Wake Forest Athletics
Gold Rush: Decision Maker
10/28/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 28, 2002
By Jay Reddick
Which is better, "ER" or "The West Wing"?
If you had to choose between the jobs portrayed on those two TV shows, which would you choose?
That's the dilemma facing Katherine Winstead in a year and a half. For now, she's enjoying both and also enjoying the season the Wake Forest women's soccer team is having.
The junior forward/midfielder was the surprise scoring leader for the Deacons as they won their first nine games. The team was 11-2-1 through Oct. 15, and Winstead had already managed eight goals and five assists.
Winstead has been interested in both politics and medicine for a long time. She grew up with the ambition to be a neurologist, studying the workings of the brain but recently realized that her budding fascination with issues and campaigns could also provide a career track.
"Politics have always interested me," Winstead said. "I love CNN. I'm sort of a political dork. I want the option (to do either), but I'm not sure I want to spend another 10 years in (medical) school."
Winstead, a Raleigh native, has done some volunteer work for Sen. John Edwards (whose daughter, Kate, is a friend) and plans to intern in Washington next summer. She is on track to graduate in May 2004 and could be entering the work force in the middle of John Edwards' rumored run at the presidency or vice-presidency.
"If I had a chance to work on a big election, even if it was just volunteer work, that would be amazing," Winstead said. "It's a fun environment, so much is going on, and you meet so many fascinating people. I might jump in and see what happens."
Whether it's politics or medical school, though, Winstead knows what she wants out of her career.
"I don't want to go through the 9-to-5 grind every day," she said. "I definitely want a job where I can make a difference."
Winstead has made a big difference to the Deacons this fall. In two years as a part-time starter, she managed just two goals and nine points but developed a reputation as a tough, hard-nosed athlete.
As a freshman, she lost a tooth mid-match and kept playing, and last season, she participated in the team's first-round NCAA match with her arm in a sling after dislocating her shoulder.
This season, which has been mercifully mishap-free, she has become a focal point of the Wake Forest attack. She leads the team in goals, points and shots. Ever the politician, Winstead credits the system with her resurgence.
"From a scoring perspective, I would really give credit to my teammates," Winstead said. "I haven't had to create a lot of the goals myself; they've just been great services and I've been in the right place at the right time. As a team, everybody's creating so many opportunities that somebody had to finish them."
The tall (5-foot-10) forward will do anything to help her team's success. That game against the Tar Heels two years ago? The team won it. Winstead even took over at goalkeeper during an ACC Tournament match that same year.
Winstead's scrappy and unselfish play is perfect for coach Tony da Luz's attempt to make this a "blue-collar" team. She said she hasn't changed much about her game this season, but the upperclassman experience helps her cope with the inevitable bumps in the road.
"I may have come in a bit more fit than in the past," she said. "For me, though, it's been about coming in a year older."
The past few games have provided a few of those bumps, but Winstead and the Deacons are prepared to weather the storm.
"The last few games, we haven't been firing on all cylinders," she said. "We're not a different team, we've just hit a rough patch."
Once that's over, Winstead is confident she'll be playing well into November.
"I don't know that we've set a goal besides to overachieve, and get everything out of us that we possibly can," Winstead said. "Hopefully, that means going far in the tournament."
After that, and one more year, comes Winstead's career decision. Politics or medicine? Why choose?
"There's one doctor in the Senate," she said, referring to Bill Frist of Tennessee, "and maybe I can be that in 40 years."
