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The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

Senior Spotlight: Most Eligible Players

By Nora Clancy

September finds goalkeeper Dan Schroeder, ’07 of Madison, WI and center defender Jeff Rogers, ’07 of Carson City, NE spending most of their time on Mac’s bright new turf. The roommates, both Physics majors, found time in their busy practice schedule for a morning chat in Kirk’s courtyard. They dished about their appetite for playing Washers on Bateman Plaza, confessed to a secret passion for singing duets, and extinguished their reputation as “unapproachable” soccer boys.
It seems like you’ve been friends forever. How did you meet?
Dan: We lived next door to each other on Turck 4, so it was really just a matter of time before we came together as one.
Jeff: Dan and I are pretty much, like, the same. All of Dan’s three classes this semester are with me. The thing that really brought us together more than soccer was Physics. We’ve taken pretty much every Physics class together and a ton of Math classes together.
What were you doing this summer? Were you together?
Jeff: We went to the USA vs. Czech Republic game together in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. It was just a blast.
Dan: I was in Hungary last semester studying abroad, so I took a train over to Germany and spent a month there for the World Cup.
What was the World Cup like?
Dan: It was just a big street party for a month. Every night people would be out in the streets, watching the games on huge screens, drinking and yelling and cheering for any country, it didn’t matter.
Who were you two cheering for?
Dan: I was supporting the United States as much as I could but they did not perform very well so I had to give up on that pretty quickly.
Jeff: My favorite game that I saw was Ghana vs. Czech Republic. I was strongly rooting for Ghana at that point. Of course they won, or else I would have switched to support the Czech Republic. I’m joking. I wanted to see an African teamget it. They were the best candidates.
Do you have any words to usher first years into the soccer tradition at Mac?
Jeff: I think the biggest thing I’d like to see from the first years is to come out and watch us play. I think we have a great soccer tradition at Macalester. The cheers are really fun.
Dan: We’re very approachable.
Jeff: Come on by and say hi, even if you think we’re unapproachable. There are some single guys on the team, too.
Dan: Single and ready to mingle!
How does it feel to be playing in your last soccer season at Macalester?
Dan: I do kind of have in the back of my mind that this is the last season of competitive soccer that I will ever play. Having played soccer for 16 years, that’s kind of weird.
Jeff: If we do well in the season we could go to nationals. But there’s an eventual limit. Right now my and the team’s goal is to play as many games as possible.
Jeff: I started when I was five. So most of my life have been devoted to soccer. You can’t get around soccer.
Besides the field, where is the most likely place to spot Dan and Jeff?
Jeff: Um I’d have to say Bateman Plaza. It’s just a really nice place. It’s a perfect spot to play Washers.
What is “Washers?”
Dan: The hottest new lawn game in the country. It’s a mix between horseshoes and beanbag toss. It’s about relaxing and taking your shoes off and spending time with friends.
Jeff: You throw big washers in to, um, holes on a board. Obviously to make it fun, we’ve added rules. We are actually on the Minnesota Washers Commission.
Who else is on the Commission?
Jeff: Tobin Kauffman-Osborne, ’07, Alan Ebongu, ’07, Dan and I.
So Bateman Plaza isn’t a place for sitting and mac-watching. It’s just a venue for Washers practice?
Jeff: Well no, we sit most of the time. We do everything at Bateman.
Dan: We play cribbage.
Jeff: Cards are really nice, too.

Jeff: Everyone passes through Bateman everyday so it’s perfect.
Have you picked out any new interesting passers-by yet?
Dan: Well we do attend Macalester College.
Jeff: There’s the skirt guy…
Dan: And the rainbow cowboy.
I’ve heard a rumor that you guys are great singers. Is that true?
Jeff: One of my favorite memories was singing “Lean on Me” incredibly loud in the road when we were walking to a party. Last year the entire soccer team all stood on this tiny table and sang “Wonderwall” together.
Dan: Jeff and I specialize in an amazing duet of Goodnight Sweetheart. We also like to say “the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!”
Jeff: We got in a lot of trouble for that, because our freshman year we announced our presence at every party by yelling that very extremely loudly. The upper classman said that if we ever said that again they would not let us in. And they were being serious. It’s our legacy. I don’t know why everyone hated it, though.
Dan: We were freshman.
What will the next year bring for you two?
Dan: I’ve really enjoyed being a student and I’m going to try to drag that out as much as possible. So I think I will go to grad school for physics, but I will take a year off before that and work and travel.
Jeff: I, too, am going to take a year off but I am thinking more and more about pursuing acupuncture as a career. It would require me to go to further education. If I were to choose right now, I would do a summer program in China to study Chinese medicine.

Dan: But we will plan to meet up. As Toni Morrison said, when you find a good friend, you can’t let go of that person. I actually thought of Jeff when she said that.

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