Goalkeeper Philip Tuttle

On The Clock With Philip Tuttle

Sept. 9, 2010

Goalkeeper Philip Tuttle is in his fifth year with the Irish men’s soccer team. Voted captain by his teammates for the 2010 season, Philip utilizes his leadership position to get the team motivated and ready to play before every game. As he begins his final year with the Irish, Philip sat down with UND.com to tell us more about himself as well as his experiences here at Notre Dame.

1. Who was your favorite soccer player growing up? My favorite soccer player was Oliver Kahn. He was the German national team goalie and when I was growing up he was the guy I tried to model my game after.

2. What is your favorite thing about your position as goalkeeper? I really enjoy the pressure of the situation…I don’t know if my mom enjoys it as much. She probably hates it a lot more than I do. I just really enjoy the pressure and being a leader back there and taking control of the whole team.

3. Why did you choose Notre Dame? I’m from New Hampshire so I considered a lot of east coast options and Ivy League schools. I came out here for a camp one summer for soccer and fell in love with the place.

4. As a finance major, what is your dream job or career? My dream job would be to play soccer and do something along the financial terms as well. I don’t know exactly what that is yet, maybe a financial advisor or something along those lines. I’d like to do a little bit of both.

5. Do you have a favorite game or moment since you’ve been playing here? Yeah, definitely when we played Louisville last year in the Big East semi-finals. I don’t know, I think I just blacked out during the game I guess. I played the game of my life so it was a big moment for me. Obviously it was a tough game. I actually broke my thumb during the game. I played with it because I didn’t know it happened but I wasn’t able to play in the championship game because of it. We won in a shoot-out and went all the way through.

6. Do you have any pre-game rituals? We all get together and do our prayers and I usually just get the team revved out. And for me, I do the whole captain thing and get something prepared to rev everybody up. It’s kind of my thing.

7. Do you have any hobbies aside from soccer? I played hockey all the way through high school. If it wasn’t soccer, I was going to go play hockey. It was big when I was growing up and my dad played soccer and hockey all the way though.

8. Where is your favorite place to vacation? For me, it’s going home. That’s my vacation. When I go home I just enjoy being there.

9. What is your favorite class that you’ve had here? I’m actually taking it right now. It’s an entrepreneurship class about alleviating poverty through business strategies. It’s a cool concept.

10. What is your favorite movie? I think my favorite movie would have to be “Miracle”, I really love that movie.

11. What are three words that describe you? The three words that best describe me are humble, loyal, and trustworthy.

12. What would you do with a million dollars? I’d give it to my parents for sure. All of it. They’ve paid for a lot of schooling, they deserve it.

13. If you could have a theme song when you walked into a room, what would it be? Probably something from the “Rocky” soundtrack. Probably “Eye of the Tiger”, I like that one. It gets me going, I guess I could walk in to that.

14. Are you a morning or a night person? I’m a night person for sure. I can’t do anything in the morning. I’m useless.

15. Have you ever played anything other than soccer? I’ve played just about everything. Hockey, baseball, basketball, snowboarding, just about everything. I had to try it all before I decided.

16. What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment? I think the first one would be getting in to Notre Dame. That was a big one. And getting named captain here was a huge achievement for me. It wasn’t something I was vying for. When your peers pick you out for something like that, it’s a big deal.

17. Where is your favorite place on campus? I like spending time in the Gug with my lifting coach Chris. He’s a good guy. When the whole team gets to be in there together, I really like that.

18. What dorms did you live in while on campus? My first year I lived in Keough, then I was in Saint Edwards. Now I live off campus.

19. Where is the coolest place you have traveled to for soccer? I’ve been a lot of places but going to England and London was a huge experience for me.

20. What are your favorite and least favorite things about Notre Dame? For me the whole team aspect has been great for me, going through the whole sports thing. Now I feel like I’m just way too old to be here, I’ve been here a little too long. But I don’t think anything really gets me about Notre Dame. I’ve really enjoyed my whole experience here. I think I was upset when I first got here because I wasn’t really playing much and that was a real set back for me. But as I went on I realized why I wasn’t playing and things slowly got better and better. I ended up right where I wanted to be.