Cydney Niedermeyer, junior biology major, discovered her love of soccer at a young age, and her talent for the game has grown ever since.
“When I was 3, I started playing, and my dad was actually my coach,” she said. “It was just something that I picked up and stuck with.”
Niedermeyer didn’t come from a family of soccer players like some athletes, but was introduced to the sport when her father first began coaching her team.
“He played every sport growing up but soccer. So it was kind of ironic, but it worked out.”
But Niedermeyer’s talent didn’t end with soccer. The Fort Meyers native played four years of soccer, volleyball and softball at Riverdale High School.
Niedermeyer is not only an exceptional athlete but also an exceptional student. Along with her biology majors, she is pursuing minors in exercise science and theater.
I got the opportunity to sit down with Niedermeyer and ask her a few questions.
What do you plan to do with a biology major?
“I would like to be an orthodontist.”
How do you balance being a student athlete and being a biology major?
“Biology definitely is a difficult major, probably one of the hardest here, but it’s all about time management. I still have a social life sometimes, but soccer and school are the main priorities. Just the other day I had to miss class for a game, so it’s important to have a good relationship with your professors and know what’s in your schedule — knowing when your assignments are due and doing them before the actual due date. No procrastination can be done when you’re a student athlete.”
Why did you choose to take a theater minor?
“My best friend AK [Amanda Kopale], who is actually the goalie on the team, took some theater classes with me my freshman year and her sophomore year. She kind of convinced me to do it. She was a double major in theater and exercise science, so she peer-pressured me into taking it with her. It’s all just for fun, really.”
When you’re not playing soccer or studying, what are you doing?
“Probably watching Netflix. We hang out with the team a lot, too, in my room or outside. I really love watching Starz, so something like that. Other than that, we try to go the beach, but that doesn’t happen a lot, it’s pretty rare. I just try to hang out with friends a lot.”
What’s been your best experience playing with NSU so far?
“Probably meeting all of the girls who we have on the team. Every year, it’s a new friendship or a new sisterly bond. And this year is probably the biggest one we’ve had. In the past, we’ve been a team, but we couldn’t find the thing that just clicked, and this year we finally found it, and we’re on a winning streak of six games. The best thing is really coming to this school and having people that support you on and off the field.”
The team has a very strong winning streak going so far. Do you have any rituals you perform to get you ready before a game?
“Our team is very superstitious, actually. We changed the warm up yesterday; it didn’t affect our play, but everyone was like ‘Oh my gosh, we don’t do that.’ We’re all just really superstitious.”
How do you guys celebrate a good goal or a big win?
“Goal-wise, we usually just hug everybody.”
Is there a specific soccer player you look up to or try to model your playing style after?
“Julie Johnston is probably the one who inspires me the most. In college, she played for the U.S. National Team, and she still plays with them. She was looked down upon, she didn’t really have the ‘Oh, I’m going to make it mentality,’ and now she’s probably one of the biggest center backs in the entire nation, and everybody knows who she is. So that’s a really cool story for her; I feel that way, too, sometimes.”
What are your expectations for the team as you try to finish out the season?
“We definitely have high expectations now. Conference Champs is up there. We are going to make it to the National Tournament; we don’t know if we’re going to be National Champions, but we’re going to make it there. Conference Champs is first, and then we’ll see how the rest of it goes.”
