"Beyond the Game": The RealSportsDoc Podcast

Chasing Soccer Dreams: Ethan Crump's Ambitious Path

• Dr. Brandon L. Hardin • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Dr. Hardin:

Thanks for tuning in to Beyond the Game with your host and my dad, Dr Brandon Hardin. Hey, what's up everybody? I got Ethan Crump over here with me in Mississippi and we're going to talk about soccer, right, Ethan? Yep how you doing today. I'm good man, you.

Ethan:

I'm good, I'm good.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, so Ethan came in earlier this week for some treatment on a few things and we were 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 the podcast because what better person, right? So Ethan is a soccer player in Portugal. Actually, he's from here in here, mississippi. I helped him a little bit here in in high school, right? Yeah, dude, that means I'm getting old, me too. But what I've discussed, like your, your career in sport, and I think you and I kind of sort of had a conversation like he has a few brothers that that play soccer as well and I was asking him you know, hey, what do you think your brother might fall in your footsteps? And you know Ethan is super passionate about soccer and he knew at an early age that that's what he wanted to do. I think that's the biggest game changer for you as more of a professional now is seeing young people kind of phase out, right so like you're either in it or you're not it happens.

Ethan:

It happens a lot, like either kids don't have the resources to go into it or it's just they find something else that they enjoy more. And I mean it happens a lot. I think the younger kids especially like in the States, they have all these bigger sports yeah and so they see all these big things like football, baseball, baseball, basketball, and they choose that because it's a big thing in Mississippi, big thing in the States, instead of soccer.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

So it's a tough sport to get into if you live in the States.

Dr. Hardin:

No, absolutely man. Actually, I put that in one of the questions I'm going to ask you in a little bit. I think it's like you hit the nail on the head, dude, like why soccer right, especially when you don't have the resources that, like the football players have Like up in Hattiesburg, they've got 60 yards of amazing turf and an indoor facility that they train at you know what.

Dr. Hardin:

I'm saying Down here, it's like I tell my youngest son, my youngest son's into soccer. I tell him all the time you had to pick the coldest sport. You know you guys are wearing shorts 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:

I mean it can be. Sometimes the weather's quite bipolar. Yeah, some like you'll get Monday and Tuesday. It'll be hot and then.

Dr. Hardin:

Wednesday.

Ethan:

Thursday it'll be raining and cold. You never know what's going to happen. Never know, right? No, especially in the winter. The winter is crazy, like when I was there before I came home for break. We had a week where it was straight super hot and then the next week was raining the entire week.

Dr. Hardin:

That's crazy and it's just back and forth, yeah.

Ethan:

Yeah, you're just playing in all kinds of climate, yeah, and you love it, but you do Exactly.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, man. So what sparked your interest in soccer at a really young age? I mean, obviously you had that connection there. What was that spark that you said I want to go pro at that?

Ethan:

I mean, honestly, it was just growing up watching all these dudes on TV doing stuff I could never imagine seeing and just falling in love with, like not just like the simple stuff but like the magic of it. Like there's certain players that have like a aspect of the game that just makes it somewhat magical and that, for me, like sparked an interest as well as my dad loves the sport and so growing up watching it with him like drove me to wanna.

Ethan:

One day he watched me do that, yeah it was a big thing for me as well see, that's really cool.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, making it family matters, that's just cool, man, yeah, I like that. Yeah, ethan's family went and visited him in Portugal over the Thanksgiving break, right, yeah over Thanksgiving yeah, and so now Ethan came back for the Christmas break and he was telling me it's really nice to be able to hang out with this family twice in one year that really resonated with me, man, because I mean I'm, we're obviously with each other all the time You're having to play across the world. You have to really want to do that.

Ethan:

It's tough. The hardest part is just being away from family as you get older. Of course you're going to move out, you're going to live away from family, but you don't. Some people don't expect to come so soon, like when you go to college. You always can come home whenever yeah but like over there, like you, tickets are expensive to fly to Europe yeah so you get to come home once, maybe twice a year?

Ethan:

yeah, so I was lucky to see them during Thanksgiving and now here with them over Christmas yeah, yeah, that's awesome man, that is awesome.

Dr. Hardin:

So, growing up in Mississippi, obviously we just talked about it Soccer really isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think about southern athletics, right? So how did you overcome the challenges of pursuing soccer in a region that's dominated by other sports?

Ethan:

I mean I feel like all kids in Mississippi are six sport athletes Like I grew up, I played basketball, played basketball, baseball, I was a swimmer and I also soccer. And then I fell out of baseball and basketball in middle school, uh-huh, and I was just swimming and playing soccer. And then right around the eighth grade I was like you know, I'm tired of swimming because, like, swimming is just, you're not racing anyone, you're just racing a clock yeah and so the soccer.

Ethan:

I just love the competitive part, but also like the team part, like it's 11 dudes and it's not you're fighting for yourself, you're fighting for your entire team. Yeah, I don't know that part resonated with me yeah sure, I want to look good as myself in my position, but I also want my team to win and want all my teammates to feel good that we won the game together no, absolutely ourselves.

Dr. Hardin:

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 Ethan at all right, it's just as much as your own family does, you know 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 is 6'5" and he's a soccer player. So obviously, so obviously, when you look at this guy you're like, yeah, he definitely plays basketball.

Ethan:

Nope.

Dr. Hardin:

No basketball for me, no basketball.

