exactly, yeah, exactly.
That's awesome man.
So what was your early soccerexperience like like down here
(07:58):
in Mississippi?
Did you play SMSC GCU school?
Ethan (08:01):
Yeah, when I was a little kid, I grew up playing in SMSC
GCU school when I was a littlekid, I grew up playing in SMSC,
my first team.
We were called the Roadrunners.
Dr. Hardin (08:08):
Yeah.
Ethan (08:09):
And then I think you might you know, Tim Bruni.
Dr. Hardin (08:11):
Yeah.
Ethan (08:11):
Yeah, he was our coach.
And then from there I stayed inSMSC.
I went to another team we werecalled the Vipers, uh-huh.
And then after that is when,like, I started, you know, after
that is when I started, youknow I want to go to a higher
level.
So I moved to a team inHattiesburg called Southern
State and they were morecompetitive.
We played in a U19 league calledthe NPSL, and so we ended up
(08:36):
winning.
I came in and I started on thebench in the first four games
and then the keeper who wasplaying made a really bad
mistake and so don't know wherethe cook, like you're gonna play
, and so I just jumped in andthen the remaining nine games I
only conceded one goal and therest of the games were clean
sheets.
And then from there, like withthat team, I just like you know
(08:57):
what like this is crazy, like Ican do this, I'm gonna stay here
and like that's where I Ireally started to develop is
when I got there.
There was a crazy breakthroughfrom Little League Coast here on
the coast to actual biggerleague up in Hattiesburg, which
is where I felt the developmentreally truly started with me as
a player.
Dr. Hardin (09:17):
That was my next question.
That was a defining moment thatmade you realize, okay, yeah,
there it is man.
Obviously you knew you could doit, you wanted to do it and
there's your opportunity.
I love it.
Ethan (09:29):
With that Southern States team.
They also had a, so the teamhad the U19 team which played in
the NPSO U19 league, but theyalso had a men's team which
played in the NPSO men's team.
And so I was gosh 16 at thetime, nice, gosh 16 at the time,
nice, and all these dudes onthe mid team, they're juniors,
seniors in college.
there was a couple who playedfor their national teams and
stuff right and so after my likestandout season with the 19s, I
(09:50):
got called up to be a part oflike the first team and like
that.
It was like it's like a summerthing and that entire summer was
just training with.
Actually, no, it started in themiddle of school and so I had
to do my school online, like Iwas commuting to Hattiesburg
every day in the morning doingmy first two classes in the
morning online.
Oh wow, then we would train,I'd do lunch and then I do my
(10:14):
third class and then I drivehome and then I turn in with the
high school.
But that entire time with likethe seniors, like so, it was
like the crazy level between a16 year old and a grown man
which is like it's a big jump,but at the same time it was even
better for my development.
Being thrown as a 16 year oldkid training with you to four
years, five years older than meright, it makes you a stronger
(10:37):
person yeah yeah, strongerplayer, that as well no,
absolutely man.
Dr. Hardin (10:41):
Yeah, I mean it has to.
I'm a grown man at that point.
This kid has it or he doesn't.
You're either on or you're off.
Yeah, man, I get that.
Were there any doubts orhesitations, like you say, in a
16-year-old playing adult leaguesoccer from your family?
Were they hesitant or were theylike let's go?
Ethan (11:03):
I feel like my parents always supported it, like that's
like the one thing I love isthat there was never a moment
where they were like you know,maybe you should take a step
back and do this Like it wasalways.
We're going to support you Likethis is your dream, we're going
to help you make it happen, andso that's like probably the
biggest thing for me is thatI've always had that constant
support from my parents.
(11:24):
I haven't ever felt like I needto stop because there's no
support.
They've always been theresupporting me, no matter what,
and that's the biggest thing forme.
Dr. Hardin (11:39):
You know, in talking with you and I've had several
professional athletes comethrough from football, baseball,
soccer I think that's thebiggest thing that helps drive
them is having that supportbehind them to push them forward
.
Ethan (11:47):
Exactly, I mean, I feel like that's the biggest thing in
all sports If you don't haveany support, you're going to
fall out, you're going tostruggle mentally, physically
yeah, like support, especiallyfrom loved ones and family
members, is the biggest thing Ithink all athletes need to have.
Dr. Hardin (12:01):
Yeah, in my opinion at least.
Yeah for sure.
Did you have that dream thatone day you were going to be
where you are today?
And when did that happen?
Ethan (12:11):
I mean, honestly, I don't think I've always loved the
sport, but I don't think I fullywanted to commit to it until I
was around 15 or 16 when Irealized, like you know, I'm not
bad.
I'm not a bad player like andI've seen so many people like
going out and becomingprofessionals at 25, 26, yeah,
(12:32):
15 season.
Like you know, I can, I couldmaybe make this happen yeah so
at that point I just was likeyou know, I'm gonna do
everything I can to make ithappen full force drive ahead?
Dr. Hardin (12:41):
mm-hmm, no's awesome .
So what about development,growth in the game?
Tell us how your development asa player?
What were some of your mostcrucial moments or experiences
that helped you improve yourskill as a soccer player?
Ethan (12:56):
Honestly, I think it's whenever you me especially is
whenever I'm not performing well.
So if I have like, let say, abad week in training or I have a
bad match, and the next matchI'm on the bench.
Like that doesn't turn intosadness and like go into a
drought.
It turns into motivation andfor me, like I feel like I
(13:17):
always use that to improve tothe next week, to where I'm
going in 110% times better thanI was the previous week, and I
feel like I mean I always trynot to have a bad week, but you
can't ever you can't ever have alike.
I don't think anyone's perfect.
You can't have a perfect weekalways.
There's always going to be badones, and so.
(13:37):
I use that the most as mydevelopment to just push myself
more and more through that andas well.
I mean I feel like all thecoaches I've had here on the
south have always been there,like to help develop me, like
when I was at southern states mygoalkeeper coach was always
working to develop me.
And then I also have agoalkeeper coach I do like
individual sessions with.
His name is carl bundle.
(13:57):
He coaches the women's team upat pocc nice and I mean I've
been trying to catch exactly.
Dr. Hardin (14:03):
I've been playing with him since I was 15.
Ethan (14:07):
So I'm 20 now.
It's been five years and he'sbeen I wouldn't say the biggest
supporter, but he's been upthere always.
When I'm over there.
He'll always reach out everynow and then to see how things
are going.
And it's always good to trainwith him too, because there's
always something new you canlearn as a player, which is the
best part.
Dr. Hardin (14:24):
Yeah, yeah.
Development in any arena rightis key.
You become complacent and guesswhat that's when you stop
moving forward.
Exactly, right, exactly.
That's in my profession too,man.
I see it all the time.
You get these guys that comeout of school and they're like
all right, well, I'm making goodmoney treating this amount of
patients.
That's totally fine for me,dude.
(14:44):
I'm like what can I do next?
Like this podcast, for example?
I want to help give back to theathletes who've given me so
much over the last 12 years.
You know what I'm saying.
Having you guys come on and talkto people through podcasting
helps young people decide.
Is this maybe something I needto aspire to?
(15:06):
Can I help the next person oncethey fit in your shoes one day
and you're now the Coach Carlkind?
Of guy who's trying to helpsomebody else.
It's just a way to give back.
But if we become complacent,then there's no room for
(15:27):
improvement.
Ethan (15:28):
No, I mean, I think, becoming complacent.
I wouldn't say it's the worstthing someone could do, but it's
pretty bad because if you'reokay with what you're doing,
then eventually you're going tohate it and you're not going to
want to do it anymore.
But if you can constantly think, oh, I can do this to better my
job, I can learn this techniqueto better what I'm doing on the
field.
You can always develop into adifferent kind of person within
(15:52):
your career field.
Whatever your career is, that'sexactly right.
Dr. Hardin (15:55):
Yeah, no, I totally agree with that.
How did you handle any setbacksin your career, like injuries
maybe being overlooked at somepoint in time, or even like
difficult losses?
Ethan (16:07):
Gosh, I mean when I was in 2015,.
I had surgery on my left knee.
Dr. Hardin (16:11):
Yeah.
Ethan (16:12):
And then a year later a year later is when I had joined
Southern State Yep, my firstgame with them I blew up my
right knee and had surgery onthat, and so that was probably
the two biggest things thathappened, and for me it was just
my parents like no, it'll beokay, Like just those three
words always help, it'll be okay.
Because, if, like imagine theysaid, oh, you're done, like,
(16:35):
especially as a young kid no,but like saying it'll be okay,
and then just using that to moveforward as well.
I had my doctor.
I had to go to Dallas.
His name was Dr ellis, I think.
Yeah, he's up in dallas.
That got I can't remember thename scottish right, scottish
right hospital, yeah it was.
It was brilliant, like I hadn't, like that was like.
(16:56):
I think it's like the bestgeorgian orthopedic surgeon in
the country oh, by far man.
Dr. Hardin (17:01):
Yeah, I have a buddy up there, dr logan sherman, and
uh, he works real closely withthe Scottish Rite Hospital.
I think it's incredible whatthey do.
Ethan (17:09):
It's amazing.
I've seen so many stories aboutthe kids they've rehabilitated
and all of these kids are comingwith smiles on their face and
they just are happy to be there.
They're not sad to be there.
Every single person I've seenis happy to be at the hospital
getting better.
Dr. Hardin (17:28):
Yeah, logan and I Dr Sherman and I trained in Dallas
.
Together.
We were interns at VA Dallas,which, if you guys know anything
about VA Dallas, it's a hugehospital man.
Oh yeah, it's incredible.
And then Logan, of course, dida lot of work with Scottish Rite
and he still does.
Actually, they just honored hima couple of weeks ago.
But that's an incredible story,considering I go back to the
(17:49):
conversation we had about yourdad of being told he had to stop
.
Yeah, you know, imagine if hehad the resources.
You had exactly imagine if ourkids have the resources.
You know that that we have.
You know it just keeps gettingbetter and better and better.
Ethan (18:04):
That's the one great thing about the medicine world,
like it won't ever get worse.
I mean sure there's lots thatcould improve, but like yeah,
everything is going to continueto improve because there's
people who want to improve itand that's the best part about
it.
Like, if you get hurt now andthe future.
Someone has the same injury.
Their recovery time will be tentimes faster.
(18:25):
Their recovery time is better,which is a crazy thing to think
about, but that's just how itworks.
Dr. Hardin (18:30):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yep, that's exactly right.
What kind of training regimenor habits have you cultivated to
help you compete at yourhighest level?
What does it look like for younow?
Ethan (18:42):
I mean, when we level.
What does it look like for younow?
I mean when we, like a normalweekend training, will go in.
Our report time is in 30, yeah,and so we have about 20 minutes
in the locker room.
Uh-huh, greet, everyone saygood morning, yeah, everyone's
doing, and then around 1050we're in the gym and it's just,
you know, some weight work, butjust getting the body warmed up
(19:05):
for training, and then fromthere we're, we go into our in
portuguese we call it the sala,but it's just like the.
It's just a room with ourlittle presentation board and
we'll have a whole videopresentation on what training is
going to be, what the sessionwill look like, and then from
there we have another fiveminutes just to get ourselves
ready, get our cleats on For me,get my gloves and my cleats,
(19:27):
and then just those extra twominutes.
Once you do.
That is just For me.
I use it to just sit down inthe quiet, get myself, as the
kids now say, they say locked in.
Dr. Hardin (19:38):
Yeah.
Ethan (19:38):
And then get ready to train, and it's the same process
every single day.
Yeah, but for me also, likeoutside of it, I, like, you know
, take some time alone.
You know like either read agood book or work on my class I
take a language class but workon my homework and stuff Just
that alone time can help, youknow, to relax yourself, so you
don't like say you had a badtraining, so you don't focus on
(19:59):
the bad part, you move past itstraight away, or looking at the
good part for the next day.
Dr. Hardin (20:04):
Right.
Ethan (20:04):
For me it's a big, important step.
Dr. Hardin (20:06):
Yeah, always looking ahead, man is a big important
step.
Ethan (20:08):
Yeah, always looking ahead, man Exactly.
Dr. Hardin (20:10):
Getting locked in?
Yeah, that's right.
So how did your transition fromyouth league to professional
world come about?
Like, was there one momentwhere you had a coach that was
like, hey man, like how did youget to Portugal?
Ethan (20:25):
Well, actually, if we can ask that, no, you can, of
course my junior year.
