Amanda Banner left Egg Harbor City for upstate New York to continue her education and play soccer at Elmira College a few months ago. The former Cedar Creek High School standout recently completed her freshman season as the Soaring Eagles’ starting goalie. Banner made 13 starts, registered two shutouts and had 84 saves in her debut campaign. Glory Days Magazine Managing Editor Giuseppe Ungaro caught up with the former Pirates goalie, double major and Mark Twain Scholar to talk about life on the Elmira campus, the soccer season and academics. Ungaro: How is your first semester going? Banner: It’s awesome. I love it. Everything is going really well. Ungaro: So has it exceeded expectations? Banner: It definitely exceeded expectations. The team has been amazing. It’s like a family. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought it would be more competitive with each other, but it’s not like that at all.”amanda banner elmira college for web Ungaro: Are you happy with the way you played? Banner: I’m always hard on myself and there is always room for improvement. I did fairly well. I started and I was third in the conference of all goalies. I’m only a freshman so I’m proud of myself. But there is room for improvement. Ungaro: Did playing at Cedar Creek prepare you for college? Banner: I definitely think coach (Megan Hallman) helped be out. She was a great player in college and she coached us like we were in college. It made me more prepared for a higher intensity. Ungaro: What is your favorite class? Banner: Definitely Foundations of Education. I’m a double major (concentration in history) and I like my education courses. Ungaro: What do you like about history? Banner: I like everything about it. I love learning everything that happened in the past. I loved my history teachers and want to be one. Ungaro: What do you like about the Elmira campus? Banner: It’s small. Cedar Creek is small and this campus is very small. I love it. Everyone knows everyone. We are close-knit. I love the small campus. Ungaro: Is there a specific place you hang out on campus? Banner: Well, we go where all the upperclassmen live. They live in the Towers. I can’t wait until next year to live there so we can all hang out at the Towers. Ungaro: What do you do when you’re not in class? Banner: Study. It’s a really big workload. The library is my second home. We joke around that if we are not in class or on the field we are in the library. They’re the places we live. We are constantly at the library. Ungaro: What do you do for fun? Banner: We hang out in the Towers and the girls are crazy. We are always entertaining ourselves. Ungaro: The season just ended. When do you begin getting ready for next year? Banner: We have a week off and then we begin the offseason. In the winter it is lifting weights and then we have the spring offseason. We have one week off and that’s it. Know a former athlete who is competing at the college level you’d like to see featured in “On campus with”? Email suggestions to Giuseppe Ungaro at gungaro@acglorydays.com.