Ethan:

But I mean, like I said, those basketball dudes, like you see me, oh, he's 6'5". And then you'll see an NBA player Guy's 7'1", 7'2", he towers over me. I can do anything on those courts.

Dr. Hardin:

Right, right. Oh man, that's funny so who are your biggest? Influences and role models as a young player like. Did you have anyone that you like looked up to in your younger years?

Ethan:

gosh, I mean honestly like my dad. Yeah, because when he was my age he was playing and he he was supposed to go. I can't remember what school it was, but some some I think Division I school when he was my age. But he had some bad knee problems and back then the time, like the medicine, wasn't very good when he was my age and so he could never get those fixed, so he had to stop playing and so it was like a he wanted to see me do it.

Ethan:

And then I was like I want to do it and like I felt like looking up to see how much he loved the sport grew into me and my love for the sport. And so now it's just like I want to do that, so he can see me do that and so I can see myself do that as well. But then I guess within the game that's a tough one. That's a tough one. I can't pick out like a single favorite player I looked up to to like go after my game.

Dr. Hardin:

That's a tough question Right, it's more the game, the sport of it, versus any particular person. That got you interested.

Ethan:

I like that, just watching it, falling in love watching it and wanting to do it Like I want to do that. Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Hardin:

That's cool, man, and you have your own way and your own perspective on the sport and you're your own player, so, realistically, it's kind of like you're your own player, so realistically, it's kind of like you put your own hodgepodge of talent together and that's that's why you are where you are now. Exactly, yeah, exactly. That's awesome man. So what was your early soccer experience like like down here in Mississippi? Did you play SMSC GCU school?

Ethan:

Yeah, when I was a little kid, I grew up playing in SMSC GCU school when I was a little kid, I grew up playing in SMSC, my first team. We were called the Roadrunners.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

And then I think you might you know, Tim Bruni.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

Yeah, he was our coach. And then from there I stayed in SMSC. I went to another team we were called the Vipers, uh-huh. And then after that is when, like, I started, you know, after that is when I started, you know I want to go to a higher level. So I moved to a team in Hattiesburg called Southern State and they were more competitive.

Ethan:

We played in a U19 league called the NPSL, and so we ended up winning. I came in and I started on the bench in the first four games and then the keeper who was playing made a really bad mistake and so don't know where the cook, like you're gonna play, and so I just jumped in and then the remaining nine games I only conceded one goal and the rest of the games were clean sheets. And then from there, like with that team, I just like you know what like this is crazy, like I can do this, I'm gonna stay here and like that's where I I really started to develop is when I got there. There was a crazy breakthrough from Little League Coast here on the coast to actual bigger league up in Hattiesburg, which is where I felt the development really truly started with me as a player.

Dr. Hardin:

That was my next question. That was a defining moment that made you realize, okay, yeah, there it is man. Obviously you knew you could do it, you wanted to do it and there's your opportunity. I love it.

Ethan:

With that Southern States team. They also had a, so the team had the U19 team which played in the NPSO U19 league, but they also had a men's team which played in the NPSO men's team. And so I was gosh 16 at the time, nice, gosh 16 at the time, nice, and all these dudes on the mid team, they're juniors, seniors in college.

Ethan:

there was a couple who played for their national teams and stuff right and so after my like standout season with the 19s, I got called up to be a part of like the first team and like that. It was like it's like a summer thing and that entire summer was just training with. Actually, no, it started in the middle of school and so I had to do my school online, like I was commuting to Hattiesburg every day in the morning doing my first two classes in the morning online. Oh wow, then we would train, I'd do lunch and then I do my third class and then I drive home and then I turn in with the high school.

Ethan:

But that entire time with like the seniors, like so, it was like the crazy level between a 16 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 old kid training with you to four years, five years older than me right, it makes you a stronger person yeah yeah, stronger player, that as well no, absolutely man.

Dr. Hardin:

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 or hesitations, like you say, in a 16-year-old playing adult league soccer from your family? Were they hesitant or were they like let's go?

Ethan:

I feel like my parents always supported it, like that's like the one thing I love is that there was never a moment where they were like you know, maybe you should take a step back and do this Like it was always. We're going to support you Like this is your dream, we're going to help you make it happen, and so that's like probably the biggest thing for me is that I've always had that constant support from my parents. I haven't ever felt like I need to stop because there's no support. They've always been there supporting me, no matter what, and that's the biggest thing for me.

Dr. Hardin:

You know, in talking with you and I've had several professional athletes come through from football, baseball, soccer I think that's the biggest thing that helps drive them is having that support behind them to push them forward.

Ethan:

Exactly, I mean, I feel like that's the biggest thing in all sports If you don't have any support, you're going to fall out, you're going to struggle mentally, physically yeah, like support, especially from loved ones and family members, is the biggest thing I think all athletes need to have.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, in my opinion at least. Yeah for sure. Did you have that dream that one day you were going to be where you are today? And when did that happen?

Ethan:

I mean, honestly, I don't think I've always loved the sport, but I don't think I fully wanted to commit to it until I was around 15 or 16 when I realized, like you know, I'm not bad. I'm not a bad player like and I've seen so many people like going out and becoming professionals at 25, 26, yeah, 15 season. Like you know, I can, I could maybe make this happen yeah so at that point I just was like you know, I'm gonna do everything I can to make it happen full force drive ahead?

Dr. Hardin:

mm-hmm, no's awesome. So what about development, growth in the game? Tell us how your development as a player? What were some of your most crucial moments or experiences that helped you improve your skill as a soccer player?

