Category: Intros

Hello! My name is Kenneth Yunker and I was born and raised in Winston-Salem, NC. I am currently studying at Appalachian State university as a general History major with a minor in Psychology.

I grew up playing soccer recreationally originally for a small league known as Optimist Soccer, on a team where my father coached my brothers prior to coaching me. Eventually I moved into NC Fusion towards the pandemic and played with them until I aged out and began attending Appalachian State.

While I have played soccer for the majority of my life thus far, I actually do not know a lot of the sport at the professional level, which is part of the reason I took this course. I wanted to better verse myself in the sport I played for such a long time as well as seeing how it plays into history.

Whats up everybody! My name is Judah and I am double majoring in History/Social Studies Education and Spanish & Hispanic Studies. My hometown is Alexandria, Virginia about 15 minutes away from DC.

Ive been exposed/playing soccer for genuinely as long as I can remember. My whole extended family on my dads side all played (fun fact my dad scored on Tim Howard when they were playing youth ball). This is where my interest in Soccer stems from. I played competitively up until the end of my senior year of high school, and credit a lot of that experience to who/where I am today.

Sadly, I dont watch as much as I would like to but I try and catch as many games as possible, my favorite team being Borussia Dortmund – I actually got to go to the stadium this past summer.

Hometown: Mesa, Arizona

Major: History and Social Studies Education

Background: I am going to be completely honest when I say I have never watched a game of professional soccer in my life. I am an only child, but have grown up playing sports. I played softball for 10 years, I am a blackbelt in karate, and I was on my high schools varsity golf team. Soccer has never really been an interest of mine, mainly because I did not have any connection to the sport, until 6 years ago when I met my boyfriend. He played soccer even longer than I played softball, and was on his high schools varsity team all four years. He has talked about it so much in the past 6 years of our relationship, that my interest has blossomed. Now, his little brother plays soccer and I love going and watching their games (even though they are 7 years old and don’t really know what they’re doing). I am very excited to broaden my horizons of sports history and to learn how my boyfriends favorite sport has come to be where it is now! Below is a picture of what I believe to be the coolest looking logo (from my hometown), Dr. Sibaja said the other day how he thought one logo was the coolest, so I wanted to share mine.

Hometown: Holly Springs, NC

Major: Applied & Public History

About: I grew up playing soccer in recreation and club leagues, so my understanding of soccer comes more from playing rather than watching. However, I came of age in an excellent time for US women’s soccer. While I don’t typically follow the sport, I do enjoy watching the NC Courage. Fun fact, I’ve run into Abby Dahlkemper in a Trader Joe’s!

Hometown: Holly Springs, NC

Major: History

My name is Danielle DeBone, and I have a strong interest in history and sports, which is what drew me to this class. However, my soccer knowledge is quite poor. I grew up in the Bay Area, surrounded by baseball, which sparked my interest in sports at a young age. As I have gotten older, I have gained more of an appreciation for sports on a global level. With this being, I also love being outdoors and travelling. The picture I have chosen is of San Francisco, which is where my love for sports started.

Winchester: U.S

History Ed major

About me, I grew up with soccer around me but it never really stick with me. I played a lot of baseball and my family play college football and were vary successful. when I was little all I knew about soccer was what my friends talked about so knew about Messi being in my mind one of the best soccer players.

Hometown: Brevard, NC

Major: History Multi-Disciplinary w/Concentration in Education

About: Full transparency, I know very little about the sport of soccer. I love sports in general, Baseball, Basketball, Football, and can talk extensively about all of them. However, soccer is a sport I lack any extensive knowledge in. So, one of my biggest reasons for participating in this class is to step out of my comfort zone of things I’m interested in and try to learn something new. I live with 7 other guys who all adore soccer, up early for Premier League matches Saturday and Sunday mornings, and their love for the game has definitely begun to wear off on me. The 2022 World Cup is the first time I began to watch soccer and genuinely care about the game. So my goal for this class is to grow in my historical knowledge of the sport in order to more enjoy the upcoming games happening this Summer.

Hometown: Lincoln, England

Major: Exercise science

About: My interest about soccer is from my up bringing, as i am from England it is the main sport played and talked about therefore I grew up playing it. I typically call the sport football but have adapted to calling it soccer whilst out here in America.