You know him, you know Simon.
Dr. Hardin (20:30):
Yes, yeah, simon Thames, everybody Shout out to
Simon.
Ethan (20:34):
He went to Portugal and it was through this, like
company called IFAP, likeInternational Football Academy.
Dr. Hardin (20:41):
Yeah.
Ethan (20:41):
And they bring players from all over Portugal to play,
and Simon had gone there for afew months and he came back and
he was like you know, I thinkthis is a real deal, you should,
you should try it out, yeah,and so I went there for two
months, my senior year just youknow, test it out, test the
water, see if I liked it.
Yeah, and I mean, I was onlysupposed to stay for two weeks,
but I had a, I had a goodshowing, and then I stayed an
(21:02):
extra two months and I mean,from there I just the guy, I was
like you know, you can, I thinkyou can do this.
And so I came back, finishedschool and as soon as I
graduated I was two weeks laterI was headed to Portugal and
then from there everything kindof fell into place.
I stayed, I started with a teamcalled Lourdes and then after
six months there you know it wasups and downs and I left and I
(21:25):
moved to a team called FOFO,which stands for like football,
but they have littleabbreviations and I ended up the
week before my first game.
I came in and they're likeyou're going to be our starter,
you're number one, we need you.
I come in second training ofthe week.
Break my finger.
Dr. Hardin (21:40):
Oh yeah, and you had to come back to the States and
get it repaired and I was out.
Ethan (21:44):
I stayed for an extra two months thinking it wasn't
anything crazy, it would heal byitself.
And then I went and got anx-ray before I came home and my
finger was like the bones werecompletely separated and they
weren't going to heal at all, soI came home straight away.
Dr. Hardin (21:58):
Who did that surgery ?
Do you remember?
Ethan (22:00):
Dr Hand.
Dr. Hardin (22:01):
Dr Hand, Karen Hand at Memorial Yep yeah man,
awesome, he did that.
Ethan (22:06):
And then I did recovery.
It was about three or fourmonths and then got back into
training a little bit to see howit felt and then was right back
to Portugal after that.
Dr. Hardin (22:17):
Do you think that was probably one of the biggest
challenges you faced?
I imagine this in your head andyou can tell me if I'm wrong,
but you get that startingposition.
They're like Ethan, we need youout on the field.
You break your finger.
I imagine what's going on inyour head is oh my God, did I
just ruin my career?
Like, am I allowed to come back?
Ethan (22:35):
I mean, yeah, of course.
I mean I come in and I'vealready got a big weight on my
shoulders, being told like webrought you here for a reason,
and that reason is to play.
That reason is to help us winour games, win our league.
And then my first week intraining and I'm out for the
season.
Like I mean, I don't know, it'shard to recover from that, but
(22:55):
at the same time it's injuriesare a part of the game you know
you can't go through an entirecareer and not have one injury.
I've never heard of thathappening.
I've never seen that happen.
So like for so for me, and Ihad already dealt with the two
knee surgeries.
So I was like, if I can comeback from two knee surgeries, a
(23:16):
finger surgery is not going tobe anything, it'll be much
easier.
It wasn't fun, I couldn't usemy left hand for two months, but
I got used to it and thentherapy was good and then went
straight back into it.
Dr. Hardin (23:30):
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome man.
Ethan (23:33):
You know, it's crazy.
Dr. Hardin (23:35):
I don't know if you know this, but you need two legs
to play soccer.
Ethan (23:38):
You hurt both knees.
Dr. Hardin (23:40):
You're a goalkeeper.
Ethan (23:41):
Right, so you need both hands.
Dr. Hardin (23:43):
You do indeed, man.
You had all the odds stacked upagainst you, right I?
Ethan (23:48):
know, I know, but no, there's man.
You had all the odds stacked upagainst you right I know, I
know man, but no, there'sactually this one player.
His name is Aaron Ramsey.
He plays in the Premier Leaguein England.
Yeah, and he actually broke hisleft ring finger and so, but
the other goalkeepers on histeam, they're not as good as him
, and so he's sponsored byAdidas, and Adidas made him a
custom glove where I wish Icould show these people, because
(24:11):
yeah, I know right.
I'm showing Harden, but nobodyelse can see they made it.
They sewed the glove to whereit's a pinky spot.
These two are one spot so theylike.
So he had like one finger thatwas like the size of this so for
everybody listening and ourorthosurgeons listening, they
buddy taped it.
Dr. Hardin (24:28):
Basically, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Ethan (24:31):
That is super cool and he played with, like you said, a
buddy taped glove for the wholegame.
It was crazy.
I'll have to show you a picturewhen we finish up.
Dr. Hardin (24:40):
Yeah, absolutely, we'll link it to this podcast.
Yeah, man and Adidas, if you'relistening, hey, we need.
Ethan some custom gloves andsome new fit shoes right Exactly
.
Some cleats, Exactly.
Ethan (24:55):
Anyone who's listening, I'll take whatever you have for
me.
Dr. Hardin (24:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Also, ethan, are you cool withpeople following you on social
media?
Of course you have Instagram.
Yeah, okay, yeah, if you guysgo look up Ethan Crump on
Instagram.
Ethan (25:10):
Yeah, it's ECrump5.
Dr. Hardin (25:12):
A C, not a K.
Ethan (25:13):
A lot of people get that mixed up.
It's a C yeah, C-R-U-M-P yeah.
Dr. Hardin (25:17):
Five and that's it.
Instagram yeah, y'all go followhim.
Can you share a in your careerthat truly stands out to you and
kind of we'll give thelisteners an inside look at one
of your most defining moments onthe field?
Can you paint a picture foreverybody?
Ethan (25:35):
So it was last season.
I was at a club calledAcademica, which is a city
called Coimbra in Portugal it'sabout two hours north of Lisbon
and in the football world wehave things called derbies,
which is like, where it's liketwo teams from the same city are
playing each other.
So we have played our derby, myclub's Academica, against a
club called UNIL, and we endedup winning that game 3-0.
(25:57):
Nice.
And in that game I think I hadabout 10, 12 saves maybe, and at
least five or six of them werelike in my eyes were crazy saves
, like this reaction, or a shotthat's in the top corner of the
goal that I touched over to thebar.
And I mean, one of that gamewas just a moment like I was
(26:18):
like okay, like that was thebest game I've ever played, like
and I felt on top of the worldbecause we had just won our
Darby 3-0, and I kept a cleansheet.
We got three points in theleague and I played out of my
mind and so that was a goodmoment.
But then there was also when Iwas first here with Lotus, my
first team, we played against aclub called Sporting, and
(26:39):
Sporting's first team isarguably I mean, arguably one of
the best teams in the world andwe played against their U19
team because I was still InPortugal.
Portugal there's called juniors,which is U19, okay, and then
after the U19 season, you'rejust considered a senior player.
Yeah, so this is when I was ajunior.
We played the U19s and we lostthe game, but like it was just,
(27:01):
you know the experience ofplaying against such a high
level team sure, at a high levelclub, and seeing, oh my gosh,
like these kids are actually thebest players in the league, in
their club, in the league rightnow just playing against that is
the craziest sight to see.
Dr. Hardin (27:15):
Right, it's crazy and you got to do that exactly
yeah, yeah, what an incredibleopportunity right, it was, it
was awesome, it was awesome yeah, man, do you know I don't know
statistically, you may know thisyou know how many players what
do the numbers look like onprofessional soccer players, or,
(27:35):
let's say, anybody outside ofcollege go to the next level?
What is that?
Like the percentage is low,like 10%, it's really low, yeah,
yeah.
Ethan (27:44):
I think it might be even less than 10%.
I think it is too I think likeit's like 25% go from high
school to college and then fromcollege to professional.
It's even lower, around maybe5%.
I could most definitely bewrong, but from what I've seen
it's a pretty low percentage.
Yeah, I venture to guess you'reright.
Dr. Hardin (28:03):
It's a tough world to break into.
Yeah, absolutely One.
Again, your resources, yeah,exactly.
Ethan (28:08):
Resources are a crazy part If you don't know anybody,
unless you're the greatestplayer ever.
If you don't know anyone, thenit's going to be impossible to
get in.
If you have to know someone, orsomeone who knows someone, yeah
, warren.
Dr. Hardin (28:21):
Steenkamp, if you're listening to this, I'm calling
you.
You need to pick Ethan up.
Ethan (28:25):
He's awesome.
Dr. Hardin (28:26):
I'm going to get him over to Atlanta so I can go
watch him play.
Let's go.
Let's talk about some personalaspirations and goals.
Now that you're living yourdream, what are your long-term
goals with the sport?
I know we've talked about thelongevity of soccer players,
especially goalies, being around40 years old.
How does that look for you?
Ethan (28:49):
For me.
I don't even think I've reallygotten to my dream yet.
My dream, I mean I want to playin the highest league possible,
which is the Premier League inEngland.
It's arguably the best leaguein the world.
That's, of course, the dream,but also my goal is to what year
(29:09):
are we in?
25?
We're 25?
.
Dr. Hardin (29:11):
Yep.
Ethan (29:11):
So the 2030 World Cup's in five years.
So my goal is to be a part ofthat team that plays in the
World Cup for the United States.
That's my goal.
That's what I want to do,absolutely that's what I want to
do.
So how do we get you there?
I mean, I just have to work mybutt off.
Honestly, that's all you canreally do is just work, work,
work.
You have to go into everytraining at 100%.
(29:36):
You have to perform well everytraining.
When you play, you have to beon top of your game.
You've got to be locked in.
Yeah, exactly, you have to belocked in.
You've got to be locked in, butI'm lucky, I have an agent.
You know what an agent is.
Yeah, this, I have an agent,you know what an agent is.
Yeah, yeah and so this is myfirst time working with an agent
and so I think he's great.
He has thousands of connectionsin Portugal and so he got me
(29:56):
with the club I'm at right nowand I trust him with my career
right now.
And he's great.
He's got me with my club nowand he says to me when he sees
me play, he's like I see bigthings for you I.
He says to me when he sees meplay, he's like I see big things
for you, I'm only 22.
I'm a young kid, especially inthe goalkeeper world, and so
with that like with someone likehim saying he has my back and
(30:17):
he also has these connections, Ifeel like I could eventually
play anywhere I wanted to.
It's just I have to wait.
You know, I'm young and I feellike the time will come.
You never know when, but I feellike the time will come.
Dr. Hardin (30:32):
Oh yeah, you never know when, but I feel like it
will come.
It's just a waiting game andjust working your butt off so
you can make it there.
Absolutely, man, those are somereally ambitious goals.
I love it and you're gonna makeit, I know yeah, I feel I will
too yeah it's just a matter oftime and when, where it will
happen yeah, that'sright, that's exactly right what
do you want your legacy to beas a player?
Let's say you do make it to2030.
You're in the World Cup.
(30:53):
You're obviously have leftPortugal.
What do you want your legacy tobe in the state you're in now
in Portugal?
How do you want your team toremember how well you played?
I mean?
Ethan (31:06):
honestly, I would say like I do make it and I'm doing
all these things I said I wantto do I would just want to have,
because there's a lot ofplayers now who have like
legacies of they were rude, theywere great players but they
were like not nice people, youknow.
Dr. Hardin (31:22):
Yeah.
Ethan (31:23):
I wouldn't want to be remembered as something like
that.
Like I'd want to be rememberedalways having a smile on my face
or just like the energeticperson in the field.
Like I wouldn't want to andthen I'd also want to.
You know, I wouldn't wantsomeone to say, oh yeah, I
didn't like play with him.
I wanted, I want to be like yes, I loved playing with him, you
know, it was fun.
He was always a fun guy to bearound, right, like I wouldn't.
(31:44):
I feel like that's the biggestthing.
Like I don't want to come.
I want to come across this likea good person, like, yeah, you
could think I'm a terribleplayer, but I still like, if I'm
a good person is better thanbeing a bad person.
And, uh, I'd rather be a goodperson and a terrible player
than a bad person and a goodplayer, right in my eyes at
least no, absolutely.
Dr. Hardin (32:03):
Hopefully that translates for everybody.
Ethan (32:04):
Yeah, right, just be a good person yeah, there's a lot
of people who aren't but ethanhow long have I?
Known you now.
I think I came in.
Was it my senior year of highschool, or was it after I had
graduated?
Dr. Hardin (32:14):
I don't think it was your senior year.