Ethan:

Honestly, I think it's whenever you me especially is whenever I'm not performing well. So if I have like, let say, a bad week in training or I have a bad match, and the next match I'm on the bench. Like that doesn't turn into sadness and like go into a drought. It turns into motivation and for me, like I feel like I always use that to improve to the next week, to where I'm going in 110% times better than I was the previous week, and I feel like I mean I always try not to have a bad week, but you can't ever you can't ever have a like.

Ethan:

I don't think anyone's perfect. You can't have a perfect week always. There's always going to be bad ones, and so.

Ethan:

I use that the most as my development to just push myself more and more through that and as well. I mean I feel like all the coaches I've had here on the south have always been there, like to help develop me, like when I was at southern states my goalkeeper coach was always working to develop me. And then I also have a goalkeeper coach I do like individual sessions with. His name is carl bundle. He coaches the women's team up at pocc nice and I mean I've been trying to catch exactly.

Dr. Hardin:

I've been playing with him since I was 15.

Ethan:

So I'm 20 now. It's been five years and he's been I wouldn't say the biggest supporter, but he's been up there always. When I'm over there. He'll always reach out every now and then to see how things are going. And it's always good to train with him too, because there's always something new you can learn as a player, which is the best part.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, yeah. Development in any arena right is key. You become complacent and guess what 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 come out of school and they're like all right, well, I'm making good money treating this amount of patients. That's totally fine for me, dude. I'm like what can I do next? Like this podcast, for example? I want to help give back to the athletes who've given me so much over the last 12 years. You know what I'm saying.

Dr. Hardin:

Having you guys come on and talk to people through podcasting helps young people decide. Is this maybe something I need to aspire to? Can I help the next person once they fit in your shoes one day and you're now the Coach Carl kind? Of guy who's trying to help somebody else. It's just a way to give back. But if we become complacent, then there's no room for improvement.

Ethan:

No, I mean, I think, becoming complacent. I wouldn't say it's the worst thing someone could do, but it's pretty bad because if you're okay with what you're doing, then eventually you're going to hate 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 technique to better what I'm doing on the field. You can always develop into a different kind of person within your career field. Whatever your career is, that's exactly right.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, no, I totally agree with that. How did you handle any setbacks in your career, like injuries maybe being overlooked at some point in time, or even like difficult losses?

Ethan:

Gosh, I mean when I was in 2015,. I had surgery on my left knee.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

And then a year later a year later is when I had joined Southern State Yep, my first game with them I blew up my right knee and had surgery on that, and so that was probably the two biggest things that happened, and for me it was just my parents like no, it'll be okay, Like just those three words always help, it'll be okay.

Ethan:

Because, if, like imagine they said, oh, you're done, like, especially as a young kid no, but like saying it'll be okay, and then just using that to move forward 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 the name scottish right, scottish right hospital, yeah it was. It was brilliant, like I hadn't, like that was like. I think it's like the best georgian orthopedic surgeon in the country oh, by far man.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, I have a buddy up there, dr logan sherman, and uh, he works real closely with the Scottish Rite Hospital. I think it's incredible what they do.

Ethan:

It's amazing. I've seen so many stories about the kids they've rehabilitated and all of these kids are coming with smiles on their face and they just are happy to be there. They're not sad to be there. Every single person I've seen is happy to be at the hospital getting better.

Dr. Hardin:

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 huge hospital man. Oh yeah, it's incredible. And then Logan, of course, did a lot of work with Scottish Rite and he still does. Actually, they just honored him a couple of weeks ago. But that's an incredible story, considering I go back to the conversation we had about your dad of being told he had to stop. Yeah, you know, imagine if he had the resources. You had exactly imagine if our kids have the resources.

Dr. Hardin:

You know that that we have. You know it just keeps getting better and better and better.

Ethan:

That's the one great thing about the medicine world, like it won't ever get worse. I mean sure there's lots that could improve, but like yeah, everything is going to continue to improve because there's people who want to improve it and that's the best part about it. Like, if you get hurt now and the future. Someone has the same injury. Their recovery time will be ten times faster. Their recovery time is better, which is a crazy thing to think about, but that's just how it works.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yep, that's exactly right. What kind of training regimen or habits have you cultivated to help you compete at your highest level? What does it look like for you now?

Ethan:

I mean, when we level. What does it look like for you now? I mean when we, like a normal weekend 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 say good morning, yeah, everyone's doing, and then around 1050 we're in the gym and it's just, you know, some weight work, but just getting the body warmed up for training, and then from there 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 our little presentation board and we'll have a whole video presentation on what training is going to be, what the session will look like, and then from there we have another five minutes just to get ourselves ready, get our cleats on For me, get my gloves and my cleats, and then just those extra two minutes. Once you do. That is just For me. I use it to just sit down in the quiet, get myself, as the kids now say, they say locked in.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

And then get ready to train, and it's the same process every single day. Yeah, but for me also, like outside of it, I, like, you know, take some time alone. You know like either read a good book or work on my class I take a language class but work on my homework and stuff Just that alone time can help, you know, to relax yourself, so you don't like say you had a bad training, so you don't focus on the bad part, you move past it straight away, or looking at the good part for the next day.

Dr. Hardin:

Right.

Ethan:

For me it's a big, important step.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, always looking ahead, man is a big important step.

Ethan:

Yeah, always looking ahead, man Exactly.

Dr. Hardin:

Getting locked in? Yeah, that's right. So how did your transition from youth league to professional world come about? Like, was there one moment where you had a coach that was like, hey man, like how did you get to Portugal?

