Tulane Soccer Alum ‘Leaves a Little More’ Through Book Release

Samantha Cronin with her book "Leave a Little More"

***The following is a Question and Answer session with Samantha Cronin, who has published a picture book "Leave a Little More". Cronin was a member of the 2005 Tulane women's soccer program that was displaced by Hurricane Katrina for its entire fall campaign. Cronin stayed in New Orleans to complete her education with the Green Wave and graduated in 2009. You can learn more about her book (and purchase it) at www.leavealittlemore.com.***

TulaneGreenWave.com: Samantha, please introduce yourself to our readers!

Samantha Cronin: My name is Samantha Cronin and I'm married to Sam Cronin. We currently live in Raleigh, North Carolina with our three young kids: Levi, Holden and Penelope. I grew up in North Carolina and started playing soccer when I was five years old. I was the youngest of three children in my family so I always just wanted to do what my older siblings were doing. I think I wore my older brother's uniform when I started out, just to feel extra cool at practice. I played competitively through the club side all the way through high school and then, of course at Tulane for the 2005 season. I was a recruited walk-on there and was so excited to be part of that team. There was part of me that wasn't sure if college soccer was going to be in the cards for me and I was thrilled that it was able to, first, work out and, second, have it be at Tulane, which was such a tremendous academic institution. My mother went to Tulane as well so the Green Wave was always on my radar.

TGW: Would you take us back to 2005 and your experience at Tulane?

SC: My freshman year, 2005, was when Hurricane Katrina hit. That summer, leading into the fall, I was so focused on soccer. We had a pretty intense summer fitness program that was sent to us, so I spent most of that summer running … a lot. I wanted to come into preseason as fit as possible. For me, coming there from out of state, and as a freshman, it was a whole new world in terms of being independent, being that far from home and not really knowing anyone else going to Tulane. I had met a couple of my teammates on visits but on the whole, it was an exciting adventure filled with lots of unknowns. Those first few weeks were really about training and getting to know the team and starting to feel socially settled. I think that's one of the greatest gifts of being part of any team, especially when you're starting a new chapter … to have that sense of belonging and structure. People you may not have a lot in common with, inherently, share this common focus and goal. I believe there were seven of us in that freshman class and we all became super close. It was almost impossible not to.

TGW: Are the memories of the day that Katrina made landfall still incredibly vivid or is it almost a blur this many years later?

SC: They are still pretty vivid. We were due to host a preseason tournament when Katrina hit. We were sleeping over at an upperclassman's house when we woke up and learned that the storm had developed and grown into a Category 5. At the time, I was relatively naive to hurricanes, growing up in the foothills of North Carolina, away from the coast. It just wasn't something that I had ever really experienced first-hand and I was still young at 18 years old. At that point, I certainly didn't really grasp how truly serious the situation could be.

We reported to the Wilson Center that morning and saw other athletes there and it became pretty clear that we were going to have to leave. That also happened to be move-in weekend for the rest of Tulane's students so they were able to turn around and leave with their parents. We, as student-athletes, who had already been on our own for a while, weathered the evacuation together. Sharing that experience, you couldn't appreciate it at the time, but it was the beginning of a unique journey we were put on together as athletes.

We evacuated together to Mississippi and I have distinct memories of sitting on a cooler on a bus that we were all crammed onto. It was so hot. We were on the bus for at least 10 hours. We ended up staying at Jackson State University for a week or so, sleeping on the gym floor. I remember that I brought a blanket from my dorm room and some clothes to train in and we all just tried to keep things as normal as possible.

As the news broke about the levees and the situation in New Orleans, we just found ourselves in this unknown state of waiting for information and in a holding pattern. That said, we remained focused on doing what we knew was comfortable and that was soccer. We continued to train throughout all of the unknowns and the developing story. The one concrete piece that we could all hang onto was that we were going to find a way to still be a team and work toward this tangible goal that can ground us. We kept practicing through all of that and ended up in Alabama where we were scheduled to play a few games.

Finally, we got word that we were going to be relocating to Texas A&M for the fall to compete as Tulane, but based there. Once we got there, that was, again, a wild ride. In hindsight, I appreciate so much what that experience offered in terms of our ability to bond together. We were just taking things day by day: to do well in school, to train well and to be focused on soccer. And we wanted to have fun, too. It was our college experience and we wanted to enjoy it as much as we could. And honestly, we did. We had a lot of good times, though perhaps not the best season, in terms of our record. I could probably talk forever about the life lessons, memories and foundation of friendship that was built during that time.

TGW: How did you handle the news that Tulane would not continue sponsoring soccer beyond the 2005 season?

SC: Ultimately, soccer was not able to be part of Tulane's future and that was another period of adjustment, from an identity perspective, and figuring out how to orient myself moving forward. I made the decision that I wanted to stay at Tulane, even without soccer. That was a difficult decision, but there was so much that I valued about Tulane, not only from an academic standpoint, but to also be in an iconic city like New Orleans. I really wasn't looking to start over. I decided I wanted to grow more within Tulane and see where that led me.

TGW: What were your plans upon graduation?

