Tandon junior Terra Nagai hails from Herndon, Virginia and has played a key role on the men’s soccer team since joining in 2022. The midfielder has played in every game but one throughout his three-year career with the Violets and describes himself as an attacking midfielder, looking to dictate play in the opposition half.
He likes to drop deep and collect the ball from his defenders to start attacks, but can play on the last defender’s shoulder looking for one-on-one situations with the opposition goalkeeper as well.
This season, the midfielder has been given more attacking freedom and has already come close to matching his previous season goal tally of three goals, with two so far in just three games.
In an interview with WSN, Nagai spoke about his experience playing for NYU and his hopes for the rest of the season.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WSN: How have you grown as a person since coming in as a first-year in 2022?
Nagai: As a student at NYU, there’s so many things happening every single day — so many things you could be doing, places you could be at. But being in the engineering school as well — it’s very rigorous, so I had to learn time management very quickly. In a place like New York though, it’s definitely a lot harder, so it was something to get used to and manage for sure. I feel like being at NYU has made me mature as a person way quicker than I probably would have if I went to a normal college campus.
Again, with time management, being able to make practices and school load has been very, very, difficult, but I think overall it’s made me grow in a way that I thought would take more time, but I’m glad because I think the person I am when I go home to my parents and friends — I’m proud of it, and I feel much more professional, grown, mature.
WSN: Pre-match, what kind of music are you playing?
Nagai: I know a lot of guys — honestly, athletes in general — like listening to hype music to prepare. That’s just not me. I don’t know, I feel like I put too much pressure on myself when I do that. I envision myself doing really cool stuff, and if I can’t do it all, then I’m not performing. So I’ve come to realize when I listen to really chill music, really calm music, I’m not forcing myself to be in a hype mood.
WSN: So what’s your go-to song right now?
Nagai: ‘Bed Chem’ by Sabrina Carpenter from her new album. It could literally be that or, like, Tems. That’s the range. Completely not organized at all, just whatever I like which puts me in a good mood.
WSN: How has the leadership role evolved for you on the team, going from a fresh new face to one of the established people in the locker room?
Nagai: When I was a first-year, there were a lot of seniors and graduate students that were on the team that were honestly kind of intimidating, or may have come across as not very approachable. I didn’t know anyone else, so that was kind of my experience.
But now, as an upperclassman and being more experienced, I try to be the most approachable person in any scenario. I’ll always help because I know it’s a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibility to get used to as a first-year.
WSN: What are your hopes for the season, individually and as a team?
Nagai: Individually, I hope to create a lot more output for the team — on paper, things that are easily tracked like goals, assists, hopefully some individual awards, all-UAA. Stuff like that would solidify that I did have a good season individually that comes with tangible results.
As a team — make the NCAA tournament, win the UAA conference, hopefully go far in the NCAA, if not win. With our group now and how we’ve been working in the spring, the preseason we’ve had in Colorado, a lot of things have been aligning very well — we have a lot of team spirit, a lot of confidence in ourselves and each other. We’re all feeling very good about this season. We have very high hopes and high standards. I think that first game shows that we’re determined. It was a great momentum starter.
WSN: If there is one game that people should come out to the New Jersey Institute of Technology for this season, which game would that be?
Nagai: Our most exciting games have been against the University of Chicago, which is going to be at home this year. It’s always big — they’re always very good. But me and my class beat them last year, when they just won the year before. So that was an insane moment. Every time we play UChicago, there’s something about it — we can’t lose. We’ll lose to anyone but UChicago. There’s always a storyline, always something bigger than the game that’s going on, so we’re really excited for that.
Contact Jonathan Mak at [email protected].
