Welcome to the another installment of Captain’s Corner, where I sit down each week with a Captain of a Middlebury athletics team to talk Captain to Captain about the role, the team and their life at Middlebury. This week I got a chance to catch up with Greg Livingston ’22.5 and chat about the team's 3-0 start to the season! Greg is the leader of an impressive Middlebury team that hopes to relive the glory of their 2019 NESCAC Championship season alongside Coach Bob Ritter in their final year at the helm.
Captain Rudolph: Who has been your favorite professional football player growing up?
Greg Livingston: I’ve always had one favorite player and his name is Colt McCoy. I was a huge University of Texas football fan growing up and my dad took me to McCoy’s last home game against Kansas. I still remember it even though I was so young. Ever since I went to that game, I have been a huge fan following him around the NFL for a long time. I've always looked up to him and followed him throughout his career.
CR: How have you appreciated being able to play under Coach Ritter during your time here at Middlebury? What’s the approach to this final season for both of you?
GL: I feel really fortunate to have been able to play for Coach Ritter and be a part of his time here. He's a phenomenal coach and a phenomenal person. I'm just thinking of it as another season,and I believe he is thinking of it in the same way. We have the same goal every day which is to go out there, enjoy it, and be successful. I feel grateful to have been able to play for him because he's a really special coach.
CR: Why is there only one captain of the football team this year?
GL: This is the first time since I’ve been here that there has only been one captain, but I think it has happened at times in the past. At the end of each season we vote on next year's team captains and I am honored that my teammates selected me. While it is a little different being the only official team captain, I have never felt alone as a leader. We are fortunate to have many great leaders on the team that feel comfortable speaking and do a great job leading this team. I may be the captain but it's really a community approach.
CR: How would you describe your leadership style?
GL: I've always thought of myself as a quiet person… someone that leads by example. That’s what I've tried to do. I don't really know how to describe my style other than I just try to go out every day and do the best I can and bring the guys along and hold myself and the rest of the team accountable. At the end of the day, I'm just trying to be myself out there.
CR: What’s your favorite Middlebury breakfast?
GL: I am a big Ross guy. I've always gone to Ross and spend a lot of time there. I’ll get my breakfast and stay there all the way through lunch just doing work or talking with the people that go in and out. It depends on what they're serving but people make fun of me because I eat so many carbs. For breakfast I’ll have a muffin, I'll have pancakes, I'll have potatoes and everything else. Specifically, I like the chocolate chip pancakes and the potato cubes, but my favorite thing is the vanilla yogurt with some coconut and raspberries. I could eat that at every meal!
CR: What’s the biggest home game of the year coming up?
GL: Every game is a big game but if I had to pick one it would be this weekend's game against Williams [Saturday, Oct. 8, 2 p.m. Youngman Field at Alumni Stadium]. For me, every game in the NESCAC is like the playoffs in football. I try not to get too far ahead and so the next game is always the biggest game. It happens to be against Williams this coming weekend and they're always a tough opponent. They play hard, they are well coached, and we really want to beat them. So, I'm looking forward to that game and that's really where my focus is right now. It's hard to think past that because we are just trying to go 1-0 every week.
CR: What are you currently studying and do you have a post-graduation plan?
GL: I am a philosophy major. I never thought that would be my major when I arrived but I took one class my first year and really enjoyed it and stuck with it. It has developed into something I'm really interested in! I enjoy all my classes and enjoy writing about a number of different topics. You can look at anything through the lens of philosophy so that's been really great for me. In terms of what I want to do after school, I've been working with the Boston College football program the last few years doing player evaluations, scouting and helping out in other ways. I would like to stay around football as long as I can after I graduate whether that's scouting or evaluating or going into the coaching side of things. I've been really fortunate to learn so much from the people I've been working with at Boston College and I hope to continue because football has been a part of my entire life and I wanna stay in it as long as I can.
