Busy Summer for ISU Soccer Alums

AMES, Iowa?As the members of the 2009 Iowa State soccer team spent this summer training to run up and down the soccer field, three players from 2007 squad were busy preparing to walk down the aisle at their respective weddings.

For Brittanie Waddell, Maggie McManemin and Beth Passman this summer was much different than their summers spent training in Ames.

Brittanie Waddell, who married former Iowa State wide receiver Euseph Messiah, says playing soccer helped the couple meet.

“Euseph found my picture on the soccer poster my freshman year,” Waddell said. “He then pretended that he had to write a paper on the soccer team specifically as an excuse to meet me.”

For McManemin and Waddell, the Iowa State campus will always have an added significance as both their husbands proposed to them while in Ames.

“It was our last weekend together in Ames before 10 months of long distance,” McManemin said. “(Former ISU football player Dan Eaton) took me to dinner at my favorite Ames restaurant and then we went walking on central campus. We sat talking by the campanile until he got on one knee.”

“We were doing homework at my apartment,” Waddell said. “That night he kept asking me to get him water, Tylenol, food and a mess of other things. I finally started to get mad and chucked a water bottle at him. He said, ?will you do one more thing for me.' He then got down on one knee and asked me if I could make him the happiest man in the world and marry him.”

McManemin says she learned many life-long skills at Iowa State while being a student-athlete and juggling a committed relationship.

“It helped build character to go and study after practice or to travel when I knew I was missing something he would have liked for me to be at,” McManemin said.

Waddell echoes McManemin's sentiment.

“I think the hardest part about balancing everything was being able to know when to give up time towards the relationship for studying and other priorities that needed more attention,” she said. “We had a lot of dining hall dates because of how hectic our schedules were sometimes.”

The ISU soccer team starts the 2009 campaign Aug. 21 at Creighton at 7 p.m. The Cyclones then have a four-game homestand, starting Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. against South Dakota State.

Iowa State University Athletics

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