Ethan:

Well, actually, if we can ask that, no, you can, of course my junior year. You know him, you know Simon.

Dr. Hardin:

Yes, yeah, simon Thames, everybody Shout out to Simon.

Ethan:

He went to Portugal and it was through this, like company called IFAP, like International Football Academy.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

And they bring players from all over Portugal to play, and Simon had gone there for a few months and he came back and he was like you know, I think this is a real deal, you should, you should try it out, yeah, and so I went there for two months, my senior year just you know, test it out, test the water, see if I liked it.

Ethan:

Yeah, and I mean, I was only supposed to stay for two weeks, but I had a, I had a good showing, and then I stayed an extra two months and I mean, from there I just the guy, I was like you know, you can, I think you can do this. And so I came back, finished school and as soon as I graduated I was two weeks later I was headed to Portugal and then from there everything kind of fell into place. I stayed, I started with a team called Lourdes and then after six months there you know it was ups and downs and I left and I moved to a team called FOFO, which stands for like football, but they have little abbreviations and I ended up the week before my first game. I came in and they're like you're going to be our starter, you're number one, we need you. I come in second training of the week. Break my finger.

Dr. Hardin:

Oh yeah, and you had to come back to the States and get it repaired and I was out.

Ethan:

I stayed for an extra two months thinking it wasn't anything crazy, it would heal by itself. And then I went and got an x-ray before I came home and my finger was like the bones were completely separated and they weren't going to heal at all, so I came home straight away.

Dr. Hardin:

Who did that surgery? Do you remember?

Ethan:

Dr Hand.

Dr. Hardin:

Dr Hand, Karen Hand at Memorial Yep yeah man, awesome, he did that.

Ethan:

And then I did recovery. It was about three or four months and then got back into training a little bit to see how it felt and then was right back to Portugal after that.

Dr. Hardin:

Do you think that was probably one of the biggest challenges you faced? I imagine this in your head and you can tell me if I'm wrong, but you get that starting position. They're like Ethan, we need you out on the field. You break your finger. I imagine what's going on in your head is oh my God, did I just ruin my career? Like, am I allowed to come back?

Ethan:

I mean, yeah, of course. I mean I come in and I've already got a big weight on my shoulders, being told like we brought you here for a reason, and that reason is to play. That reason is to help us win our games, win our league. And then my first week in training and I'm out for the season. Like I mean, I don't know, it's hard to recover from that, but at the same time it's injuries are a part of the game you know you can't go through an entire career and not have one injury.

Ethan:

I've never heard of that happening. I've never seen that happen. So like for so for me, and I had already dealt with the two knee surgeries. So I was like, if I can come back from two knee surgeries, a finger surgery is not going to be anything, it'll be much easier. It wasn't fun, I couldn't use my left hand for two months, but I got used to it and then therapy was good and then went straight back into it.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome man.

Ethan:

You know, it's crazy.

Dr. Hardin:

I don't know if you know this, but you need two legs to play soccer.

Ethan:

You hurt both knees.

Dr. Hardin:

You're a goalkeeper.

Ethan:

Right, so you need both hands.

Dr. Hardin:

You do indeed, man. You had all the odds stacked up against you, right I?

Ethan:

know, I know, but no, there's man. You had all the odds stacked up against you right I know, I know man, but no, there's actually this one player. His name is Aaron Ramsey. He plays in the Premier League in England. Yeah, and he actually broke his left ring finger and so, but the other goalkeepers on his team, they're not as good as him, and so he's sponsored by Adidas, and Adidas made him a custom glove where I wish I could show these people, because yeah, I know right.

Ethan:

I'm showing Harden, but nobody else can see they made it. They sewed the glove to where it's a pinky spot. These two are one spot so they like. So he had like one finger that was like the size of this so for everybody listening and our orthosurgeons listening, they buddy taped it.

Dr. Hardin:

Basically, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Ethan:

That is super cool and he played with, like you said, a buddy taped glove for the whole game. It was crazy. I'll have to show you a picture when we finish up.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, absolutely, we'll link it to this podcast. Yeah, man and Adidas, if you're listening, hey, we need. Ethan some custom gloves and some new fit shoes right Exactly. Some cleats, Exactly.

Ethan:

Anyone who's listening, I'll take whatever you have for me.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, ethan, are you cool with people following you on social media? Of course you have Instagram. Yeah, okay, yeah, if you guys go look up Ethan Crump on Instagram.

Ethan:

Yeah, it's ECrump5.

Dr. Hardin:

A C, not a K.

Ethan:

A lot of people get that mixed up. It's a C yeah, C-R-U-M-P yeah.

Dr. Hardin:

Five and that's it. Instagram yeah, y'all go follow him. Can you share a in your career that truly stands out to you and kind of we'll give the listeners an inside look at one of your most defining moments on the field? Can you paint a picture for everybody?

Ethan:

So it was last season. I was at a club called Academica, which is a city called Coimbra in Portugal it's about two hours north of Lisbon and in the football world we have things called derbies, which is like, where it's like two teams from the same city are playing each other. So we have played our derby, my club's Academica, against a club called UNIL, and we ended up winning that game 3-0. Nice.

