Athletes of the week – Male

Name: E. J. McCormick Sport: Soccer Year: Junior Major: History… Name: E. J. McCormick Sport: Soccer Year: Junior Major: History Hobbies: PlayStation 3 and Cooking Favorite Oakland Spot: Q’doba

Growing up in the Pittsburgh area, E. J. McCormick was raised as a Pitt fan. His father went to Pitt and for McCormick the idea of playing and competing for the Panthers has been a dream come true.

“Everything I grew up on just watching college sports, it was all Pitt McCormick said.

And as a Panther he has certainly made his mark on the program.

As a freshman McCormick played in each of the 16 games in his first season, tallying a total of 10 shots while starting five games that year. Last year he finished the season with four points in 15 games.

Last week, in a game against Robert Morris, McCormick scored his third goal of the season, marking his third goal in the first three games of the year.

Three games into the season and McCormick has already surpassed his scoring total for the past two years, scoring only two goals last year and none in his first season.

“I don’t know if I’m really doing anything differently,” he said. “I’ve just been trying to work hard at practice and in the off season and things have just sort of been falling into place.”

McCormick said another reason for his sudden increase in scoring could be the team’s chemistry from playing for so long together.

“I got some pretty good passes on the goals that I scored,” McCormick said. “We have a good group of core guys coming back [this year] and the fact that most of us have played last year or the past two years helps us.”

Losing only six players from last year’s roster McCormick, as a junior, has become one of the team’s prominent leaders – a role he openly welcomes.

“I like to think of myself as a leader,” he said. “I try to help out the freshmen as much as they need it, just doing what I can. I just try to lead by example.

“Everyone’s there for everyone.”

And although the men’s soccer team is winless so far this season, McCormick remained optimistic about the future of the team.

“We feel like we caught some bad breaks and we haven’t even really been playing bad soccer. Looking at our record, it doesn’t really show that.,” he said.