Ethan (32:16):
Yeah, so I graduated in 22.
We just got to 25, so aroundtwo years, yeah.
Three years in the summer, yeah.
Dr. Hardin (32:22):
Yeah, as long as I've known Ethan, he's a super,
super humble guy.
Ethan (32:27):
Thank you.
Dr. Hardin (32:27):
Yeah, super nice.
You know, I remember one momentvividly.
I was walking out we have arestaurant down here called
Woody's Roadhouse and I hear DrHardin and I look over and it's
Ethan.
I'm like Jesus.
This dude grew up another footand then he was telling me about
his way to Portugal, man Iremember that so cool man.
Ethan (32:48):
I just got off of work.
I was working over at.
Dr. Hardin (32:50):
Killville yes, and I seen you.
Yep got off of work.
Ethan (32:52):
I was working over at Chilville.
Dr. Hardin (32:53):
Yes, and I seen you.
Yep, yeah, man.
And now I get to see his littlebrother in here, who's also a
soccer player, and I have to say, man, your mom and dad are
super proud of you.
Ethan (33:01):
Yeah, they Super proud of you.
They tell me that.
Dr. Hardin (33:04):
Yeah, I get to listen to their stories about
you when they bring your brotherin and it's really cool to hear
them talk about you.
You know, you have a lot ofparents who are like oh my kid's
going pro.
You know well what happens whenyour kid actually makes it.
Ethan (33:20):
Yeah.
Dr. Hardin (33:20):
And you did, and your parents are so proud of you
.
Ethan (33:23):
Yeah, I mean, that's the biggest thing for me, like, even
if I never made it to where Iwant to go, at least I can say
you know, I did everything Icould.
And I know that my parents willstill always be proud, like,
say, if tomorrow I was like youknow, I want to stop playing
soccer, I want to do somethingelse, they would still be like
okay, you know, we're proud ofyou, we'll support you.
(33:43):
They're my biggest support andI love that from them and I love
them.
Dr. Hardin (33:48):
It's great great, yeah, which is cool, because
traditionally well, I shouldn'tsay traditionally, but you hear
stories like, especially comingfrom your dad, like you're
playing for your dad, right,you're not, you're playing for
you In some circumstances, likeeven kids, I can hear I'm like
hey, can I talk to youpersonally?
And they're like yeah sure awayfrom their parents and I'll say,
(34:08):
do you want to play this sport?
Exactly, you know, becausethey'll come in and as a
physician, you do.
You want to play this sport?
Exactly, you know, becausethey'll come in and, as a
physician, you're sitting overhere like, okay, we do these
tests.
These tests are negative.
You're complaining of this ofyou know.
Later on you find out momreally wants them to play.
Ethan (34:22):
Yeah, they don't want to play.
I feel like you see that inevery sport.
Yeah, there's a lot of kids who.
They're not meant to be activekids, they're not meant to be
athletes, and so they shouldn'tbe pushed into doing something
they don't want to do, butthey're scared to tell their
parents.
That's a big thing in a lot ofkids these days.
Dr. Hardin (34:44):
I feel like I agree with you, and the psychology of
sport in and of it all, I feellike kids are pushed more these
days because of the resources wehave.
Yeah, and sometimes pushed toohard and maybe even pushed into
injury.
Yep, right, no of course.
So I love that your dad supportsyou and, like you said, in any
way that he can, both yourparents and your siblings and
(35:08):
just kind of watching you growup.
I know I've only known you forabout three years, but just
seeing you develop has been funfor me as well.
It's cool man.
I'm really proud of you guysyou and Simon especially.
Thank you, you should get Simonin here too.
Yeah, we should.
I wonder what he's doing.
He's probably sitting on thecouch.
Ethan (35:27):
No, he never does, just kidding.
Dr. Hardin (35:30):
Oh man, so going backwards, we're going to talk
about the next generation ofsoccer players.
Do you feel any type ofresponsibility to inspire the
next generation of players fromMississippi?
Ethan (35:45):
I mean I'd love to be seen as an inspiration but at
the same time, like you neverknow what people could think
about.
So it's like if kids see me theinspiration, that's awesome and
I, if they ever ask for help,I'd love to help.
Yeah, like if kids don't see methat way and they don't want my
help, like it's not that Iwon't have a problem with this
but at the same time like I'llstill be there if they decide to
(36:08):
change their mind like that,and it's like yeah it's not a
sense of wanting.
I don't need to be in thissituation.
I just want them to know look,this kid did it.
Maybe I could do it too.
I don't need to be that personthat comes in and tells you okay
, you have to do this, becauseif you want to do it, you have
to do this.
No, If you want someone to talk, to sure, come talk.
If you want some help.
(36:29):
Sure I'll help.
It's not like a need for me,yeah.
Because, I don't want to be a Idon't know like kids these days.
Sure they need to be pushed,but they also need to figure
that stuff out themselves.
Dr. Hardin (36:41):
Yeah.
Ethan (36:45):
And so I don't need to come in and try and be an
inspiration when they need tofigure out what they want to do
first.
Does that make sense?
Dr. Hardin (36:49):
Yeah, no, absolutely .
So.
Translating that now becauseyou're from here, which is
really how do I say anunderrepresented area as far as
soccer goes, now, I mean SMSC,gcu.
You guys did a great job, buttraditionally, you know, we're
looking at more footballbaseball like you were talking
about right.
How do you or what are youhoping to see as far as the
(37:14):
development of soccer in theSouth, and how do you see that
for our future generation?
Ethan (37:21):
I mean, I honestly feel like in Alabama and in Georgia
they have it actually prettygood.
That's what I think too.
They have a lot of teams.
They have different leagueswhere the kids can go in and
develop.
My thing is just the cost.
Dr. Hardin (37:38):
The cost is crazy.
Ethan (37:40):
Kids are paying families have to pay up to $5,000 to
$6,000 just for their kid toplay Like a 13-year-old to play
in a league where I don't thinkyou should be paying that money
at all.
That's my opinion.
If you look in the UnitedStates as a whole, we have the
greatest athletes in the world.
Yeah, and if we were able totake these athletes when they
(38:01):
were kids and put them intosoccer without having the cost,
I think our national team couldbe one of the best in the world.
Dr. Hardin (38:08):
Oh great.
Ethan (38:09):
But here in the States it's insanely expensive and
these kids who grow up in thesepoverty type homes and
households- they can't affordthat.
That's why we have all theseamazing basketball, baseball,
football track players, becausethey had that access without
having to spend all this crazymoney.
Right, but with soccer it'scompletely different.
You have to spend crazy amountsof money just to be able to
(38:32):
play right as a young whichblows my mind, but I don't think
one person could change that.
It would take an insane amountof people to come in and be like
look, you need to make it anactual option for these kids to
play.
You have to pay this amount ofmoney to play.
Dr. Hardin (38:50):
It's funny that you mention that.
We sit down around a bunch ofdocs, you know, lately having
conversations about, of course,just different injuries and
injury reports for football,basketball, baseball, soccer,
whatever the case may be and weoften laugh at a lot of the
travel ball stuff because it'slike you know, you see the guys
(39:12):
who own these travel ballleagues or whatever, and they're
sitting fat and happy.
Exactly you know where are theyat when your kid's out there
busting their butt playing ball.
Exactly I kind of laugh at it.
I remember it was like oh youknow, like, oh, we got this rec
league.
Well, rec league's not thatgood.
No, because you have all thepeople who are leaving paying
this incredible amount of moneyto go play.
(39:34):
And now they have, you know,like a youth world series.
You know, there's something foreverything that's also
money-driven.
Ethan (39:48):
I'm with you on how much missed talent is there Exactly,
and I'm sure I bet if we wentinto a poverty city and looked
at all the people working like 9to 5, I bet at least 25% of
them were crazy athletes whenthey were younger, but they
didn't have the money or theaccess to it, and so they can
never do what they really wantedto do Hands down, which is
crazy.
Dr. Hardin (40:07):
Yeah, I totally agree with you, man.
You know it's been so funhaving you on this show.
I've got like some rapid firequestions for you.
Man, you know it's been so funhaving you on this show.
I've got like some rapid-firequestions for you, okay.
Ethan (40:16):
So just off the top, you ready, okay, all right.
Dr. Hardin (40:19):
So what's your go-to pregame ritual or superstition?
Ethan (40:24):
Okay, well, for me it's going to sound crazy.
I'm right-handed andright-footed, but I always get
dressed left to right, so myleft sock will come on, and then
my right sock will come on, andthen my left boot.
I'll put it on and tie it, andI'll put my right one on and tie
it, and then, for me as well, Ialso tape.
I tape all my fingers and mywrist, and so I'll always tape
my left hand and my left fingersfirst, before going and taping
(40:46):
my right hand.
Dr. Hardin (40:47):
You tape yourself Mm-hmm.
Oh, dude, you need to bring meto Portugal, I'll hook you up.
I mean, I kind of got a littlesystem figured out.
Ethan (40:54):
I wish these people could see.
But I tape the bottom part ofmy finger with a light amount of
tape and then the top part Itape a little more.
It's the same way I leave mythumb fine, because I've never
really had any thumb issues, andthen at the wrist I'll put some
pre-wrap and then I'll justtape right here so I can secure
it in this movement.
Okay, I'm on the right Now.
That's awesome yeah.
Dr. Hardin (41:14):
That's cool, man, yeah, so there you go.
Ethan (41:19):
There's his pregame ritual.
On that one, when I step on thefield I'll always say like a
short little pre-match prayerjust to get myself ready
Absolutely and faith in the Lordfor the game.
Dr. Hardin (41:28):
Yes, but that's the biggest thing for me as well,
doing that before every singlematch.
That's important, man, keepingthings consistent and the same,
and then having your faith keepit fully intact.
So who's the toughest opponentyou've ever faced on the field?
Ethan (41:47):
so when I first, are we talking about player or team?
Let's go with player ok, sowhen I first went to Portugal, I
trained with a club called CasaPia, and at first I trained
with their U19 team, but then Iwas moved up to train with their
first team who, as I, was 16 atthe time and these dudes ranged
(42:08):
from 25 to 30 years old andthey're playing in the second
professional division.
So I was training with them andthere was this one player his
name was Jota Silva and soCasapia got promoted into the
first league and he was probablythe best player in the team.
He was insane, he was crazy.
And then that next season hemoved to another team in the
first league called Vitoria andhe was playing with them, had a
(42:30):
crazy season, and this year hejust signed for a team in the
Premier League and he's playingfor a team called Nottingham
Forest this year and he's Iwouldn't say he's been their
best player, but he's been oneof their best players in this
season.
They're having like a fairytalerun there and they normally are
always bottom of the table, butthis year when Christmas break
came, they were in third place,having a crazy season.
Yeah, and so it was crazy.
(42:50):
I was just a 16-year-old kidtraining against this dude who's
now playing in the PremierLeague.
I think he's probably one ofthe probably the best player
I've ever trained with and hadto be in goal again.
Dr. Hardin (43:00):
That is super cool man.
It's crazy.
Is he a striker Forward?
Ethan (43:04):
He's a winger, he's a forward.
Dr. Hardin (43:08):
It's crazy, wow see, those are the opportunities you
look forward to like.
All right.
Who are we up against next?
Yeah, exactly, exactly, that'sawesome yeah, if you weren't a
professional soccer player, whatwould you be doing?
Ethan (43:23):
honestly, that's a crazy question.
I mean couch surfing, I know.
When I was a little kid, Ialways wanted to be a
paleontologist.
Oh cool, because I thoughtdinosaurs were dope.
Dr. Hardin (43:34):
Yeah, and.
Ethan (43:35):
I loved the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies.
Dr. Hardin (43:37):
Yeah.
Ethan (43:38):
But then when I got older , I was looking at, and now that
I look back on it, I neverwould have done it, but I wanted
to be an orthopedic surgeon.
Dr. Hardin (43:47):
Yeah, but.
Ethan (43:47):
I don't think I could have done 10 years of school.
Yeah, I don't think I couldhave done that.
Dr. Hardin (43:51):
So you think that I'm absolutely ridiculously
crazy for going back?
Ethan (43:55):
I mean, yeah, a little bit.
That's a lot of school.
I wouldn't say I was terrible,but I wasn't the greatest in
school and I was horrible in myhealth classes.
Once I realized I'm not verygood in the medical classes, I
was like I shouldn't be doingthis.
