Katie Trees Senior Profile

DURHAM, N.C. -- Recently, GoDuke.com sat down with senior Katie Trees to learn more about the San Diego, Calif. native.

GoDuke.com: What has been your favorite place to travel to with soccer?
Katie Trees: I would probably have to say when we went to California, just because I'm from there. I got to see a lot of different family members, not just my immediate family, and even some good family friends that came up to watch me play. That was definitely a highlight because it's really hard to get more than my parents out here just because it's a really long trek. Also when we were at Miami my sophomore year, we got to go to a really cool restaurant, I forget what it was called. We ate these meals and these desserts that were out of control. Cassie Pecht had an old coach who paid for our entire meal and it was really extravagant.

GoDuke.com: How has the experience of playing two different sports at Duke been?
KT: Phenomenal is the first word that comes to mind when I think about it. Obviously I've had a run of it with different injuries and people are always asking me how I work so hard and then go to lacrosse and you have to start all over when the season rolls around. Being in-season all year-round definitely takes its toll. You don't get weekends off. But I've been able to build so many relationships with different young girls, because each year you get a new crop coming in. And being a part of two sports that I absolutely love and have loved my whole life it keeps it fresh and it keeps me enjoying and loving each sport. It's a way to go after two national championships; you get two opportunities to bring it home.

GoDuke.com: What is a road trip memory you will always carry with you?
KT: I think going to the national championship. That was the best road trip ever. We really bonded because we had to drive there but it was a depressing bus ride back. But the ride there was very cool and you are spoiled and pampered.

GoDuke.com: What is one lesson you have learned from playing soccer that you will use throughout the rest of your life?
KT: I think that there are a ton of lessons that you get with playing sports. But the discipline instilled into you that it's not about you anymore: it's about a university, it's about a team. I think with successful teams everyone has to have a selfless personality and really wants to be in it for the team. I think that play or not play, you really need to be all in it and I think that is something you would never really find if you didn't play a sport or weren't on the team because you really have to put everything in there to hopefully bring the wins home.

GoDuke.com: What has been your proudest academic achievement at Duke?
KT: It will be if I pass this Econ class this semester. Or if I graduate.

GoDuke.com: Do you have a favorite class or professor at Duke?
KT: I have a couple. Professor Morris, he's a big advocate for athletics, and he teaches a Pub Pol course: The Future of the Republican Party. He's a great professor. He really makes it about the students and the class. He loves the lacrosse team and loves soccer, too, and is always asking about the athletes. One class I got to listen to a prostitute come in and speak to us in our morals and ethics class, which is a part of the Pub Pol major, so that was pretty interesting. That guy was a character. I have so many. Professor Fritz Meyer is also really cool and intelligent. He taught a Story in Narrative class that taught you how to write your own story and actively promote yourself in a positive manner and what's the best way to do that.

GoDuke.com: What do your teammates mean to you?
KT: I'm always saying this in practice that they are all my best friends. We've had a bit of a struggle so far in the season but I'm a big advocate of just sticking together. Even if you put aside the soccer, they are my best friends and same goes for the lacrosse team. I would pretty much go to bat for any of them and I think that just by being with each other more than three hours a day, undoubtedly you're going to make some friends. Most everyone says Audrey Gibson and I are like sisters and that we fight like sisters, too, but we always are able to move on to the next one. You really just build unbreakable bonds and great relationships. They mean everything and I truly want the best for everyone regardless of what that looks like for myself.

GoDuke.com: What will you miss the most in soccer, on campus, and in Durham?
KT: If you had asked me this my freshman year I would have said I can't wait to get back to San Diego. But I will miss so much, it's so depressing. Thank goodness I played two sports, that's all I have to say. If this season was over now I would feel like, “What am I going to do with my life?” But I know what I am going to do next year, and I think that has really opened up my eyes with my summer experience and my internship of what the real world is like, and it's great you get a paycheck. But there's nothing like this. There is nothing that affords you the opportunity to come out to practice three hours a day and work really hard for something that is so above yourself. You are at a great institution, a top ten institution and a top soccer team, and you're competing at a level greater than yourself. You don't just get three hours a day to hang out with your best friends and say hi to them whenever you want at water breaks or whatever. This is the life. Duke and the real world are a lot different.

#GoDuke

Players Mentioned

Audrey Gibson

Cassie Pecht

Katie Trees

Duke information