Catching up with Simone Egwu

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Sept. 20, 2012

Though practice does not officially start until Oct. 1, the Cavaliers have been in the gym working out and getting ready for the 2012-13 season. Senior center Simone Egwu took a few minutes before hitting the weight room to chat with Virginiasports.com, talking about her summer, her plans for the future, and her hopes for this season.

What did you do with your summer?
We were here working out as a team. I got to take a really awesome class called “Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Music Video.” We watched music videos and analyzed them. It was actually the most-fun class I have ever taken. We watched a wide variety of things from Annie Lennox to Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. We had a really great professor, Matt Jones, who really opened my eyes to the subtle stuff that goes on in the music industry, even outside of the stereotypical hip hop videos. The same kind of themes run through everything. That was really interesting.

Did you just take the one class?
I did have a second. I also took “Intro to Acting” with China [Crosby], which was very fun because we are both very dramatic, theatrical people. We really enjoyed it. We even got to work together on a scene. It was fabulous. One of our exercises was an open scene where he gave us the lines, but there were no stage directions and no context, so we needed to make it up as we went along. We designed it to be two friends who were going on a camping trip. Part of the class was getting to know your character and who they really were. So we made up an intense backstory about how one of them was the controlling roommate and the other person was upset when she couldn’t light the fire because she wanted to prove herself. It was very emotional, and Tony Award worthy.

And of course, there were the summer workouts. When did those begin?
We left for home when finals were over, early to mid-May, and came back the beginning of June. We started taking summer classes and working out pretty much the day we got back.
During the summer, we can work with our strength and conditioning coaches. We also do a lot of individual shooting and we might play pickup if we can get everyone together at the same time, but most of it is on our own. The most important part of the summer is getting to know one another again after we have had a break from the season and building chemistry. Everyone knows what workouts need to be done. As a fourth year, I just set the example. Pickup isn’t a joke. It is supposed to be fun, but it is very serious, studied fun.

What kind of classes are you taking now as a fourth-year?
I am actually done with my undergraduate major, which was government. I just started the accelerated masters of public policy program in the Batten School. It is intense! My friends think I don’t like them anymore, but it is actually that I am just doing homework. I will be working on my masters this year and will have one more year after this year. I am interested in foreign policy and development. I thought for awhile I might want to do civil rights law, but I think I might want to take some time off and possibly do some non-profit work before going to law school.

What is the one thing you would like to change for this season on the court?
I think the one thing I would most like to change this year is our focus and our consistency, which kind of run together. I think last year, adjusting to a new system, getting to know each other as players and coaches under a new system, sometimes you have a tendency to waver. This year, we have all adjusted. We are helping the first years adjust. We are much more goal-minded and really focused. I am really looking forward to how that is going to look on the court.

What are your personal goals in your final season as a Division I athlete?
I would love an ACC Championship and I would love to go to the tournament. I think those are both really attainable goals for us if we do everything we are supposed to do.