Dr. Hardin (44:12):
Soccer's fun.
Soccer's fun, yeah, soccer'sfun.
Ethan (44:15):
But honestly like Soccer's hard though it is very
hard, yeah but honestly I'vealways liked the psychology part
, Like I want to be a therapist,like a sports therapist,
because a lot of players don'ttalk about their feelings, Dude,
they just bottle it up.
Dr. Hardin (44:34):
Yeah, they just bottle it up.
Yeah, that is so important,they just bottle it up.
You know, sports psychology issort of coming to the forefront.
Now we have one down here thatI'll refer to.
On occasion I actually had afemale soccer player that I
referred to her after she had aconcussion.
She thought you know, game overfor me.
You know, concussion man,that's an influx of all kinds of
issues that go in your brain.
Yeah at once, Right.
(44:55):
And so she thought to herselfyou know what's going on with me
?
Why can't I shake this?
It got her really bad.
Ethan (45:02):
and that sports psychologist out there yeah,
that's, that is a very nobleprofession, no, I think so I
think it's I Mean I wouldn't sayit's the most important, but I
think it's one of the mostimportant Things all athletes
need to use, because there's somany athletes you've seen that
have taken their lives or havejust stopped playing the sport
because they didn't have someoneto talk to.
(45:22):
That's why I think all athletesneed someone.
I think all clubs should have atherapist for players, Just to
have someone to talk to.
You don't even have to letpeople know you're talking to
them.
Just call players just to havesomeone to talk to.
You don't even have to letpeople know you're talking to
them.
Dr. Hardin (45:37):
Just call them and be like look, I need to talk to
you.
Yeah, it's all anonymous.
Yeah, yeah, man, absolutely.
And you know another thing,like health issues in general
not to say they shouldn't be,you know, behind closed doors,
but traditionally like if you'vegot a buddy of yours and you
get hurt, you don't tell yourbuddy.
Your buddy could have had thesame injury.
He could help you through theprocess right, yeah exactly.
You know, I know a lot of peoplewho kind of hide behind the
(45:59):
scenes with that stuff.
No, I'm not saying it's wrong.
Ethan (46:01):
Yeah.
Dr. Hardin (46:02):
But I think that, like you say, if you have
someone that you can talk to,who's there and available, it
means the world of.
Ethan (46:09):
I mean, that's the biggest thing for me, like, like
I said, like I went through two, two knee surgeries, yeah, and
my buddy terran he last yearblew out his knee and had
surgery, and so that was thebiggest thing.
Like he doesn't.
I mean he talks a lot.
He's a very big talker, but youknow we need to have him on the
podcast.
Bring him in talking about thesethings is it's tough, but I was
like you know, like I wentthrough the same thing you're
(46:31):
going through.
It's not going to kill you,it's not going to ruin your
career it's just you have towork for it.
Yeah, I can't, I can't come inthere and make you bend and
straighten your knee.
You have to do that.
But I can tell you that it'llbe okay, because I went through
the same thing and now I'm stillplaying.
So that's not going to stop youfrom playing either it says
three words again yeah, it'll beokay, exactly, exactly.
Dr. Hardin (46:50):
Yeah, man, exactly.
All translates back to theoriginal humble Ethan Krum.
Yeah, absolutely.
What one skill on the field areyou still working to improve?
Ethan (47:03):
Honestly there's, I mean confidence.
Confidence is my biggest enemy.
Dr. Hardin (47:08):
Yeah.
Ethan (47:09):
Confidence is my biggest enemy because, like sometimes,
I'll go into a game feelingfully confident and then I'll
let in the goal and then myconfidence will drop.
That's the one thing I'm stillworking on now is just learning
to forget in an instant you know, like if you let it go and okay
, like, forget about it, yourteam will score a goal, you'll
be okay, like that's the biggestthing for me is just like
(47:30):
continuously trying to beconfident in myself and in my
game.
Right, that's the biggest thingfor me.
Continuously trying to beconfident in myself and in my
game.
That's the biggest thing I feelI'm still learning to figure
out.
Dr. Hardin (47:37):
That's interesting.
Ethan (47:39):
Confidence is the most important thing.
If you're not confident, you'renot going to play well.
For me, it's just always beingconfident in myself and in my
game and knowing I can do this.
If I mess up, it's okay, I'lldo it again.
I won't mess up the next time.
Dr. Hardin (47:56):
That's my biggest thing working on my own
confidence.
That's important, veryimportant.
Ethan (48:05):
What's your favorite memory from your soccer journey
this far?
That's a tough one.
I feel like I've had goodmemories in Portugal, yeah, but
I feel like my favorite was whenI was here in.
Gulfport and just playing withall my buddies on my high school
team.
Dr. Hardin (48:20):
Taking it back.
Ethan (48:20):
It's just dudes.
I've grown up with my wholelife and we're just playing
together and having fun.
That was probably sure we wereterrible but, I loved playing
with them because they were allmy best friends and we grew up
together, so playing with allthose guys was probably the best
part for me yeah, and thengoing back and having dr bruni
yeah, yeah, yeah it's so coolman.
Dr. Hardin (48:42):
You know those guys, they're still out there they
are killing it, they are, theydo great.
You know, dr camara no I don't?
He's got soccer filled, likebasically in his backyard really
yeah, he's a family doctor downthere Okay.
I think he may have justretired.
But yeah, dude, it's kind oflike you just said, getting your
buddies together and going outand having a good time Exactly.
Yeah.
Ethan (49:01):
So yeah, when I'm home, like I'll always, we'll always
get together.
Dr. Hardin (49:18):
Like, even if they're not playing anymore,
we'll still get together andwe'll go and just kick around
around this, yeah, because itwas something that always
brought us all together.
So I feel like it's not nevergoing to be something that will
bring us all apart.
That's my thing, thecamaraderie of the sport and
being on a team, exactly.
Yeah, man, you won't everforget that for sure, and I
think that'll be, you know,translatable to whatever you do
after soccer is being a teamplayer, and anything you do.
Ethan (49:31):
Of course you can't do it alone.
No, not at all.
Dr. Hardin (49:35):
So if you could meet any soccer legend now I know I
asked you this a while back andyou were like no, really, it was
what.
But if you could meet anysoccer legend, past or present,
who would it be and why?
Ethan (49:50):
I think I mean that is a tough question because there are
so many.
Dr. Hardin (49:54):
What about the guy you played against?
Ethan (49:57):
That would be cool.
Dr. Hardin (49:58):
Wouldn't that be cool.
Ethan (49:59):
But honestly, for me it would have to be either Tim
Howard or Matt Turner.
Dr. Hardin (50:06):
Okay.
Ethan (50:06):
Tim Howard is the previous US National Team
goalkeeper, and then Matt Turneris our current one.
So I think I'd want to meetjust either one of them.
Because Matt Turner he didn'tmake it professionally until he
was 26.
And whenever he was in collegehe actually was voted.
He was on SportsCenter's NotTop 10 Moments.
And so he went from that toplaying in England, playing in
(50:29):
the Premier League.
So I'd love to sit down andtalk to him about that.
Dr. Hardin (50:53):
No-transcript no doubt I'll definitely look on
that man.
Hey, ethan, thanks for comingon the show man, of course it's
a pleasure it's amazing, man.
Um, we want to thank you forsharing your journey and
insights and allowing listenersto follow you on Instagram.
(51:15):
Again, it's ecrumpt with a C5.
That's right, thank you forhaving me.
Yeah, absolutely man.
Many, many more memories tofollow with Ethan because, like
he said, he's young in theprofession.
You guys go follow him.
Hopefully, Ethan, you'll postsome videos for us.
Ethan (51:32):
I'll try to.
Are you playing soccer?
I'll try to.
Yeah, man, he's so humble.
I'm going to be like hey, drHarden.
Dr. Hardin (51:39):
I have a video for you and it'll be one for the
entire 12 months.
He's gone.
No man.
I'm super proud of you.
Everybody around here is proudof you.
Again, I want to say thank youfor your time and consideration
on coming on Beyond the Gamepodcast, Of course.
Ethan (51:56):
Thank you for having me.
Dr. Hardin (51:57):
Yeah, for sure, man.
We look forward to having youin the future.
That sounds good to me, allright, buddy.
Hey, thank you guys forlistening to Beyond the Game.
We hope you'll enjoy listeningto this podcast and, as always,
we'll see you again soon.
Thanks,
Thanks for tuning in to Beyond the Game with your
host and my dad, Dr BrandonHardin.
Hey, what's up everybody?
I got Ethan Crump over herewith me in Mississippi and we're
going to talk about soccer,right, Ethan?
Yep how you doing today.
I'm good man, you.
Ethan (00:20):
I'm good, I'm good.
Dr. Hardin (00:21):
Yeah, so Ethan came in earlier this week for some
treatment on a few things and wewere started chatting up and
not that he's broken or anything, we didn't have to fix much,
right?
I asked him to come on thepodcast because what better
person, right?
So Ethan is a soccer player inPortugal.
Actually, he's from here inhere, mississippi.
(00:42):
I helped him a little bit herein in high school, right?
Yeah, dude, that means I'mgetting old, me too.
But what I've discussed, likeyour, your career in sport, and
I think you and I kind of sortof had a conversation like he
has a few brothers that thatplay soccer as well and I was
(01:06):
asking him you know, hey, whatdo you think your brother might
fall in your footsteps?
And you know Ethan is superpassionate about soccer and he
knew at an early age that that'swhat he wanted to do.
I think that's the biggest gamechanger for you as more of a
professional now is seeing youngpeople kind of phase out, right
so like you're either in it oryou're not it happens.
Ethan (01:26):
It happens a lot, like either kids don't have the
resources to go into it or it'sjust they find something else
that they enjoy more.
And I mean it happens a lot.
I think the younger kidsespecially like in the States,
they have all these biggersports yeah and so they see all
these big things like football,baseball, baseball, basketball,
and they choose that becauseit's a big thing in Mississippi,
(01:48):
big thing in the States,instead of soccer.
Dr. Hardin (01:50):
Yeah.
Ethan (01:51):
So it's a tough sport to get into if you live in the
States.
Dr. Hardin (01:53):
No, absolutely man.
Actually, I put that in one ofthe questions I'm going to ask
you in a little bit.
I think it's like you hit thenail on the head, dude, like why
soccer right, especially whenyou don't have the resources
that, like the football playershave Like up in Hattiesburg,
they've got 60 yards of amazingturf and an indoor facility that
they train at you know what.
(02:14):
I'm saying Down here, it's likeI tell my youngest son, my
youngest son's into soccer.
I tell him all the time you hadto pick the coldest sport.
You know you guys are wearingshorts and t-shirts and it's 18
freaking degrees outside.
I mean it's crazy.
Obviously he's in Portugal now,so it's pretty sunny right?
Ethan (02:32):
I mean it can be.
Sometimes the weather's quitebipolar.
Yeah, some like you'll getMonday and Tuesday.
It'll be hot and then.
Dr. Hardin (02:41):
Wednesday.
Ethan (02:41):
Thursday it'll be raining and cold.
You never know what's going tohappen.
Never know, right?
No, especially in the winter.
The winter is crazy, like whenI was there before I came home
for break.
We had a week where it wasstraight super hot and then the
next week was raining the entireweek.
Dr. Hardin (02:53):
That's crazy and it's just back and forth, yeah.
Ethan (02:55):
Yeah, you're just playing in all kinds of climate, yeah,
and you love it, but you doExactly.
Dr. Hardin (03:01):
Yeah, man.
So what sparked your interestin soccer at a really young age?
I mean, obviously you had thatconnection there.
What was that spark that yousaid I want to go pro at that?
Ethan (03:13):
I mean, honestly, it was just growing up watching all
these dudes on TV doing stuff Icould never imagine seeing and
just falling in love with, likenot just like the simple stuff
but like the magic of it.
Like there's certain playersthat have like a aspect of the
game that just makes it somewhatmagical and that, for me, like
(03:33):
sparked an interest as well asmy dad loves the sport and so
growing up watching it with himlike drove me to wanna.
One day he watched me do that,yeah it was a big thing for me
as well see, that's really cool.
Dr. Hardin (03:45):
Yeah, making it family matters, that's just cool
, man, yeah, I like that.
