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Q&A: Shannon Boxx on Banana Pancakes and the Killer Instinct
By Kari Lydersen // usolympicteam.com // August 18, 2004
Soccer star Shannon Boxx, 27, made her national team debut only three weeks before the start of the 2003 World Cup tournament, in fact she had already bought tickets to watch some of the games as a spectator. But she quickly made her presence known, becoming the first player to score in her first three U.S. national team games, and starting in five out of six games at the tournament. This came after a successful season with the New York Power professional WUSA team in 2003, and with the San Diego Spirit in 2001 and 2002. Earlier in her career she led Notre Dame to the 1995 NCAA title. Boxx’s sister is also an Olympian, having won a gold medal in softball at the 1996 Olympics. She normally plays in front of defense.
Q1: Have you ever thought of switching positions so that you’d have more opportunities to score?
Shannon Boxx: Granted, I love going forward, so when I have the chance I will go forward. If I can score a goal here and there for the team, of course I would love it. But my biggest thing and the position where I know I can help the most is defensive. If I go forward, I can, but if I have to hold [back] then that’s fine too.
Q2: Do you have a pre-game ritual?
Shannon Boxx: Usually not the night before, it’s always on the day of the game. During the World Cup, and even when I played on my club team in New York, I always went out to breakfast on game days and got my banana pancakes and my coffee, a little coffee. The only other thing is I make sure I listen to a lot of music, make sure I braid my hair, that’s about it.
Q3: Where in the world do they make the best banana pancakes?
Shannon Boxx: When I lived in New York, it took me like half the season to find a good place, and once I found it I went every weekend. In California, Uncle Bill’s in Manhattan Beach is pretty dang good, and we’re going to be living close to there, so I’m pretty happy about that.
Q4: What do you think separates Team USA from your competition?
Shannon Boxx: We just have a determined winning mentality. No matter what we’re doing, whether it’s a training session or just a fun game, we have to win. You want to win. The girls on this team are just die-hard win, win, win and that’s how we play. You can see that when we’re out on the field, we want to goal, we’re a hundred percent out there.
Q5: What is your favorite aspect of the team?
Shannon Boxx: I think it’s just playing every day. There’s a lot of things that I love about being on this team. The camaraderie amongst everyone is awesome, we all get along. To be together for this long and still get along is amazing. I’ve never had that with a team. I also think that just being able to play with the best players in the world is amazing to me. I’m getting better every day because of that.
Q6: What one piece of advice would you give to an aspiring young girl who wants to be in the Olympics some day?
Shannon Boxx: What I always stuck to was hard work and determination, and in the end it pays off. You might not be the star that gets all the notice, but if you work hard, someone is eventually going to notice it.
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