On July 10th, Write on Sports interviewed Chris Finke of Notre Dame. He is a wide receiver for the Fighting Irish’s football team, but also has an interesting history with his football career.
Finke played football in high school, and was scouted by a few universities, but not Notre Dame. However, when one of his best friends was scouted out by Notre Dame’s football coach, Brian Kelley, Finke was told that he could try to join the team as a walk-on. Finke made it. He continued to play and was offered a full scholarship in 2017. Since he decided to get his Masters degree at Notre Dame as well, Finke is ready to start his fifth year playing football with the Irish.
Since there is big pressure playing as a Notre Dame football player, Finke said that preparation before a game is really important. He said that visualizing all of his plays going perfectly can help calm him, as well as praying and listening to music. His favorite home game tradition is the walk the team makes, where Finke says, he gets to see his family, and them saying good luck also helps. At away games, of course, they can’t do the walk, but Finke says that eating breakfast with the whole team, and coaches going through meetings with the team is also important. With bowl games, Finke says the team travels a week early and practices, which is always very fun.
During his free time, which is not much – Finke says he practices one and a half to three hours a day during the summer, and five to six per day in season, plus adding school work to that – Finke says he sometimes works with a friend who started a t-shirt company, Jake Max Apparel. However, this is not the only part of it – all of the clothing is designed by special needs people. Finke says he also watches some other Notre Dame sports, his favorites being basketball and hockey.
Chris Finke is definitely one of the best players on the team, and it is extremely interesting to realize what people of that caliber in a sport do.
Write on Sports -Anton Alstrom