Yeah, ethan's family went andvisited him in Portugal over the
Thanksgiving break, right, yeahover Thanksgiving yeah, and so
now Ethan came back for theChristmas break and he was
telling me it's really nice tobe able to hang out with this
family twice in one year thatreally resonated with me, man,
because I mean I'm, we'reobviously with each other all
the time You're having to playacross the world.
(04:08):
You have to really want to dothat.
Ethan (04:14):
It's tough.
The hardest part is just beingaway from family as you get
older.
Of course you're going to moveout, you're going to live away
from family, but you don't.
Some people don't expect tocome so soon, like when you go
to college.
You always can come homewhenever yeah but like over
there, like you, tickets areexpensive to fly to Europe yeah
so you get to come home once,maybe twice a year?
(04:36):
yeah, so I was lucky to see themduring Thanksgiving and now
here with them over Christmasyeah, yeah, that's awesome man,
that is awesome.
Dr. Hardin (04:43):
So, growing up in Mississippi, obviously we just
talked about it Soccer reallyisn't the first thing that comes
to mind when you think aboutsouthern athletics, right?
So how did you overcome thechallenges of pursuing soccer in
a region that's dominated byother sports?
Ethan (04:57):
I mean I feel like all kids in Mississippi are six
sport athletes Like I grew up, Iplayed basketball, played
basketball, baseball, I was aswimmer and I also soccer.
And then I fell out of baseballand basketball in middle school
, uh-huh, and I was justswimming and playing soccer.
And then right around theeighth grade I was like you know
, I'm tired of swimming because,like, swimming is just, you're
(05:19):
not racing anyone, you're justracing a clock yeah and so the
soccer.
I just love the competitive part, but also like the team part,
like it's 11 dudes and it's notyou're fighting for yourself,
you're fighting for your entireteam.
Yeah, I don't know that partresonated with me yeah sure, I
want to look good as myself inmy position, but I also want my
team to win and want all myteammates to feel good that we
(05:39):
won the game together no,absolutely ourselves.
Dr. Hardin (05:41):
Yeah, yeah, another thing ethan and I were talking
about earlier.
We were playing catch-up,weren't we?
I don't really get to see Ethanat all right, it's just as much
as your own family does, youknow when he comes into town.
But he was telling me yeah, doc, you know a lot of people are
like so you play basketball.
You guys have to know Ethan is6'5" and he's a soccer player.
So obviously, so obviously,when you look at this guy you're
(06:02):
like, yeah, he definitely playsbasketball.
Ethan (06:04):
Nope.
Dr. Hardin (06:05):
No basketball for me , no basketball.
Ethan (06:08):
But I mean, like I said, those basketball dudes, like you
see me, oh, he's 6'5".
And then you'll see an NBAplayer Guy's 7'1", 7'2", he
towers over me.
I can do anything on thosecourts.
Dr. Hardin (06:19):
Right, right.
Oh man, that's funny so who areyour biggest?
Influences and role models as ayoung player like.
Did you have anyone that youlike looked up to in your
younger years?
Ethan (06:30):
gosh, I mean honestly like my dad.
Yeah, because when he was myage he was playing and he he was
supposed to go.
I can't remember what school itwas, but some some I think
Division I school when he was myage.
But he had some bad kneeproblems and back then the time,
like the medicine, wasn't verygood when he was my age and so
(06:51):
he could never get those fixed,so he had to stop playing and so
it was like a he wanted to seeme do it.
And then I was like I want to doit and like I felt like looking
up to see how much he loved thesport grew into me and my love
for the sport.
And so now it's just like Iwant to do that, so he can see
me do that and so I can seemyself do that as well.
But then I guess within thegame that's a tough one.
(07:15):
That's a tough one.
I can't pick out like a singlefavorite player I looked up to
to like go after my game.
Dr. Hardin (07:21):
That's a tough question Right, it's more the
game, the sport of it, versusany particular person.
That got you interested.
Ethan (07:30):
I like that, just watching it, falling in love
watching it and wanting to do itLike I want to do that.
Yeah, exactly.
Dr. Hardin (07:37):
That's cool, man, and you have your own way and
your own perspective on thesport and you're your own player
, so, realistically, it's kindof like you're your own player,
so realistically, it's kind oflike you put your own hodgepodge
of talent together and that'sthat's why you are where you are
now.
Exactly, yeah, exactly.
That's awesome man.
So what was your early soccerexperience like like down here
(07:58):
in Mississippi?
Did you play SMSC GCU school?
Ethan (08:01):
Yeah, when I was a little kid, I grew up playing in SMSC
GCU school when I was a littlekid, I grew up playing in SMSC,
my first team.
We were called the Roadrunners.
Dr. Hardin (08:08):
Yeah.
Ethan (08:09):
And then I think you might you know, Tim Bruni.
Dr. Hardin (08:11):
Yeah.
Ethan (08:11):
Yeah, he was our coach.
And then from there I stayed inSMSC.
I went to another team we werecalled the Vipers, uh-huh.
And then after that is when,like, I started, you know, after
that is when I started, youknow I want to go to a higher
level.
So I moved to a team inHattiesburg called Southern
State and they were morecompetitive.
We played in a U19 league calledthe NPSL, and so we ended up
(08:36):
winning.
I came in and I started on thebench in the first four games
and then the keeper who wasplaying made a really bad
mistake and so don't know wherethe cook, like you're gonna play
, and so I just jumped in andthen the remaining nine games I
only conceded one goal and therest of the games were clean
sheets.
And then from there, like withthat team, I just like you know
(08:57):
what like this is crazy, like Ican do this, I'm gonna stay here
and like that's where I Ireally started to develop is
when I got there.
There was a crazy breakthroughfrom Little League Coast here on
the coast to actual biggerleague up in Hattiesburg, which
is where I felt the developmentreally truly started with me as
a player.
Dr. Hardin (09:17):
That was my next question.
That was a defining moment thatmade you realize, okay, yeah,
there it is man.
Obviously you knew you could doit, you wanted to do it and
there's your opportunity.
I love it.
Ethan (09:29):
With that Southern States team.
They also had a, so the teamhad the U19 team which played in
the NPSO U19 league, but theyalso had a men's team which
played in the NPSO men's team.
And so I was gosh 16 at thetime, nice, gosh 16 at the time,
nice, and all these dudes onthe mid team, they're juniors,
seniors in college.
there was a couple who playedfor their national teams and
stuff right and so after my likestandout season with the 19s, I
(09:50):
got called up to be a part oflike the first team and like
that.
It was like it's like a summerthing and that entire summer was
just training with.
Actually, no, it started in themiddle of school and so I had
to do my school online, like Iwas commuting to Hattiesburg
every day in the morning doingmy first two classes in the
morning online.
Oh wow, then we would train,I'd do lunch and then I do my
(10:14):
third class and then I drivehome and then I turn in with the
high school.
But that entire time with likethe seniors, like so, it was
like the crazy level between a16 year old and a grown man
which is like it's a big jump,but at the same time it was even
better for my development.
Being thrown as a 16 year oldkid training with you to four
years, five years older than meright, it makes you a stronger
(10:37):
person yeah yeah, strongerplayer, that as well no,
absolutely man.
Dr. Hardin (10:41):
Yeah, I mean it has to.
I'm a grown man at that point.
This kid has it or he doesn't.
You're either on or you're off.
Yeah, man, I get that.
Were there any doubts orhesitations, like you say, in a
16-year-old playing adult leaguesoccer from your family?
Were they hesitant or were theylike let's go?
Ethan (11:03):
I feel like my parents always supported it, like that's
like the one thing I love isthat there was never a moment
where they were like you know,maybe you should take a step
back and do this Like it wasalways.
We're going to support you Likethis is your dream, we're going
to help you make it happen, andso that's like probably the
biggest thing for me is thatI've always had that constant
support from my parents.
(11:24):
I haven't ever felt like I needto stop because there's no
support.
They've always been theresupporting me, no matter what,
and that's the biggest thing forme.
Dr. Hardin (11:39):
You know, in talking with you and I've had several
professional athletes comethrough from football, baseball,
soccer I think that's thebiggest thing that helps drive
them is having that supportbehind them to push them forward
.
Ethan (11:47):
Exactly, I mean, I feel like that's the biggest thing in
all sports If you don't haveany support, you're going to
fall out, you're going tostruggle mentally, physically
yeah, like support, especiallyfrom loved ones and family
members, is the biggest thing Ithink all athletes need to have.
Dr. Hardin (12:01):
Yeah, in my opinion at least.
Yeah for sure.
Did you have that dream thatone day you were going to be
where you are today?
And when did that happen?
Ethan (12:11):
I mean, honestly, I don't think I've always loved the
sport, but I don't think I fullywanted to commit to it until I
was around 15 or 16 when Irealized, like you know, I'm not
bad.
I'm not a bad player like andI've seen so many people like
going out and becomingprofessionals at 25, 26, yeah,
(12:32):
15 season.
Like you know, I can, I couldmaybe make this happen yeah so
at that point I just was likeyou know, I'm gonna do
everything I can to make ithappen full force drive ahead?
Dr. Hardin (12:41):
mm-hmm, no's awesome .
So what about development,growth in the game?
Tell us how your development asa player?
What were some of your mostcrucial moments or experiences
that helped you improve yourskill as a soccer player?
Ethan (12:56):
Honestly, I think it's whenever you me especially is
whenever I'm not performing well.
So if I have like, let say, abad week in training or I have a
bad match, and the next matchI'm on the bench.
Like that doesn't turn intosadness and like go into a
drought.
It turns into motivation andfor me, like I feel like I
(13:17):
always use that to improve tothe next week, to where I'm
going in 110% times better thanI was the previous week, and I
feel like I mean I always trynot to have a bad week, but you
can't ever you can't ever have alike.
I don't think anyone's perfect.
You can't have a perfect weekalways.
There's always going to be badones, and so.
(13:37):
I use that the most as mydevelopment to just push myself
more and more through that andas well.
I mean I feel like all thecoaches I've had here on the
south have always been there,like to help develop me, like
when I was at southern states mygoalkeeper coach was always
working to develop me.
And then I also have agoalkeeper coach I do like
individual sessions with.
His name is carl bundle.
(13:57):
He coaches the women's team upat pocc nice and I mean I've
been trying to catch exactly.
Dr. Hardin (14:03):
I've been playing with him since I was 15.
Ethan (14:07):
So I'm 20 now.
It's been five years and he'sbeen I wouldn't say the biggest
supporter, but he's been upthere always.
When I'm over there.
He'll always reach out everynow and then to see how things
are going.
And it's always good to trainwith him too, because there's
always something new you canlearn as a player, which is the
best part.
Dr. Hardin (14:24):
Yeah, yeah.
Development in any arena rightis key.
You become complacent and guesswhat that's when you stop
moving forward.
Exactly, right, exactly.
That's in my profession too,man.
I see it all the time.
You get these guys that comeout of school and they're like
all right, well, I'm making goodmoney treating this amount of
patients.
That's totally fine for me,dude.
(14:44):
I'm like what can I do next?
Like this podcast, for example?
I want to help give back to theathletes who've given me so
much over the last 12 years.
You know what I'm saying.
Having you guys come on and talkto people through podcasting
helps young people decide.
Is this maybe something I needto aspire to?
(15:06):
Can I help the next person oncethey fit in your shoes one day
and you're now the Coach Carlkind?
Of guy who's trying to helpsomebody else.
It's just a way to give back.
But if we become complacent,then there's no room for
(15:27):
improvement.
Ethan (15:28):
No, I mean, I think, becoming complacent.
I wouldn't say it's the worstthing someone could do, but it's
pretty bad because if you'reokay with what you're doing,
then eventually you're going tohate it and you're not going to
want to do it anymore.
But if you can constantly think, oh, I can do this to better my
job, I can learn this techniqueto better what I'm doing on the
field.
You can always develop into adifferent kind of person within
(15:52):
your career field.
Whatever your career is, that'sexactly right.
Dr. Hardin (15:55):
Yeah, no, I totally agree with that.
How did you handle any setbacksin your career, like injuries
maybe being overlooked at somepoint in time, or even like
difficult losses?
Ethan (16:07):
Gosh, I mean when I was in 2015,.
I had surgery on my left knee.
Dr. Hardin (16:11):
Yeah.
Ethan (16:12):
And then a year later a year later is when I had joined
Southern State Yep, my firstgame with them I blew up my
right knee and had surgery onthat, and so that was probably
the two biggest things thathappened, and for me it was just
my parents like no, it'll beokay, Like just those three
words always help, it'll be okay.