SC: I graduated in 2009 and pursued the business route through the AB School of Business, with a Marketing and Management degree, and went on to begin my career in the advertising world. That has taken lots of twists and turns, including a stint at Google, and has ultimately landed me where I presently am, which is working in publishing by day at a literary agency and pursuing my own creative dreams of writing on the side, which is what brought me to this project.

TGW: Tell us a little about your family.

SC: My husband also grew up in North Carolina and we met in high school. We are high school sweethearts, which is adorable and ridiculous all at the same time. We definitely share a love of soccer. He was one of five kids in his family and his siblings were all pretty crazy about sports too.

He went to Wake Forest University and played soccer all four years there. They have a fantastic program there and they actually won the national championship during his junior season when he was a captain. He graduated from Wake in 2008 and was taken No. 2 overall in the Major League Soccer Draft and went on to play professionally for nearly a decade for various teams (Toronto FC, San Jose Earthquakes, Colorado Rapids and, briefly, Minnesota United). His time in the MLS was a special for a lot of reasons, especially as we started our family during those years. He is now retired from soccer and moving into the next phase of his career, which is commercial real estate. We are also beginning to navigate the parenting side of soccer as our children embark upon their own journeys with it, which we hope we're not forcing upon them. It's been so fun to watch them discover the sport and explore all that it has to offer.

TGW: When did you make the decision to pursue this project?

SC: After we had our first child, I decided to step back from my role as a Global Product Lead in the tech sector to focus on family life, which, due to my husband's soccer career at the time, had a lot of moving parts (literally, we moved a lot). I also wanted to create more space to pursue a lifelong dream of writing, especially as it relates to picture books. We were living in Denver at the time all of these changes were happening for me professionally. Somehow, the stars aligned and I started working part-time at a literary agency in the area, which allowed me to immerse myself in the publishing space and begin to understand the industry a little more … all while still having flexibility to be present for my family. I also began signing up for picture book workshops in the area, and ultimately the idea for this manuscript was born at one of those workshops.

I am definitely not an artist, so I wrote the manuscript for this project and then ended up shelving it for a while because life got a little crazy. My husband was unexpectedly traded to Minneapolis and we had just had our second child. Fast forward to Fall of 2019: we relocated to Raleigh, had our third child and my husband, having recently retired from professional soccer, began his new career. We were just getting settled into this new phase of life and then COVID and the pandemic happened.

During that time, I was connecting with a dear friend, Tacey Hesmer. We share a lot of common ground, including in the world of creativity and soccer. She is an amazing Raleigh-based artist and has three children as well. Her husband William also played soccer at Wake Forest and played goalkeeper in the MLS for about 10 years. Tacey and I were chatting one day and I shared my idea about this manuscript. During that conversation, she said that she had actually illustrated a picture book recently and would love to do it again, plus she really believed in the message of the book. We thought, "What better time to try to do something positive than this dark, isolating time brought on by the pandemic"?

We began meeting every other week or so, on her porch (over a socially distanced glass of wine, of course) to start bringing our story to life. We spent a lot of time dreaming and sketching out what the creative identity of this book would be. Ultimately, things snowballed and got us to where we are today. The book is called Leave a Little More. It's targeted to ages 1-7. But honestly, I wrote it as much toward that age group as I did myself as a 35-year old grownup.

The essence of the book is all about empowering kids, as well as adults, to celebrate the reality that every day we make a series of choices that, while feeling very ordinary at the time, actually help make the world a little different and better than before. You don't necessarily need to start a foundation or go on a mission trip or have some groundbreaking research to leave the world better. You're actually doing that every single day through the little things that you do. That's the takeaway.

TGW: And there is a charity component, as well?

SC: We spoke with the United States Soccer Foundation and brought them on as our charitable partner. Their mission is to provide underserved communities access to innovative play spaces and evidence-based soccer programs that instill hope, foster well-being and help youth achieve their full potential. For us, having such a personal connection to the sport of soccer and seeing, first-hand, what a positive outlet that sport possesses, it felt like a natural tie-in with the theme of our book. A portion of the profits will go directly to the Foundation to help them inspire kids to live more empowered lives on and off the field.

TGW: Were you able to stay close with your Tulane teammates?

SC: Definitely. After Katrina, I chose to stay (at Tulane), but some of my teammates chose to pursue opportunities at other institutions. In end, though, almost our entire freshman class ended up back at Tulane, together. One of us finished up at LSU, which was so close by, it felt like we were all together again. To me, that is a really powerful illustration of our bond. It was not how any of us expected our experience at Tulane to unfold, in that soccer wasn't part of the long haul. But our friendships were paramount and, to this day, we still text on a daily basis and get together at least once a year even though we live all over the country. It was also wonderful to be reunited with the entire team back in 2015 for our Hall of Fame induction. Several of my former teammates have purchased copies of the book since it released, too, and that is super meaningful.

Tulane is an amazing school and has such a unique, rich culture. I got a fantastic education there, which has played a huge role in getting me to where I am today. Overall, I'm just really grateful for it all. Roll Wave!

To learn more about what Samantha and Tacey are up to and to purchase a copy of Leave a Little More, please visit http://www.leavealittlemore.com. You can also follow along on Instagram at @leavealittlemore.

Tulane Soccer Alum ‘Leaves a Little More’ Through Book Release

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