University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Dani Murguia
August 16, 2019 | Soccer, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Dani Murguia spent a big chunk of her childhood in a car, somewhere on the long stretches of road between her hometown of Cleburne, Texas, and the Fort Worth suburb of Frisco. That sentence feels a bit like the opening line of a Lyle Lovett song.
Day after day after day for six years, the Georgia women's soccer sophomore traveled with her mom to and from Frisco, more than two hours each way, for club team practices and games. Murguia, who started 13 games as a freshman last season, is effectively impervious to the discomfort that sometimes comes with road trips.
During a Quick Chat before practice Thursday, she talked about her demanding schedule growing up, missing the big tornado that passed through her hometown in May 2013, "Harry Potter," wanting to be a pediatric psychiatrist and much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: As you sit here on the brink of your sophomore season, what do you know now, as a player or just a college student, that you wish you'd known 12 months ago?
Murguia: I really wish I would have known how to manage my time better and to just write everything out, my daily schedule. Even though we have it in our Teamworks app every day, it's really nice for me, personally, to have it written out on my daily calendar. It really helps me remember what I have to do.
I also really wish I would have known how physical SEC play was going to be (laughs). I definitely would have tried to up the weights a little bit more in the summer.
Frierson: How big of an eye-opener was that when you got to conference play?
Murguia: It was definitely big. It wasn't exactly our first SEC game, it was against Mizzou, in our second SEC game, and I just got trucked on a corner (kick). It was like, wow, and this was in the first five minutes of the game. I wasn't expecting it to be so physical already, so I just wish I'd prepared myself better physically for that.
Frierson: What movie have you seen more than any other?
Murguia: Any of the "Harry Potter" movies — I could probably recite almost every line in all of those (laughs).
Frierson: Is there one of those that's your favorite?
Murguia: "Order of the Phoenix," definitely.
Frierson: Have you read all the books, as well?
Murguia: I have.
Frierson: Given your age, did those books have an impact on your appreciation for reading? I'm guessing those were some of the first novels you ever read just for the fun of it.
Murguia: They definitely were the first novels that I read; I remember being in fifth grade when I started them and thinking, wow, these are super long and really wordy. My brothers read them when they were in high school and I was in elementary, and I kind of copied everything they did. And I ended up really liking those books.
Frierson: When you think of home, when you think of Cleburne, what comes to mind?
Murguia: Food (laughs), I really miss the food from home. Obviously my family, too, my niece and nephews are there, my parents — it's hard being away, so far away, but even just getting to FaceTime them every once in a while is really nice.
Frierson: Considering all the traveling you and your mom had to do for years to and from club practice and games, and all the effort and time that went into helping you become the best player you could be, does that level of commitment, looking back, ever amaze you?
Murguia: Yes, sir, it really does. Now when I'm driving to the (Turner Soccer Complex), I'll think something like, oh, shoot, I only have 15 minutes to get to the complex. I would have had to leave an hour and 45 minutes ago to be at my club practice.
Or I'll be in my bed at maybe 10:30 or just doing homework and I'll think about the fact that there were definitely those good six years when I would still be in the car up until 11:30 or midnight sometimes.
It amazes me but it also makes me really grateful, thinking about everything that my parents did just so I could be able to play club.
Frierson: I'm guessing it also made college road trips seem like a piece of cake for you. You got more room on those big buses than you did in your mom's car.
Murguia: It's definitely not bad at all. We had a game this past spring, it was about a two-and-a-half-hour drive; everyone was like, that's a long way to drive there and back in one day, but I was like, that's nothing.
Long drives are definitely something I'm used to. Any time I have to drive to Atlanta I'm like, that's not that far.
Frierson: What do you remember about the huge tornado that hit Cleburne in May 2013?
Murguia: I remember it was me and my mom in the car and for some reason, my brother and my sister-in-law came with us that practice ... and I just remember on the way back seeing on this giant billboard "Tornado Warning." I started freaking out immediately, and we were still in Dallas, about an hour and 20 minutes away from where I lived.
We stopped every 20 minutes on the way home at gas stations, but everything was really like ... it just wasn't a safe area. So we kept just slowly trying to get home and ... I remember getting home around 1, I think, and see our neighbors' big tree just toppled into the street. It was like, OK, there was actually a tornado here. I remember the next few days we didn't have school because of all the damage.
Frierson: Were you grateful to have been out of town, doing that long drive for club soccer, while all that was going on?
Murguia: Very grateful; I hate tornadoes. I love thunderstorms and stuff, but anything really severe and major freaks me out.
Frierson: If you could go anywhere in the world on somebody else's dime, where would you like to go and who would you take with you?
Murguia: I would take my best friend, Daria, and I'd probably want to go ... oh, shoot, that's so hard ... I would say Italy, anywhere in Italy.
Frierson: The women's basketball team just got back from their little tour of Italy, so maybe that's something the soccer team needs to try to put together.
Murguia: I know, one of my friends is on the basketball team and I really wanted to sneak into her suitcase.
Frierson: In a perfect world, what are you doing 10 years from now.
Murguia: I'd probably be doing what I plan to do now: I really plan to be a pediatric psychiatrist. I really love kids and I want to help them in a way, like my parents helped me, I guess. My parents were always there for me throughout every problem that I had, with school or recruiting, they were always making sure I was OK.
Some kids don't necessarily have that voice for them and I want to advocate and help them when things are bad or through any other stressful situations.
Frierson: That's wonderful. When did that become your goal?
Murguia: Actually pretty recently. I didn't really know what I wanted to do — I came in wanting to major in business and then I realized I just really hate math (laughs), so it definitely wasn't the route for me. And I didn't really know what I was going to do with that degree.
I thought about it and my best friend and I talked about it. She kind of helped me figure it out; she was like: you love kids and you like things related to psychology and any kind of anxiety disorders. She really thought I could do it and I thought about it and talked to my parents, and then I decided that was the best way for me to go.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
