Oct. 13, 2003
1. Fullname: Melissa Palma Julie Tancredi
2. Birthdate: December 27, 1981
3. Hometown: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
4. Major: Arts & Letters Pre-Professional, Anthropology
5. Favorite Class: Introduction to Shakespeare
6. Hardest Class: Organic Chemistry
7. Game you are most looking forward to? Any game in the playoffs but mostly the Championship game.
8. How do you prepare for games? I am an extrovert so I tend to dance a lot and I get a little wild. I need to so I can get ready to go. Other than that I talk to myself alone in a corner of the locker room to prepare myself.
9.Your greatest personal athletic moment? Winning the Canadian National Championship for my province the year before I came to Notre Dame. I also won nationals that year with my club team as well.
10. Biggest reason that you came to Notre Dame? My parents love it. They pushed me to come here over some other schools. I mostly came here for academic purposes because you get the best of both worlds, academics and athletics.
11. If you could choose a cartoon character to describe yourself who would it be?The coyote. He always tries so hard all the time even if he doesn’t get good results. He is a little crazy and he is just goofy.
12. What area of your game are you working hardest to improve on? My consistency. I had some up-and-down games last year. The inconsistency does not give much to my team or to my confidence. Everything else just comes to me naturally.
13. What is your favorite Notre Dame athletics team other than your own? Football. We are in the weight room with them often and I admire their work ethic and attitude. You never can tell if they are winning or losing because it looks as if they are just doing their job.
14. What do you want to do after Notre Dame? I want to go to Chiropractor School and then into my own practice.
15. When I was younger I …always got myself into trouble. I was always in the principal’s office and I was always the first one to blame. It is sad because nothing has changed!
16. What is the best advice you have ever been given? “Never give up on your dreams for someone else because you never know what you will regret.” My mother told me that.
17. Who is your role model? My friend, Dan Greene, if you don’t know him, get to know him!
18. What do you attribute the success of this year’s soccer season towards? The growth of our team as a whole. We have been close the last few years and we have just not been living up to standards. The seniors are so hungry for it and the hunger has rubbed off all the way down to the freshman.
19. Describe yourself first as a person and then as a soccer player: As a person I am sarcastic, a little crazy, outgoing and loud, basically fun to be around. I am misunderstood all the time and I am a little intimidating. As a soccer player, I am physical, hardworking, strong and I can get a little angry at times. I have great presence in the air and I won’t give up on the ball. Even with mistakes I am trying to fix the situation and I am someone my teammates can trust.
20.If you were on an island and could only have one meal, only listen to one song and be with only one person for the rest of your life, what and who would you pick? My meal would be my Grandpa’s barbecued steak with my Grandma’s stuffed mushrooms and a Panera Fandango Salad. There is something about having a home cooked meal and it would make my time on the island more fun. My song would be “Would you Mind” by Janet Jackson. I choose that mostly because it would kill time and it is a good mood setter. I would want to spend my time with Lionel Richie because the man is so smooth! I could rub my hands threw his hair all day and if I get annoyed with my other song he could serenade me with one of his many hits including “Hello”!
Bonus: Being a past member of a Canadian National Team, describe the Canadians run through to the World Cup semifinals, and how your past experience with a national team has helped you develop as a player:
The Canadians run was amazing and was more than they could have asked for. It was a surprise to many people but those who know the players knew that they could compete at such a high level. Training with a national team helped me because they throw you into a team and expect success within a few short weeks. It helped me to adopt to different styles of play and to other types of players. The training exposed me to the next level of soccer. I saw first hand the speed and technical ability I need to achieve.