Because, if, like imagine theysaid, oh, you're done, like,
(16:35):
especially as a young kid no,but like saying it'll be okay,
and then just using that to moveforward as well.
I had my doctor.
I had to go to Dallas.
His name was Dr ellis, I think.
Yeah, he's up in dallas.
That got I can't remember thename scottish right, scottish
right hospital, yeah it was.
It was brilliant, like I hadn't, like that was like.
(16:56):
I think it's like the bestgeorgian orthopedic surgeon in
the country oh, by far man.
Dr. Hardin (17:01):
Yeah, I have a buddy up there, dr logan sherman, and
uh, he works real closely withthe Scottish Rite Hospital.
I think it's incredible whatthey do.
Ethan (17:09):
It's amazing.
I've seen so many stories aboutthe kids they've rehabilitated
and all of these kids are comingwith smiles on their face and
they just are happy to be there.
They're not sad to be there.
Every single person I've seenis happy to be at the hospital
getting better.
Dr. Hardin (17:28):
Yeah, logan and I Dr Sherman and I trained in Dallas
.
Together.
We were interns at VA Dallas,which, if you guys know anything
about VA Dallas, it's a hugehospital man.
Oh yeah, it's incredible.
And then Logan, of course, dida lot of work with Scottish Rite
and he still does.
Actually, they just honored hima couple of weeks ago.
But that's an incredible story,considering I go back to the
(17:49):
conversation we had about yourdad of being told he had to stop
.
Yeah, you know, imagine if hehad the resources.
You had exactly imagine if ourkids have the resources.
You know that that we have.
You know it just keeps gettingbetter and better and better.
Ethan (18:04):
That's the one great thing about the medicine world,
like it won't ever get worse.
I mean sure there's lots thatcould improve, but like yeah,
everything is going to continueto improve because there's
people who want to improve itand that's the best part about
it.
Like, if you get hurt now andthe future.
Someone has the same injury.
Their recovery time will be tentimes faster.
(18:25):
Their recovery time is better,which is a crazy thing to think
about, but that's just how itworks.
Dr. Hardin (18:30):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yep, that's exactly right.
What kind of training regimenor habits have you cultivated to
help you compete at yourhighest level?
What does it look like for younow?
Ethan (18:42):
I mean, when we level.
What does it look like for younow?
I mean when we, like a normalweekend training, will go in.
Our report time is in 30, yeah,and so we have about 20 minutes
in the locker room.
Uh-huh, greet, everyone saygood morning, yeah, everyone's
doing, and then around 1050we're in the gym and it's just,
you know, some weight work, butjust getting the body warmed up
(19:05):
for training, and then fromthere we're, we go into our in
portuguese we call it the sala,but it's just like the.
It's just a room with ourlittle presentation board and
we'll have a whole videopresentation on what training is
going to be, what the sessionwill look like, and then from
there we have another fiveminutes just to get ourselves
ready, get our cleats on For me,get my gloves and my cleats,
(19:27):
and then just those extra twominutes.
Once you do.
That is just For me.
I use it to just sit down inthe quiet, get myself, as the
kids now say, they say locked in.
Dr. Hardin (19:38):
Yeah.
Ethan (19:38):
And then get ready to train, and it's the same process
every single day.
Yeah, but for me also, likeoutside of it, I, like, you know
, take some time alone.
You know like either read agood book or work on my class I
take a language class but workon my homework and stuff Just
that alone time can help, youknow, to relax yourself, so you
don't like say you had a badtraining, so you don't focus on
(19:59):
the bad part, you move past itstraight away, or looking at the
good part for the next day.
Dr. Hardin (20:04):
Right.
Ethan (20:04):
For me it's a big, important step.
Dr. Hardin (20:06):
Yeah, always looking ahead, man is a big important
step.
Ethan (20:08):
Yeah, always looking ahead, man Exactly.
Dr. Hardin (20:10):
Getting locked in?
Yeah, that's right.
So how did your transition fromyouth league to professional
world come about?
Like, was there one momentwhere you had a coach that was
like, hey man, like how did youget to Portugal?
Ethan (20:25):
Well, actually, if we can ask that, no, you can, of
course my junior year.
You know him, you know Simon.
Dr. Hardin (20:30):
Yes, yeah, simon Thames, everybody Shout out to
Simon.
Ethan (20:34):
He went to Portugal and it was through this, like
company called IFAP, likeInternational Football Academy.
Dr. Hardin (20:41):
Yeah.
Ethan (20:41):
And they bring players from all over Portugal to play,
and Simon had gone there for afew months and he came back and
he was like you know, I thinkthis is a real deal, you should,
you should try it out, yeah,and so I went there for two
months, my senior year just youknow, test it out, test the
water, see if I liked it.
Yeah, and I mean, I was onlysupposed to stay for two weeks,
but I had a, I had a goodshowing, and then I stayed an
(21:02):
extra two months and I mean,from there I just the guy, I was
like you know, you can, I thinkyou can do this.
And so I came back, finishedschool and as soon as I
graduated I was two weeks laterI was headed to Portugal and
then from there everything kindof fell into place.
I stayed, I started with a teamcalled Lourdes and then after
six months there you know it wasups and downs and I left and I
(21:25):
moved to a team called FOFO,which stands for like football,
but they have littleabbreviations and I ended up the
week before my first game.
I came in and they're likeyou're going to be our starter,
you're number one, we need you.
I come in second training ofthe week.
Break my finger.
Dr. Hardin (21:40):
Oh yeah, and you had to come back to the States and
get it repaired and I was out.
Ethan (21:44):
I stayed for an extra two months thinking it wasn't
anything crazy, it would heal byitself.
And then I went and got anx-ray before I came home and my
finger was like the bones werecompletely separated and they
weren't going to heal at all, soI came home straight away.
Dr. Hardin (21:58):
Who did that surgery ?
Do you remember?
Ethan (22:00):
Dr Hand.
Dr. Hardin (22:01):
Dr Hand, Karen Hand at Memorial Yep yeah man,
awesome, he did that.
Ethan (22:06):
And then I did recovery.
It was about three or fourmonths and then got back into
training a little bit to see howit felt and then was right back
to Portugal after that.
Dr. Hardin (22:17):
Do you think that was probably one of the biggest
challenges you faced?
I imagine this in your head andyou can tell me if I'm wrong,
but you get that startingposition.
They're like Ethan, we need youout on the field.
You break your finger.
I imagine what's going on inyour head is oh my God, did I
just ruin my career?
Like, am I allowed to come back?
Ethan (22:35):
I mean, yeah, of course.
I mean I come in and I'vealready got a big weight on my
shoulders, being told like webrought you here for a reason,
and that reason is to play.
That reason is to help us winour games, win our league.
And then my first week intraining and I'm out for the
season.
Like I mean, I don't know, it'shard to recover from that, but
(22:55):
at the same time it's injuriesare a part of the game you know
you can't go through an entirecareer and not have one injury.
I've never heard of thathappening.
I've never seen that happen.
So like for so for me, and Ihad already dealt with the two
knee surgeries.
So I was like, if I can comeback from two knee surgeries, a
(23:16):
finger surgery is not going tobe anything, it'll be much
easier.
It wasn't fun, I couldn't usemy left hand for two months, but
I got used to it and thentherapy was good and then went
straight back into it.
Dr. Hardin (23:30):
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome man.
Ethan (23:33):
You know, it's crazy.
Dr. Hardin (23:35):
I don't know if you know this, but you need two legs
to play soccer.
Ethan (23:38):
You hurt both knees.
Dr. Hardin (23:40):
You're a goalkeeper.
Ethan (23:41):
Right, so you need both hands.
Dr. Hardin (23:43):
You do indeed, man.
You had all the odds stacked upagainst you, right I?
Ethan (23:48):
know, I know, but no, there's man.
You had all the odds stacked upagainst you right I know, I
know man, but no, there'sactually this one player.
His name is Aaron Ramsey.
He plays in the Premier Leaguein England.
Yeah, and he actually broke hisleft ring finger and so, but
the other goalkeepers on histeam, they're not as good as him
, and so he's sponsored byAdidas, and Adidas made him a
custom glove where I wish Icould show these people, because
(24:11):
yeah, I know right.
I'm showing Harden, but nobodyelse can see they made it.
They sewed the glove to whereit's a pinky spot.
These two are one spot so theylike.
So he had like one finger thatwas like the size of this so for
everybody listening and ourorthosurgeons listening, they
buddy taped it.
Dr. Hardin (24:28):
Basically, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Ethan (24:31):
That is super cool and he played with, like you said, a
buddy taped glove for the wholegame.
It was crazy.
I'll have to show you a picturewhen we finish up.
Dr. Hardin (24:40):
Yeah, absolutely, we'll link it to this podcast.
Yeah, man and Adidas, if you'relistening, hey, we need.
Ethan some custom gloves andsome new fit shoes right Exactly
.
Some cleats, Exactly.
Ethan (24:55):
Anyone who's listening, I'll take whatever you have for
me.
Dr. Hardin (24:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Also, ethan, are you cool withpeople following you on social
media?
Of course you have Instagram.
Yeah, okay, yeah, if you guysgo look up Ethan Crump on
Instagram.
Ethan (25:10):
Yeah, it's ECrump5.
Dr. Hardin (25:12):
A C, not a K.
Ethan (25:13):
A lot of people get that mixed up.
It's a C yeah, C-R-U-M-P yeah.
Dr. Hardin (25:17):
Five and that's it.
Instagram yeah, y'all go followhim.
Can you share a in your careerthat truly stands out to you and
kind of we'll give thelisteners an inside look at one
of your most defining moments onthe field?
Can you paint a picture foreverybody?
Ethan (25:35):
So it was last season.
I was at a club calledAcademica, which is a city
called Coimbra in Portugal it'sabout two hours north of Lisbon
and in the football world wehave things called derbies,
which is like, where it's liketwo teams from the same city are
playing each other.
So we have played our derby, myclub's Academica, against a
club called UNIL, and we endedup winning that game 3-0.
(25:57):
Nice.
And in that game I think I hadabout 10, 12 saves maybe, and at
least five or six of them werelike in my eyes were crazy saves
, like this reaction, or a shotthat's in the top corner of the
goal that I touched over to thebar.
And I mean, one of that gamewas just a moment like I was
(26:18):
like okay, like that was thebest game I've ever played, like
and I felt on top of the worldbecause we had just won our
Darby 3-0, and I kept a cleansheet.
We got three points in theleague and I played out of my
mind and so that was a goodmoment.
But then there was also when Iwas first here with Lotus, my
first team, we played against aclub called Sporting, and
(26:39):
Sporting's first team isarguably I mean, arguably one of
the best teams in the world andwe played against their U19
team because I was still InPortugal.
Portugal there's called juniors,which is U19, okay, and then
after the U19 season, you'rejust considered a senior player.
Yeah, so this is when I was ajunior.
We played the U19s and we lostthe game, but like it was just,
(27:01):
you know the experience ofplaying against such a high
level team sure, at a high levelclub, and seeing, oh my gosh,
like these kids are actually thebest players in the league, in
their club, in the league rightnow just playing against that is
the craziest sight to see.
Dr. Hardin (27:15):
Right, it's crazy and you got to do that exactly
yeah, yeah, what an incredibleopportunity right, it was, it
was awesome, it was awesome yeah, man, do you know I don't know
statistically, you may know thisyou know how many players what
do the numbers look like onprofessional soccer players, or,
(27:35):
let's say, anybody outside ofcollege go to the next level?
What is that?
Like the percentage is low,like 10%, it's really low, yeah,
yeah.
Ethan (27:44):
I think it might be even less than 10%.
I think it is too I think likeit's like 25% go from high
school to college and then fromcollege to professional.
It's even lower, around maybe5%.
I could most definitely bewrong, but from what I've seen
it's a pretty low percentage.
Yeah, I venture to guess you'reright.
Dr. Hardin (28:03):
It's a tough world to break into.
Yeah, absolutely One.
Again, your resources, yeah,exactly.
Ethan (28:08):
Resources are a crazy part If you don't know anybody,
unless you're the greatestplayer ever.
If you don't know anyone, thenit's going to be impossible to
get in.
If you have to know someone, orsomeone who knows someone, yeah
, warren.
Dr. Hardin (28:21):
Steenkamp, if you're listening to this, I'm calling
you.
You need to pick Ethan up.
