Fuller Reflections

The third of my biennial articles about my friend Harry Fuller’s time at Cornell University was supposed to be the definitive summary of four years in the United States, reflecting on the experiences of balancing a challenging degree with big commitments on the sports field over the course of a high intensity season and a clear view of what the next route was afterward.

It is certainly clearer than it has been in the past, as an array of decisions, events and experiences have tempered dreams of a career in the Major League Soccer (MLS) with opportunities in a career in his degree of environmental engineering beginning to take on a clearer shape. Nevertheless, things are far from over on the footballing front for this Englishman in New York.

Whilst he accepts he “would need to play unreal for a full season” to go fully professional, he will look to “apply for jobs in areas where I’d be able to play in the conference at the same time” or the equivalent in the USA. Whilst he is not solely focussed on it, “my career on the academic side is my priority,” and he won’t go chasing professional football “unless I got in the [MLS] draft.”

All work and no play

Circumstances in the Summer of 2019 began a shift in Harry's hopes of what to take from his experience in the United States, his desk at an internship at PespiCo pictured here

It was soon after our last interview in 2019 when things began to move in this direction for Fuller, with a successful work placement at PepsiCo as “a sustainable plastic packaging intern…working out strategies to further implement recycling technologies” and promoting “consumer engagement” in the company’s approach to sustainability.

Meanwhile, his chance to play at Manhattan Soccer Club was blighted by restrictions on overseas players which meant he was unable to actually play matches, instead just training with them for three to four weeks.

It was an intense period in which “he would have to get up at 6:30, get picked up at 6:45, get to work at 8:30…workout before” at Pepsi’s office gym, and after a full day of work he would often train “till 9, get the subway home from training. So I’d be getting home and cooking dinner at 10/10:30 and getting in bed at 11/11:30 to get up at 6:30.”

I suggest that the full-on nature of the previous season combined with this summer contributed to another season that started well but seemed to tail off for him, but he disagrees, weekends spent on Long Island with his girlfriend being “relaxing enough” to allow for a refreshing Summer. The ability for me to find excuses so much more easily than him probably explains why he’s had so much more success on the sports field, and why I could be made for a career in the media.

“The best moment” in a perfect start

The day after earning the Ivy League Player of the Week award, Fuller struck the winner from the spot against Siena College with his fourth goal of the season

Instead, Harry looks to “the season itself” to explain why things didn’t quite work out as planned again. Despite a hamstring injury giving his season something of a false start as he ended up on the bench for the opening game, an impressive performance there helped him establish his place in the team in the early part of the season.

 In his first start a stunning goal from outside the area helped them earn an impressive win – described even by Cornell’s own website as an “upset” – away at Michigan State, with Fuller describing it as “the best moment of my athletic career to date”. Using the word ‘athletic’ instead of ‘sporting’ just one of many Americanisations that have entered Fuller’s vocabulary as well as a slight, but noticeable, change in his accent.

Nevertheless, I’m reminded of his British roots when in discussing a 2-0 win against Canisius, which earned him Ivy League Player of the Week, he clarifies that “admittedly” one of the two goals he scored “was a penalty”. The same British sporting humility that meant he described his goal against Michigan as only “a bit” of a “lethal strike”, presumably rather than an entirely lethal strike, the latter of which would have been a fair description having since seen the goal myself.

A dip in form

The victory against Akron was good statistically for Fuller, but ultimately proved to be a turning point for his form in the 2019 season

This humility seems to appear again when he states that against Akron “I actually got two assists but played really badly…I was so shown up defensively and got taken off absolutely exhausted.” Indeed however, this was unfortunately where things began to tail off, not just for him but the team, who once again seemed “to choke up” in their more pressurised – but arguably easier – Ivy League games after shining in the less pressurised national ranking games that start the season off.

 “It an attitude thing, [the attacking players] especially look so stiff” and this, combined with academic challenges meant the season “petered out.” It’s “a weird feeling that I’ll never miss” in sport “being in a really good place, physically, form-wise, and feeling like it’s gone.”

“I’m supposed to be working with a sports psychologist next year” though he would have been expecting that to be this year, before Covid not only interrupted winter training and their pre-season preparation, but stopped the entire 2020 season from taking place.

Covid and beyond

A special rule that allows engineering students to complete their undergraduate degree in the first term of a fifth year – which Fuller will follow-up with a masters he had always planned to do – means that Covid has fortunately not killed off his university footballing career entirely, and the interruption may ultimately have positive effects for the team.

Himself, the coaches and the team have learnt lessons while reflecting in the time off, and one benefit for Harry in particular has been the recognition by his coaches that they were previously expecting a defensive work rate which is incompatible with his attacking work rate, and learning how to balance that.

He believes that “collectively we’ve got enough to win the league” in 2021, given “we’ll be better next year than we were last year” and if the lessons are implemented the team will be real contenders. Individually, if he is able to see the aforementioned psychologist, he is confident next year will be his “best season”, and the lessons he learns may even help with wider problems in the team related to the nerves that come with the Ivy League.

Disappointingly, a chance to play with Manhattan Soccer Club where he had “actually had a spot on the team” this time around was stopped by Covid. The balance shifting towards work further with Harry using the time to do an unpaid online internship to gain more work experience.

It is a combination of this and recognition of the extent of the way his form and confidence goes in highs and lows that have made him reach the conclusion that he “wouldn’t actually enjoy the pressure” of chasing the dream as hard as others who have failed to make the MLS draft and continued to try to pursue contracts, but with support from the psychologist and a fresh season, he isn’t ruling anything out.

As he prepares for 2021, Fuller will know that though there have been challenges in the last 18 months, he is now well set for whatever the following year brings. Aspirations off the field have become the better set, more realistic option, but there is plenty still to come on the field ahead of the final year of an intriguing journey.