Ethan:

And in that game I think I had about 10, 12 saves maybe, and at least five or six of them were like in my eyes were crazy saves, like this reaction, or a shot that's in the top corner of the goal that I touched over to the bar. And I mean, one of that game was just a moment like I was like okay, like that was the best game I've ever played, like and I felt on top of the world because we had just won our Darby 3-0, and I kept a clean sheet. We got three points in the league and I played out of my mind and so that was a good moment. But then there was also when I was first here with Lotus, my first team, we played against a club called Sporting, and Sporting's first team is arguably I mean, arguably one of the best teams in the world and we played against their U19 team because I was still In Portugal.

Ethan:

Portugal there's called juniors, which is U19, okay, and then after the U19 season, you're just considered a senior player. Yeah, so this is when I was a junior. We played the U19s and we lost the game, but like it was just, you know the experience of playing against such a high level team sure, at a high level club, and seeing, oh my gosh, like these kids are actually the best players in the league, in their club, in the league right now just playing against that is the craziest sight to see.

Dr. Hardin:

Right, it's crazy and you got to do that exactly yeah, yeah, what an incredible opportunity right, it was, it was awesome, it was awesome yeah, man, do you know I don't know statistically, you may know this you know how many players what do the numbers look like on professional soccer players, or, let's say, anybody outside of college go to the next level? What is that? Like the percentage is low, like 10%, it's really low, yeah, yeah.

Ethan:

I think it might be even less than 10%. I think it is too I think like it's like 25% go from high school to college and then from college to professional. It's even lower, around maybe 5%. I could most definitely be wrong, but from what I've seen it's a pretty low percentage. Yeah, I venture to guess you're right.

Dr. Hardin:

It's a tough world to break into. Yeah, absolutely One. Again, your resources, yeah, exactly.

Ethan:

Resources are a crazy part If you don't know anybody, unless you're the greatest player ever. If you don't know anyone, then it's going to be impossible to get in. If you have to know someone, or someone who knows someone, yeah, warren.

Dr. Hardin:

Steenkamp, if you're listening to this, I'm calling you. You need to pick Ethan up.

Ethan:

He's awesome.

Dr. Hardin:

I'm going to get him over to Atlanta so I can go watch him play. Let's go. Let's talk about some personal aspirations and goals. Now that you're living your dream, what are your long-term goals with the sport? I know we've talked about the longevity of soccer players, especially goalies, being around 40 years old. How does that look for you?

Ethan:

For me. I don't even think I've really gotten to my dream yet. My dream, I mean I want to play in the highest league possible, which is the Premier League in England. It's arguably the best league in the world. That's, of course, the dream, but also my goal is to what year are we in? 25? We're 25?.

Dr. Hardin:

Yep.

Ethan:

So the 2030 World Cup's in five years. So my goal is to be a part of that 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 my butt off. Honestly, that's all you can really do is just work, work, work. You have to go into every training at 100%. You have to perform well every training. When you play, you have to be on top of your game. You've got to be locked in. Yeah, exactly, you have to be locked in.

Ethan:

You've got to be locked in, but I'm lucky, I have an agent. You know what an agent is. Yeah, this, I have an agent, you know what an agent is.

Ethan:

Yeah, yeah and so this is my first time working with an agent and so I think he's great. He has thousands of connections in Portugal and so he got me with the club I'm at right now and I trust him with my career right now. And he's great. He's got me with my club now and he says to me when he sees me play, he's like I see big things for you I. He says to me when he sees me play, he's like I see big things for you, I'm only 22. I'm a young kid, especially in the goalkeeper world, and so with that like with someone like him saying he has my back and he also has these connections, I feel like I could eventually play anywhere I wanted to. It's just I have to wait. You know, I'm young and I feel like the time will come. You never know when, but I feel like the time will come.

Dr. Hardin:

Oh yeah, you never know when, but I feel like it will come. It's just a waiting game and just working your butt off so you can make it there. Absolutely, man, those are some really ambitious goals. I love it and you're gonna make it, I know yeah, I feel I will too yeah it's just a matter of time and when, where it will happen yeah, that's

Dr. Hardin:

right, that's exactly right what do you want your legacy to be as a player? Let's say you do make it to 2030. You're in the World Cup. You're obviously have left Portugal. What do you want your legacy to be in the state you're in now in Portugal? How do you want your team to remember how well you played? I mean?

Ethan:

honestly, I would say like I do make it and I'm doing all these things I said I want to do I would just want to have, because there's a lot of players now who have like legacies of they were rude, they were great players but they were like not nice people, you know.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

I wouldn't want to be remembered as something like that. Like I'd want to be remembered always having a smile on my face or just like the energetic person in the field. Like I wouldn't want to and then I'd also want to. You know, I wouldn't want someone 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 be around, right, like I wouldn't. I feel like that's the biggest thing. Like I don't want to come. I want to come across this like a good person, like, yeah, you could think I'm a terrible player, but I still like, if I'm a good person is better than being a bad person. And, uh, I'd rather be a good person and a terrible player than a bad person and a good player, right in my eyes at least no, absolutely.

Dr. Hardin:

Hopefully that translates for everybody.

Ethan:

Yeah, right, just be a good person yeah, there's a lot of people who aren't but ethan how long have I? Known you now. I think I came in. Was it my senior year of high school, or was it after I had graduated?

Dr. Hardin:

I don't think it was your senior year.

Ethan:

Yeah, so I graduated in 22. We just got to 25, so around two years, yeah. Three years in the summer, yeah.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, as long as I've known Ethan, he's a super, super humble guy.

Ethan:

Thank you.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, super nice. You know, I remember one moment vividly. I was walking out we have a restaurant down here called Woody's Roadhouse and I hear Dr Hardin and I look over and it's Ethan. I'm like Jesus. This dude grew up another foot and then he was telling me about his way to Portugal, man I remember that so cool man.