Ethan (28:25):
He's awesome.
Dr. Hardin (28:26):
I'm going to get him over to Atlanta so I can go
watch him play.
Let's go.
Let's talk about some personalaspirations and goals.
Now that you're living yourdream, what are your long-term
goals with the sport?
I know we've talked about thelongevity of soccer players,
especially goalies, being around40 years old.
How does that look for you?
Ethan (28:49):
For me.
I don't even think I've reallygotten to my dream yet.
My dream, I mean I want to playin the highest league possible,
which is the Premier League inEngland.
It's arguably the best leaguein the world.
That's, of course, the dream,but also my goal is to what year
(29:09):
are we in?
25?
We're 25?
.
Dr. Hardin (29:11):
Yep.
Ethan (29:11):
So the 2030 World Cup's in five years.
So my goal is to be a part ofthat team that plays in the
World Cup for the United States.
That's my goal.
That's what I want to do,absolutely that's what I want to
do.
So how do we get you there?
I mean, I just have to work mybutt off.
Honestly, that's all you canreally do is just work, work,
work.
You have to go into everytraining at 100%.
(29:36):
You have to perform well everytraining.
When you play, you have to beon top of your game.
You've got to be locked in.
Yeah, exactly, you have to belocked in.
You've got to be locked in, butI'm lucky, I have an agent.
You know what an agent is.
Yeah, this, I have an agent,you know what an agent is.
Yeah, yeah and so this is myfirst time working with an agent
and so I think he's great.
He has thousands of connectionsin Portugal and so he got me
(29:56):
with the club I'm at right nowand I trust him with my career
right now.
And he's great.
He's got me with my club nowand he says to me when he sees
me play, he's like I see bigthings for you I.
He says to me when he sees meplay, he's like I see big things
for you, I'm only 22.
I'm a young kid, especially inthe goalkeeper world, and so
with that like with someone likehim saying he has my back and
(30:17):
he also has these connections, Ifeel like I could eventually
play anywhere I wanted to.
It's just I have to wait.
You know, I'm young and I feellike the time will come.
You never know when, but I feellike the time will come.
Dr. Hardin (30:32):
Oh yeah, you never know when, but I feel like it
will come.
It's just a waiting game andjust working your butt off so
you can make it there.
Absolutely, man, those are somereally ambitious goals.
I love it and you're gonna makeit, I know yeah, I feel I will
too yeah it's just a matter oftime and when, where it will
happen yeah, that'sright, that's exactly right what
do you want your legacy to beas a player?
Let's say you do make it to2030.
You're in the World Cup.
(30:53):
You're obviously have leftPortugal.
What do you want your legacy tobe in the state you're in now
in Portugal?
How do you want your team toremember how well you played?
I mean?
Ethan (31:06):
honestly, I would say like I do make it and I'm doing
all these things I said I wantto do I would just want to have,
because there's a lot ofplayers now who have like
legacies of they were rude, theywere great players but they
were like not nice people, youknow.
Dr. Hardin (31:22):
Yeah.
Ethan (31:23):
I wouldn't want to be remembered as something like
that.
Like I'd want to be rememberedalways having a smile on my face
or just like the energeticperson in the field.
Like I wouldn't want to andthen I'd also want to.
You know, I wouldn't wantsomeone to say, oh yeah, I
didn't like play with him.
I wanted, I want to be like yes, I loved playing with him, you
know, it was fun.
He was always a fun guy to bearound, right, like I wouldn't.
(31:44):
I feel like that's the biggestthing.
Like I don't want to come.
I want to come across this likea good person, like, yeah, you
could think I'm a terribleplayer, but I still like, if I'm
a good person is better thanbeing a bad person.
And, uh, I'd rather be a goodperson and a terrible player
than a bad person and a goodplayer, right in my eyes at
least no, absolutely.
Dr. Hardin (32:03):
Hopefully that translates for everybody.
Ethan (32:04):
Yeah, right, just be a good person yeah, there's a lot
of people who aren't but ethanhow long have I?
Known you now.
I think I came in.
Was it my senior year of highschool, or was it after I had
graduated?
Dr. Hardin (32:14):
I don't think it was your senior year.
Ethan (32:16):
Yeah, so I graduated in 22.
We just got to 25, so aroundtwo years, yeah.
Three years in the summer, yeah.
Dr. Hardin (32:22):
Yeah, as long as I've known Ethan, he's a super,
super humble guy.
Ethan (32:27):
Thank you.
Dr. Hardin (32:27):
Yeah, super nice.
You know, I remember one momentvividly.
I was walking out we have arestaurant down here called
Woody's Roadhouse and I hear DrHardin and I look over and it's
Ethan.
I'm like Jesus.
This dude grew up another footand then he was telling me about
his way to Portugal, man Iremember that so cool man.
Ethan (32:48):
I just got off of work.
I was working over at.
Dr. Hardin (32:50):
Killville yes, and I seen you.
Yep got off of work.
Ethan (32:52):
I was working over at Chilville.
Dr. Hardin (32:53):
Yes, and I seen you.
Yep, yeah, man.
And now I get to see his littlebrother in here, who's also a
soccer player, and I have to say, man, your mom and dad are
super proud of you.
Ethan (33:01):
Yeah, they Super proud of you.
They tell me that.
Dr. Hardin (33:04):
Yeah, I get to listen to their stories about
you when they bring your brotherin and it's really cool to hear
them talk about you.
You know, you have a lot ofparents who are like oh my kid's
going pro.
You know well what happens whenyour kid actually makes it.
Ethan (33:20):
Yeah.
Dr. Hardin (33:20):
And you did, and your parents are so proud of you
.
Ethan (33:23):
Yeah, I mean, that's the biggest thing for me, like, even
if I never made it to where Iwant to go, at least I can say
you know, I did everything Icould.
And I know that my parents willstill always be proud, like,
say, if tomorrow I was like youknow, I want to stop playing
soccer, I want to do somethingelse, they would still be like
okay, you know, we're proud ofyou, we'll support you.
(33:43):
They're my biggest support andI love that from them and I love
them.
Dr. Hardin (33:48):
It's great great, yeah, which is cool, because
traditionally well, I shouldn'tsay traditionally, but you hear
stories like, especially comingfrom your dad, like you're
playing for your dad, right,you're not, you're playing for
you In some circumstances, likeeven kids, I can hear I'm like
hey, can I talk to youpersonally?
And they're like yeah sure awayfrom their parents and I'll say,
(34:08):
do you want to play this sport?
Exactly, you know, becausethey'll come in and as a
physician, you do.
You want to play this sport?
Exactly, you know, becausethey'll come in and, as a
physician, you're sitting overhere like, okay, we do these
tests.
These tests are negative.
You're complaining of this ofyou know.
Later on you find out momreally wants them to play.
Ethan (34:22):
Yeah, they don't want to play.
I feel like you see that inevery sport.
Yeah, there's a lot of kids who.
They're not meant to be activekids, they're not meant to be
athletes, and so they shouldn'tbe pushed into doing something
they don't want to do, butthey're scared to tell their
parents.
That's a big thing in a lot ofkids these days.
Dr. Hardin (34:44):
I feel like I agree with you, and the psychology of
sport in and of it all, I feellike kids are pushed more these
days because of the resources wehave.
Yeah, and sometimes pushed toohard and maybe even pushed into
injury.
Yep, right, no of course.
So I love that your dad supportsyou and, like you said, in any
way that he can, both yourparents and your siblings and
(35:08):
just kind of watching you growup.
I know I've only known you forabout three years, but just
seeing you develop has been funfor me as well.
It's cool man.
I'm really proud of you guysyou and Simon especially.
Thank you, you should get Simonin here too.
Yeah, we should.
I wonder what he's doing.
He's probably sitting on thecouch.
Ethan (35:27):
No, he never does, just kidding.
Dr. Hardin (35:30):
Oh man, so going backwards, we're going to talk
about the next generation ofsoccer players.
Do you feel any type ofresponsibility to inspire the
next generation of players fromMississippi?
Ethan (35:45):
I mean I'd love to be seen as an inspiration but at
the same time, like you neverknow what people could think
about.
So it's like if kids see me theinspiration, that's awesome and
I, if they ever ask for help,I'd love to help.
Yeah, like if kids don't see methat way and they don't want my
help, like it's not that Iwon't have a problem with this
but at the same time like I'llstill be there if they decide to
(36:08):
change their mind like that,and it's like yeah it's not a
sense of wanting.
I don't need to be in thissituation.
I just want them to know look,this kid did it.
Maybe I could do it too.
I don't need to be that personthat comes in and tells you okay
, you have to do this, becauseif you want to do it, you have
to do this.
No, If you want someone to talk, to sure, come talk.
If you want some help.
(36:29):
Sure I'll help.
It's not like a need for me,yeah.
Because, I don't want to be a Idon't know like kids these days.
Sure they need to be pushed,but they also need to figure
that stuff out themselves.
Dr. Hardin (36:41):
Yeah.
Ethan (36:45):
And so I don't need to come in and try and be an
inspiration when they need tofigure out what they want to do
first.
Does that make sense?
Dr. Hardin (36:49):
Yeah, no, absolutely .
So.
Translating that now becauseyou're from here, which is
really how do I say anunderrepresented area as far as
soccer goes, now, I mean SMSC,gcu.
You guys did a great job, buttraditionally, you know, we're
looking at more footballbaseball like you were talking
about right.
How do you or what are youhoping to see as far as the
(37:14):
development of soccer in theSouth, and how do you see that
for our future generation?
Ethan (37:21):
I mean, I honestly feel like in Alabama and in Georgia
they have it actually prettygood.
That's what I think too.
They have a lot of teams.
They have different leagueswhere the kids can go in and
develop.
My thing is just the cost.
Dr. Hardin (37:38):
The cost is crazy.
Ethan (37:40):
Kids are paying families have to pay up to $5,000 to
$6,000 just for their kid toplay Like a 13-year-old to play
in a league where I don't thinkyou should be paying that money
at all.
That's my opinion.
If you look in the UnitedStates as a whole, we have the
greatest athletes in the world.
Yeah, and if we were able totake these athletes when they
(38:01):
were kids and put them intosoccer without having the cost,
I think our national team couldbe one of the best in the world.
Dr. Hardin (38:08):
Oh great.
Ethan (38:09):
But here in the States it's insanely expensive and
these kids who grow up in thesepoverty type homes and
households- they can't affordthat.
That's why we have all theseamazing basketball, baseball,
football track players, becausethey had that access without
having to spend all this crazymoney.
Right, but with soccer it'scompletely different.
You have to spend crazy amountsof money just to be able to
(38:32):
play right as a young whichblows my mind, but I don't think
one person could change that.
It would take an insane amountof people to come in and be like
look, you need to make it anactual option for these kids to
play.
You have to pay this amount ofmoney to play.
Dr. Hardin (38:50):
It's funny that you mention that.
We sit down around a bunch ofdocs, you know, lately having
conversations about, of course,just different injuries and
injury reports for football,basketball, baseball, soccer,
whatever the case may be and weoften laugh at a lot of the
travel ball stuff because it'slike you know, you see the guys
(39:12):
who own these travel ballleagues or whatever, and they're
sitting fat and happy.
Exactly you know where are theyat when your kid's out there
busting their butt playing ball.
Exactly I kind of laugh at it.
I remember it was like oh youknow, like, oh, we got this rec
league.
Well, rec league's not thatgood.
No, because you have all thepeople who are leaving paying
this incredible amount of moneyto go play.
(39:34):
And now they have, you know,like a youth world series.
You know, there's something foreverything that's also
money-driven.
Ethan (39:48):
I'm with you on how much missed talent is there Exactly,
and I'm sure I bet if we wentinto a poverty city and looked
at all the people working like 9to 5, I bet at least 25% of
them were crazy athletes whenthey were younger, but they
didn't have the money or theaccess to it, and so they can
never do what they really wantedto do Hands down, which is
crazy.
Dr. Hardin (40:07):
Yeah, I totally agree with you, man.
You know it's been so funhaving you on this show.
I've got like some rapid firequestions for you.
Man, you know it's been so funhaving you on this show.
I've got like some rapid-firequestions for you, okay.
Ethan (40:16):
So just off the top, you ready, okay, all right.
Dr. Hardin (40:19):
So what's your go-to pregame ritual or superstition?
Ethan (40:24):
Okay, well, for me it's going to sound crazy.
