STARKVILLE — Don’t mess with Shelby Jordan.
Despite the drops of water falling from her face, the intensity in Jordan’s eyes speaks to the camera and keeps you glued to the screen for nine seconds.
No, she isn’t auditioning for the next big horror movie. Instead, Jordan’s acting debut in the HailState Productions video is meant to convey a message that a storm — the Mississippi State women’s soccer team — is coming in August 2015.
“That was awesome. I really liked it,” Jordan said of video shoot that took place from 9 p.m. to midnight Monday on a MSU practice field. “We were really enjoying it because whenever you are in front of a camera you have to act really serious and do whatever they tell you to, but behind the scenes everybody goofs around. I was messing around with some of my teammates, so it was a lot of fun.”
You wouldn’t know Jordan had fun at the shoot from her facial expression in the video. Jordan said two guys were holding hoses and spraying water in the air to give the impression she was standing in stormy weather. The impromptu shower might have provided a welcome respite from the scorching temperatures that blanketed the area last week.
But after talking with Jordan, who is MSU’s only senior this season, she reveals the memories from the past three seasons motivated her to stay serious in front of the bright lights.
“I was trying to tell myself how hard it has been for the past three years I have been here,” Jordan said. “We have had to get used to the new coaches coming in and being the only senior has been kind of hard because I have had people come in and come out. I stuck it out. I guess that was kind of my face toward the camera like, ‘Here I am. This is my last year. Let’s go.’ ”
Jordan and MSU will kick off the season at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, with an exhibition match at Tennessee-Martin. MSU will play host to Memphis at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, in another exhibition match. It will play host to South Alabama at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21 in its regular-season opener.
The match against South Alabama likely will be the final time Jordan will play in a season opener. The 5-foot-5 defender from Jackson, Tennessee, admits she kind of feels like a survivor from the Neil Macdonald era. In 2012, she was one of nine freshmen to join the MSU program. That season turned out to be Macdonald’s last as head coach at the school after the Bulldogs finished 9-10-1 (2-10-1 in the Southeastern Conference). Aaron Gordon was hired on Nov. 27, 2012, to take over a program that is looking to qualify for its first NCAA tournament.
Jordan has done her part in a number of roles. She started all 20 games as a freshman and played the second-most minutes (1,705). As a sophomore, she again played defender and started all 18 games en route to a team-high 1,611 minutes. Last season, Jordan played seven complete games and started 15 times. Her 1,230 minutes were third on the team. She had her only points (one goal, one assist) in a 5-0 win against Arkansas State on Sept. 4.
Jordan said she has stayed at MSU and continued to play soccer because she believes things happen for a reason, even when they get tough and players have to adjust. She said she has taken the mind-set that her soccer experience at MSU will benefit her later in life.
“I am really glad I ended up staying because I don’t think I could be anywhere else,” Jordan said. “I would rather be here.”
Gordon is glad Jordan has stuck it out. He said she has played a variety of roles and has been an example younger players can look to because she takes her work seriously. Jordan said she has a trainer — Scott Sinclair — at home who has helped her follow the conditioning drills the coaches ask the players to do to ensure they will be in shape once the preseason begins.
“I would have to say it is an outstanding performance by a senior,” said Gordon, who had his first look at the video clip earlier this week. “It was pretty good and pretty cool. I hope she can meet the intensity she displayed in that.”
Gordon believes Jordan, who has a track and field background from her days at the University School of Jackson, is going to have a great senior season because she has figured things out. She said Jordan trains hard and works hard and is one of the fittest members of the team.
“She has been committed to be an SEC athlete ever since she got here,” Gordon said. “That is half the battle. She came in as a defender and played there and played in midfield and played up front a little bit because of the needs of the team. I just think she is dedicated to her craft as an athlete in this conference, which takes sacrifice and dedication year-round.
“If your roster is filled with players like that, it is really, to me, the enabler for you to turn the corner as a program. You have to have Shelby Jordans on your team who year-round you can throw out a soccer ball or do fitness and they’re going to embrace it, not look at it like, ‘Why do I have to do this today?’ ”
On Jan. 23, 2015, Jordan tweeted, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Jordan said the words aren’t hers and she doesn’t remember where she read the quote, but it resonated with her because she feels she is slowly starting to figure out the why. She said meetings with Gordon and assistant coaches Ashley Gordon and Phil Casella have helped her feel more comfortable after having to “re-learn” everything playing in a new system for new coaches with new expectations.
“We have had so many people come and go, I guess you grow every year,” Jordan said. “It is a joke I tell some of the girls, and it is not a bad thing, and I laugh at it, but I have been here for three years and I still don’t know what goes on because it changes every year. You just have to get used to it.”
Change is evident again this season. The Bulldogs have 10 freshmen, including one redshirt, on the 24-player roster. Those players hope to kick-start a transformation in a program that went 3-15 (0-11 SEC) last season. That would be fine with Jordan, a three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection who is majoring in kinesiology. Last semester, Jordan had a 4.0 grade-point average.
“I feel better about this year than I have felt about past years because all of the girls who have come in are all very fit,” Jordan said. “This is the first year we don’t have to work with our strength and conditioning coach every morning. We get to go out in the morning and work on our own and run in the afternoons and monitor ourselves.
“There is me out there and we have other girls who are leaders on the team, like Mallory Eubanks and Jamila Coner. We all watch everybody and make sure everybody is working hard. That way we can get fitness in that way. I feel everybody is going to be really good. When we are out there playing in the afternoons, it keeps getting better every day.”
As the days pass and her senior season approaches, Jordan hopes she will discover the answer to even more whys. Jordan said she has learned from the Gordons how to be a better leader and how to talk to her teammates. She hopes her experiences can help her teammates answer the “whys” that nag them, even if it means having to stand in the center of the MSU Soccer Field on a 95-degree afternoon and having to stare into another camera without the cooling help of fake rain.
If Jordan has to do that, her countenance will be even more serious, so you better not mess with her.
“I have had a couple of people tell me I looked evil, which is good,” Jordan said of her acting debut. “That was the whole point of it, I guess. You just want to look mean.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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