Ethan:

I just got off of work. I was working over at.

Dr. Hardin:

Killville yes, and I seen you. Yep got off of work.

Ethan:

I was working over at Chilville.

Dr. Hardin:

Yes, and I seen you. Yep, yeah, man. And now I get to see his little brother in here, who's also a soccer player, and I have to say, man, your mom and dad are super proud of you.

Ethan:

Yeah, they Super proud of you. They tell me that.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, I get to listen to their stories about you when they bring your brother in and it's really cool to hear them talk about you. You know, you have a lot of parents who are like oh my kid's going pro. You know well what happens when your kid actually makes it.

Ethan:

Yeah.

Dr. Hardin:

And you did, and your parents are so proud of you.

Ethan:

Yeah, I mean, that's the biggest thing for me, like, even if I never made it to where I want to go, at least I can say you know, I did everything I could. And I know that my parents will still always be proud, like, say, if tomorrow I was like you know, I want to stop playing soccer, I want to do something else, they would still be like okay, you know, we're proud of you, we'll support you. They're my biggest support and I love that from them and I love them.

Dr. Hardin:

It's great great, yeah, which is cool, because traditionally well, I shouldn't say traditionally, but you hear stories like, especially coming from your dad, like you're playing for your dad, right, you're not, you're playing for you In some circumstances, like even kids, I can hear I'm like hey, can I talk to you personally?

Dr. Hardin:

And they're like yeah sure away from their parents and I'll say, do you want to play this sport? Exactly, you know, because they'll come in and as a physician, you do. You want to play this sport? Exactly, you know, because they'll come in and, as a physician, you're sitting over here like, okay, we do these tests. These tests are negative. You're complaining of this of you know. Later on you find out mom really wants them to play.

Ethan:

Yeah, they don't want to play. I feel like you see that in every sport. Yeah, there's a lot of kids who. They're not meant to be active kids, they're not meant to be athletes, and so they shouldn't be pushed into doing something they don't want to do, but they're scared to tell their parents. That's a big thing in a lot of kids these days.

Dr. Hardin:

I feel like I agree with you, and the psychology of sport in and of it all, I feel like kids are pushed more these days because of the resources we have. Yeah, and sometimes pushed too hard and maybe even pushed into injury. Yep, right, no of course.

Dr. Hardin:

So I love that your dad supports you and, like you said, in any way that he can, both your parents and your siblings and just kind of watching you grow up. I know I've only known you for about three years, but just seeing you develop has been fun for me as well. It's cool man. I'm really proud of you guys you and Simon especially. Thank you, you should get Simon in here too. Yeah, we should. I wonder what he's doing. He's probably sitting on the couch.

Ethan:

No, he never does, just kidding.

Dr. Hardin:

Oh man, so going backwards, we're going to talk about the next generation of soccer players. Do you feel any type of responsibility to inspire the next generation of players from Mississippi?

Ethan:

I mean I'd love to be seen as an inspiration but at the same time, like you never know what people could think about. So it's like if kids see me the inspiration, that's awesome and I, if they ever ask for help, I'd love to help. Yeah, like if kids don't see me that way and they don't want my help, like it's not that I won't have a problem with this but at the same time like I'll still be there if they decide to change their mind like that, and it's like yeah it's not a sense of wanting.

Ethan:

I don't need to be in this situation. I just want them to know look, this kid did it. Maybe I could do it too. I don't need to be that person that comes in and tells you okay, you have to do this, because if 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. Sure I'll help. It's not like a need for me, yeah.

Ethan:

Because, I don't want to be a I don't know like kids these days. Sure they need to be pushed, but they also need to figure that stuff out themselves.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

And so I don't need to come in and try and be an inspiration when they need to figure out what they want to do first. Does that make sense?

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, no, absolutely. So. Translating that now because you're from here, which is really how do I say an underrepresented area as far as soccer goes, now, I mean SMSC, gcu. You guys did a great job, but traditionally, you know, we're looking at more football baseball like you were talking about right. How do you or what are you hoping to see as far as the development of soccer in the South, and how do you see that for our future generation?

Ethan:

I mean, I honestly feel like in Alabama and in Georgia they have it actually pretty good. That's what I think too. They have a lot of teams. They have different leagues where the kids can go in and develop. My thing is just the cost.

Dr. Hardin:

The cost is crazy.

Ethan:

Kids are paying families have to pay up to $5,000 to $6,000 just for their kid to play Like a 13-year-old to play in a league where I don't think you should be paying that money at all. That's my opinion. If you look in the United States as a whole, we have the greatest athletes in the world. Yeah, and if we were able to take these athletes when they were kids and put them into soccer without having the cost, I think our national team could be one of the best in the world.

Dr. Hardin:

Oh great.

Ethan:

But here in the States it's insanely expensive and these kids who grow up in these poverty type homes and households- they can't afford that. That's why we have all these amazing basketball, baseball, football track players, because they had that access without having to spend all this crazy money. Right, but with soccer it's completely different. You have to spend crazy amounts of money just to be able to play right as a young which blows my mind, but I don't think one person could change that.

Ethan:

It would take an insane amount of people to come in and be like look, you need to make it an actual option for these kids to play. You have to pay this amount of money to play.