I'm right-handed andright-footed, but I always get
dressed left to right, so myleft sock will come on, and then
my right sock will come on, andthen my left boot.
I'll put it on and tie it, andI'll put my right one on and tie
it, and then, for me as well, Ialso tape.
I tape all my fingers and mywrist, and so I'll always tape
my left hand and my left fingersfirst, before going and taping
(40:46):
my right hand.
Dr. Hardin (40:47):
You tape yourself Mm-hmm.
Oh, dude, you need to bring meto Portugal, I'll hook you up.
I mean, I kind of got a littlesystem figured out.
Ethan (40:54):
I wish these people could see.
But I tape the bottom part ofmy finger with a light amount of
tape and then the top part Itape a little more.
It's the same way I leave mythumb fine, because I've never
really had any thumb issues, andthen at the wrist I'll put some
pre-wrap and then I'll justtape right here so I can secure
it in this movement.
Okay, I'm on the right Now.
That's awesome yeah.
Dr. Hardin (41:14):
That's cool, man, yeah, so there you go.
Ethan (41:19):
There's his pregame ritual.
On that one, when I step on thefield I'll always say like a
short little pre-match prayerjust to get myself ready
Absolutely and faith in the Lordfor the game.
Dr. Hardin (41:28):
Yes, but that's the biggest thing for me as well,
doing that before every singlematch.
That's important, man, keepingthings consistent and the same,
and then having your faith keepit fully intact.
So who's the toughest opponentyou've ever faced on the field?
Ethan (41:47):
so when I first, are we talking about player or team?
Let's go with player ok, sowhen I first went to Portugal, I
trained with a club called CasaPia, and at first I trained
with their U19 team, but then Iwas moved up to train with their
first team who, as I, was 16 atthe time and these dudes ranged
(42:08):
from 25 to 30 years old andthey're playing in the second
professional division.
So I was training with them andthere was this one player his
name was Jota Silva and soCasapia got promoted into the
first league and he was probablythe best player in the team.
He was insane, he was crazy.
And then that next season hemoved to another team in the
first league called Vitoria andhe was playing with them, had a
(42:30):
crazy season, and this year hejust signed for a team in the
Premier League and he's playingfor a team called Nottingham
Forest this year and he's Iwouldn't say he's been their
best player, but he's been oneof their best players in this
season.
They're having like a fairytalerun there and they normally are
always bottom of the table, butthis year when Christmas break
came, they were in third place,having a crazy season.
Yeah, and so it was crazy.
(42:50):
I was just a 16-year-old kidtraining against this dude who's
now playing in the PremierLeague.
I think he's probably one ofthe probably the best player
I've ever trained with and hadto be in goal again.
Dr. Hardin (43:00):
That is super cool man.
It's crazy.
Is he a striker Forward?
Ethan (43:04):
He's a winger, he's a forward.
Dr. Hardin (43:08):
It's crazy, wow see, those are the opportunities you
look forward to like.
All right.
Who are we up against next?
Yeah, exactly, exactly, that'sawesome yeah, if you weren't a
professional soccer player, whatwould you be doing?
Ethan (43:23):
honestly, that's a crazy question.
I mean couch surfing, I know.
When I was a little kid, Ialways wanted to be a
paleontologist.
Oh cool, because I thoughtdinosaurs were dope.
Dr. Hardin (43:34):
Yeah, and.
Ethan (43:35):
I loved the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies.
Dr. Hardin (43:37):
Yeah.
Ethan (43:38):
But then when I got older , I was looking at, and now that
I look back on it, I neverwould have done it, but I wanted
to be an orthopedic surgeon.
Dr. Hardin (43:47):
Yeah, but.
Ethan (43:47):
I don't think I could have done 10 years of school.
Yeah, I don't think I couldhave done that.
Dr. Hardin (43:51):
So you think that I'm absolutely ridiculously
crazy for going back?
Ethan (43:55):
I mean, yeah, a little bit.
That's a lot of school.
I wouldn't say I was terrible,but I wasn't the greatest in
school and I was horrible in myhealth classes.
Once I realized I'm not verygood in the medical classes, I
was like I shouldn't be doingthis.
Dr. Hardin (44:12):
Soccer's fun.
Soccer's fun, yeah, soccer'sfun.
Ethan (44:15):
But honestly like Soccer's hard though it is very
hard, yeah but honestly I'vealways liked the psychology part
, Like I want to be a therapist,like a sports therapist,
because a lot of players don'ttalk about their feelings, Dude,
they just bottle it up.
Dr. Hardin (44:34):
Yeah, they just bottle it up.
Yeah, that is so important,they just bottle it up.
You know, sports psychology issort of coming to the forefront.
Now we have one down here thatI'll refer to.
On occasion I actually had afemale soccer player that I
referred to her after she had aconcussion.
She thought you know, game overfor me.
You know, concussion man,that's an influx of all kinds of
issues that go in your brain.
Yeah at once, Right.
(44:55):
And so she thought to herselfyou know what's going on with me
?
Why can't I shake this?
It got her really bad.
Ethan (45:02):
and that sports psychologist out there yeah,
that's, that is a very nobleprofession, no, I think so I
think it's I Mean I wouldn't sayit's the most important, but I
think it's one of the mostimportant Things all athletes
need to use, because there's somany athletes you've seen that
have taken their lives or havejust stopped playing the sport
because they didn't have someoneto talk to.
(45:22):
That's why I think all athletesneed someone.
I think all clubs should have atherapist for players, Just to
have someone to talk to.
You don't even have to letpeople know you're talking to
them.
Just call players just to havesomeone to talk to.
You don't even have to letpeople know you're talking to
them.
Dr. Hardin (45:37):
Just call them and be like look, I need to talk to
you.
Yeah, it's all anonymous.
Yeah, yeah, man, absolutely.
And you know another thing,like health issues in general
not to say they shouldn't be,you know, behind closed doors,
but traditionally like if you'vegot a buddy of yours and you
get hurt, you don't tell yourbuddy.
Your buddy could have had thesame injury.
He could help you through theprocess right, yeah exactly.
You know, I know a lot of peoplewho kind of hide behind the
(45:59):
scenes with that stuff.
No, I'm not saying it's wrong.
Ethan (46:01):
Yeah.
Dr. Hardin (46:02):
But I think that, like you say, if you have
someone that you can talk to,who's there and available, it
means the world of.
Ethan (46:09):
I mean, that's the biggest thing for me, like, like
I said, like I went through two, two knee surgeries, yeah, and
my buddy terran he last yearblew out his knee and had
surgery, and so that was thebiggest thing.
Like he doesn't.
I mean he talks a lot.
He's a very big talker, but youknow we need to have him on the
podcast.
Bring him in talking about thesethings is it's tough, but I was
like you know, like I wentthrough the same thing you're
(46:31):
going through.
It's not going to kill you,it's not going to ruin your
career it's just you have towork for it.
Yeah, I can't, I can't come inthere and make you bend and
straighten your knee.
You have to do that.
But I can tell you that it'llbe okay, because I went through
the same thing and now I'm stillplaying.
So that's not going to stop youfrom playing either it says
three words again yeah, it'll beokay, exactly, exactly.
Dr. Hardin (46:50):
Yeah, man, exactly.
All translates back to theoriginal humble Ethan Krum.
Yeah, absolutely.
What one skill on the field areyou still working to improve?
Ethan (47:03):
Honestly there's, I mean confidence.
Confidence is my biggest enemy.
Dr. Hardin (47:08):
Yeah.
Ethan (47:09):
Confidence is my biggest enemy because, like sometimes,
I'll go into a game feelingfully confident and then I'll
let in the goal and then myconfidence will drop.
That's the one thing I'm stillworking on now is just learning
to forget in an instant you know, like if you let it go and okay
, like, forget about it, yourteam will score a goal, you'll
be okay, like that's the biggestthing for me is just like
(47:30):
continuously trying to beconfident in myself and in my
game.
Right, that's the biggest thingfor me.
Continuously trying to beconfident in myself and in my
game.
That's the biggest thing I feelI'm still learning to figure
out.
Dr. Hardin (47:37):
That's interesting.
Ethan (47:39):
Confidence is the most important thing.
If you're not confident, you'renot going to play well.
For me, it's just always beingconfident in myself and in my
game and knowing I can do this.
If I mess up, it's okay, I'lldo it again.
I won't mess up the next time.
Dr. Hardin (47:56):
That's my biggest thing working on my own
confidence.
That's important, veryimportant.
Ethan (48:05):
What's your favorite memory from your soccer journey
this far?
That's a tough one.
I feel like I've had goodmemories in Portugal, yeah, but
I feel like my favorite was whenI was here in.
Gulfport and just playing withall my buddies on my high school
team.
Dr. Hardin (48:20):
Taking it back.
Ethan (48:20):
It's just dudes.
I've grown up with my wholelife and we're just playing
together and having fun.
That was probably sure we wereterrible but, I loved playing
with them because they were allmy best friends and we grew up
together, so playing with allthose guys was probably the best
part for me yeah, and thengoing back and having dr bruni
yeah, yeah, yeah it's so coolman.
Dr. Hardin (48:42):
You know those guys, they're still out there they
are killing it, they are, theydo great.
You know, dr camara no I don't?
He's got soccer filled, likebasically in his backyard really
yeah, he's a family doctor downthere Okay.
I think he may have justretired.
But yeah, dude, it's kind oflike you just said, getting your
buddies together and going outand having a good time Exactly.
Yeah.
Ethan (49:01):
So yeah, when I'm home, like I'll always, we'll always
get together.
Dr. Hardin (49:18):
Like, even if they're not playing anymore,
we'll still get together andwe'll go and just kick around
around this, yeah, because itwas something that always
brought us all together.
So I feel like it's not nevergoing to be something that will
bring us all apart.
That's my thing, thecamaraderie of the sport and
being on a team, exactly.
Yeah, man, you won't everforget that for sure, and I
think that'll be, you know,translatable to whatever you do
after soccer is being a teamplayer, and anything you do.
Ethan (49:31):
Of course you can't do it alone.
No, not at all.
Dr. Hardin (49:35):
So if you could meet any soccer legend now I know I
asked you this a while back andyou were like no, really, it was
what.
But if you could meet anysoccer legend, past or present,
who would it be and why?
Ethan (49:50):
I think I mean that is a tough question because there are
so many.
Dr. Hardin (49:54):
What about the guy you played against?
Ethan (49:57):
That would be cool.
Dr. Hardin (49:58):
Wouldn't that be cool.
Ethan (49:59):
But honestly, for me it would have to be either Tim
Howard or Matt Turner.
Dr. Hardin (50:06):
Okay.
Ethan (50:06):
Tim Howard is the previous US National Team
goalkeeper, and then Matt Turneris our current one.
So I think I'd want to meetjust either one of them.
Because Matt Turner he didn'tmake it professionally until he
was 26.
And whenever he was in collegehe actually was voted.
He was on SportsCenter's NotTop 10 Moments.
And so he went from that toplaying in England, playing in
(50:29):
the Premier League.
So I'd love to sit down andtalk to him about that.
Dr. Hardin (50:53):
No-transcript no doubt I'll definitely look on
that man.
Hey, ethan, thanks for comingon the show man, of course it's
a pleasure it's amazing, man.
Um, we want to thank you forsharing your journey and
insights and allowing listenersto follow you on Instagram.
(51:15):
Again, it's ecrumpt with a C5.
That's right, thank you forhaving me.
Yeah, absolutely man.
Many, many more memories tofollow with Ethan because, like
he said, he's young in theprofession.
You guys go follow him.
Hopefully, Ethan, you'll postsome videos for us.
Ethan (51:32):
I'll try to.
Are you playing soccer?
I'll try to.
Yeah, man, he's so humble.
I'm going to be like hey, drHarden.
Dr. Hardin (51:39):
I have a video for you and it'll be one for the
entire 12 months.
He's gone.
No man.
I'm super proud of you.
Everybody around here is proudof you.
Again, I want to say thank youfor your time and consideration
on coming on Beyond the Gamepodcast, Of course.
Ethan (51:56):
Thank you for having me.
Dr. Hardin (51:57):
Yeah, for sure, man.
We look forward to having youin the future.
That sounds good to me, allright, buddy.
Hey, thank you guys forlistening to Beyond the Game.
We hope you'll enjoy listeningto this podcast and, as always,
we'll see you again soon.
Thanks,
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.