Changing schools is never an easy transition. It’s an extreme adjustment to make. Student athletes form tight bonds with their teammates, coaching staff and even some fans.

Imagining themselves in another school’s colors could seem impossible. Nevertheless, many athletes make the switch every year, sometimes to their benefit.

ULM’s soccer team received two new athletes toward the end of the Fall 2021 semester—Gabby Felix and Santana Pressley. With only a few months of practice, the two have cemented themselves as viable, if not integral starters for Warhawk soccer.

Both players have started in every ULM spring soccer match.

Making the change from a junior college to a four-year university in the world of collegiate

athletics is a major step. Not only are you facing tougher opponents, but the crowds and coverage are even bigger.

Felix made that transition. She came from LouisianaStateUniversityEuniceasajunior.

But Felix is not a typical transfer. After playing at a junior college she had to start the recruiting process all over again.

She made her decision to come to Monroe to continue her soccer career after hearing about ULM from her previous coach and looking at different schools.

“I had a couple of other places that I was looking at, but this was the place that stuck out the most to me for sure […] I came on a visit, and I just like really enjoyed it here,” Felix said. “You kind of get that gut feeling where you’re like, ‘I feel like I could be happy here.’ I kind of got that when I came here.”

With her tenacity and drive, it’s easy to see why her addition to the team is crucial and

just how integrated she already feels. “It’s definitely been a great experience,”

Felix said. “It’s a very different style of play, so there’s still a lot of adjusting for me to do, but overall,it’s been really fun”.

From “Chants up” to “Talons out,” Santana Pressley from Coastal Carolina University has had a great impact on ULM’s team so far, continuing with her Sun Belt spirit.

A junior from Marietta, Georgia, Santana played various positions for the Chanticleers and had 41 starts.

Pressley has found stability with ULM, cementing herself as an attacking midfielder, as opposed to the do-it-all role she filled back in Conway.

“I played everywhere. I played center-back, holding-mid, attacking-mid. I was kind of all over the place,” Pressley said. “Coming in, [Fraser] told me that I was going to play

a different position than what I was playing

[before] so I kind of was like shocked about it, but I definitely like it more than I thought I was going to like it.”

As a part of the Sun Belt Conference, SantanahadtheopportunitytoseeULM play when the Chanticleers hosted ULM in a late September match, which ended in the Warhawks winning 6-1.

After making the transfer in December, she learned more about her previous opponent and joined the team that gave the Chanticleers so much trouble before.

“When [ULM] played against us at Coastal, it was definitely a shock to see how good they were, so it’s nice to be a part of that team,” Pressley said. “I’m glad to be a part of it and not against it.”