Dr. Hardin:

It's funny that you mention that. We sit down around a bunch of docs, 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 we often laugh at a lot of the travel ball stuff because it's like you know, you see the guys who own these travel ball leagues or whatever, and they're sitting fat and happy. Exactly you know where are they at when your kid's out there busting their butt playing ball.

Dr. Hardin:

Exactly I kind of laugh at it. I remember it was like oh you know, like, oh, we got this rec league. Well, rec league's not that good. No, because you have all the people who are leaving paying this incredible amount of money to go play. And now they have, you know, like a youth world series. You know, there's something for everything that's also money-driven.

Ethan:

I'm with you on how much missed talent is there Exactly, and I'm sure I bet if we went into a poverty city and looked at all the people working like 9 to 5, I bet at least 25% of them were crazy athletes when they were younger, but they didn't have the money or the access to it, and so they can never do what they really wanted to do Hands down, which is crazy.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, I totally agree with you, man. You know it's been so fun having you on this show. I've got like some rapid fire questions for you. Man, you know it's been so fun having you on this show. I've got like some rapid-fire questions for you, okay.

Ethan:

So just off the top, you ready, okay, all right.

Dr. Hardin:

So what's your go-to pregame ritual or superstition?

Ethan:

Okay, well, for me it's going to sound crazy. I'm right-handed and right-footed, but I always get dressed left to right, so my left sock will come on, and then my right sock will come on, and then my left boot. I'll put it on and tie it, and I'll put my right one on and tie it, and then, for me as well, I also tape. I tape all my fingers and my wrist, and so I'll always tape my left hand and my left fingers first, before going and taping my right hand.

Dr. Hardin:

You tape yourself Mm-hmm. Oh, dude, you need to bring me to Portugal, I'll hook you up. I mean, I kind of got a little system figured out.

Ethan:

I wish these people could see. But I tape the bottom part of my finger with a light amount of tape and then the top part I tape a little more. It's the same way I leave my thumb fine, because I've never really had any thumb issues, and then at the wrist I'll put some pre-wrap and then I'll just tape right here so I can secure it in this movement. Okay, I'm on the right Now. That's awesome yeah.

Dr. Hardin:

That's cool, man, yeah, so there you go.

Ethan:

There's his pregame ritual. On that one, when I step on the field I'll always say like a short little pre-match prayer just to get myself ready Absolutely and faith in the Lord for the game.

Dr. Hardin:

Yes, but that's the biggest thing for me as well, doing that before every single match. That's important, man, keeping things consistent and the same, and then having your faith keep it fully intact. So who's the toughest opponent you've ever faced on the field?

Ethan:

so when I first, are we talking about player or team? Let's go with player ok, so when I first went to Portugal, I trained with a club called Casa Pia, and at first I trained with their U19 team, but then I was moved up to train with their first team who, as I, was 16 at the time and these dudes ranged from 25 to 30 years old and they're playing in the second professional division.

Ethan:

So I was training with them and there was this one player his name was Jota Silva and so Casapia got promoted into the first league and he was probably the best player in the team. He was insane, he was crazy. And then that next season he moved to another team in the first league called Vitoria and he was playing with them, had a crazy season, and this year he just signed for a team in the Premier League and he's playing for a team called Nottingham Forest this year and he's I wouldn't say he's been their best player, but he's been one of their best players in this season. They're having like a fairytale run there and they normally are always bottom of the table, but this year when Christmas break came, they were in third place, having a crazy season.

Ethan:

Yeah, and so it was crazy. I was just a 16-year-old kid training against this dude who's now playing in the Premier League. I think he's probably one of the probably the best player I've ever trained with and had to be in goal again.

Dr. Hardin:

That is super cool man. It's crazy. Is he a striker Forward?

Ethan:

He's a winger, he's a forward.

Dr. Hardin:

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's awesome yeah, if you weren't a professional soccer player, what would you be doing?

Ethan:

honestly, that's a crazy question. I mean couch surfing, I know. When I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a paleontologist. Oh cool, because I thought dinosaurs were dope.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, and.

Ethan:

I loved the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

But then when I got older, I was looking at, and now that I look back on it, I never would have done it, but I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, but.

Ethan:

I don't think I could have done 10 years of school. Yeah, I don't think I could have done that.

Dr. Hardin:

So you think that I'm absolutely ridiculously crazy for going back?

Ethan:

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 my health classes. Once I realized I'm not very good in the medical classes, I was like I shouldn't be doing this.

Dr. Hardin:

Soccer's fun. Soccer's fun, yeah, soccer's fun.

Ethan:

But honestly like Soccer's hard though it is very hard, yeah but honestly I've always liked the psychology part, Like I want to be a therapist, like a sports therapist, because a lot of players don't talk about their feelings, Dude, they just bottle it up.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, they just bottle it up. Yeah, that is so important, they just bottle it up. You know, sports psychology is sort of coming to the forefront. Now we have one down here that I'll refer to. On occasion I actually had a female soccer player that I referred to her after she had a concussion. She thought you know, game over for me. You know, concussion man, that's an influx of all kinds of issues that go in your brain.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah at once, Right. And so she thought to herself you know what's going on with me? Why can't I shake this? It got her really bad.

Ethan:

and that sports psychologist out there yeah, that's, that is a very noble profession, no, I think so I think it's I Mean I wouldn't say it's the most important, but I think it's one of the most important Things all athletes need to use, because there's so many athletes you've seen that have taken their lives or have just stopped playing the sport because they didn't have someone to talk to. That's why I think all athletes need someone. I think all clubs should have a therapist for players, Just to have someone to talk to. You don't even have to let people know you're talking to them. Just call players just to have someone to talk to. You don't even have to let people know you're talking to them.

Dr. Hardin:

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've got a buddy of yours and you get hurt, you don't tell your buddy. Your buddy could have had the same injury. He could help you through the process right, yeah exactly.

Dr. Hardin:

You know, I know a lot of people who kind of hide behind the scenes with that stuff. No, I'm not saying it's wrong.

Ethan:

Yeah.

Dr. Hardin:

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:

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 year blew out his knee and had surgery, and so that was the biggest thing. Like he doesn't. I mean he talks a lot. He's a very big talker, but you know we need to have him on the podcast.

Ethan:

Bring him in talking about these things is it's tough, but I was like you know, like I went through the same thing you're going through. It's not going to kill you, it's not going to ruin your career it's just you have to work for it.

Ethan:

Yeah, I can't, I can't come in there and make you bend and straighten your knee. You have to do that. But I can tell you that it'll be okay, because I went through the same thing and now I'm still playing. So that's not going to stop you from playing either it says three words again yeah, it'll be okay, exactly, exactly.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, man, exactly. All translates back to the original humble Ethan Krum. Yeah, absolutely. What one skill on the field are you still working to improve?

Ethan:

Honestly there's, I mean confidence. Confidence is my biggest enemy.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah.

Ethan:

Confidence is my biggest enemy because, like sometimes, I'll go into a game feeling fully confident and then I'll let in the goal and then my confidence will drop.

Ethan:

That's the one thing I'm still working on now is just learning to forget in an instant you know, like if you let it go and okay, like, forget about it, your team will score a goal, you'll be okay, like that's the biggest thing for me is just like continuously trying to be confident in myself and in my game. Right, that's the biggest thing for me. Continuously trying to be confident in myself and in my game. That's the biggest thing I feel I'm still learning to figure out.

Dr. Hardin:

That's interesting.

Ethan:

Confidence is the most important thing. If you're not confident, you're not going to play well. For me, it's just always being confident in myself and in my game and knowing I can do this. If I mess up, it's okay, I'll do it again. I won't mess up the next time.

Dr. Hardin:

That's my biggest thing working on my own confidence. That's important, very important.

Ethan:

What's your favorite memory from your soccer journey this far? That's a tough one. I feel like I've had good memories in Portugal, yeah, but I feel like my favorite was when I was here in. Gulfport and just playing with all my buddies on my high school team.

Dr. Hardin:

Taking it back.

Ethan:

It's just dudes. I've grown up with my whole life and we're just playing together and having fun. That was probably sure we were terrible but, I loved playing with them because they were all my best friends and we grew up together, so playing with all those guys was probably the best part for me yeah, and then going back and having dr bruni yeah, yeah, yeah it's so cool man.

Dr. Hardin:

You know those guys, they're still out there they are killing it, they are, they do great. You know, dr camara no I don't? He's got soccer filled, like basically in his backyard really yeah, he's a family doctor down there Okay. I think he may have just retired. But yeah, dude, it's kind of like you just said, getting your buddies together and going out and having a good time Exactly. Yeah.

Ethan:

So yeah, when I'm home, like I'll always, we'll always get together.

Dr. Hardin:

Like, even if they're not playing anymore, we'll still get together and we'll go and just kick around around this, yeah, because it was something that always brought us all together. So I feel like it's not never going to be something that will bring us all apart. That's my thing, the camaraderie of the sport and being on a team, exactly. Yeah, man, you won't ever forget that for sure, and I think that'll be, you know, translatable to whatever you do after soccer is being a team player, and anything you do.

Ethan:

Of course you can't do it alone. No, not at all.

Dr. Hardin:

So if you could meet any soccer legend now I know I asked you this a while back and you were like no, really, it was what. But if you could meet any soccer legend, past or present, who would it be and why?

Ethan:

I think I mean that is a tough question because there are so many.

Dr. Hardin:

What about the guy you played against?

Ethan:

That would be cool.

Dr. Hardin:

Wouldn't that be cool.

Ethan:

But honestly, for me it would have to be either Tim Howard or Matt Turner.

Dr. Hardin:

Okay.

Ethan:

Tim Howard is the previous US National Team goalkeeper, and then Matt Turner is our current one. So I think I'd want to meet just either one of them. Because Matt Turner he didn't make it professionally until he was 26. And whenever he was in college he actually was voted. He was on SportsCenter's Not Top 10 Moments. And so he went from that to playing in England, playing in the Premier League. So I'd love to sit down and talk to him about that.

Dr. Hardin:

No-transcript no doubt I'll definitely look on that man. Hey, ethan, thanks for coming on the show man, of course it's a pleasure it's amazing, man. Um, we want to thank you for sharing your journey and insights and allowing listeners to follow you on Instagram. Again, it's ecrumpt with a C5. That's right, thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely man. Many, many more memories to follow with Ethan because, like he said, he's young in the profession. You guys go follow him. Hopefully, Ethan, you'll post some videos for us.

Ethan:

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, dr Harden.

Dr. Hardin:

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 proud of you. Again, I want to say thank you for your time and consideration on coming on Beyond the Game podcast, Of course.

Ethan:

Thank you for having me.

Dr. Hardin:

Yeah, for sure, man. We look forward to having you in the future. That sounds good to me, all right, buddy. Hey, thank you guys for listening to Beyond the Game. We hope you'll enjoy listening to this podcast and, as always, we'll see you again soon. Thanks,