Garrison Tubbs Ready to Take Next Step During His Senior Season
2/28/2023 12:11:00 PM | Men's Soccer, Les Johns
The rising senior for Wake Forest Men’s Soccer is perfecting his craft this spring as the Demon Deacons look ahead to a compelling 2023 season.
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As one of the top-ranked soccer prospects from Georgia, Garrison Tubbs had several prominent suitors, including other quality ACC programs. But his final recruiting visit was to Wake Forest, and it just happened to coincide with the Wake Forest Soccer end-of-year banquet.
What Tubbs experienced at that event led him to the life-changing decision to attend Wake Forest University.
"I did have some good interest within the ACC," Tubbs explained. "My last few choices were Wake Forest, Georgetown, Clemson and Notre Dame. Wake Forest was actually my last visit, and I wasn't sure what I was going to expect. I came during the end of the year banquet and it was held in this nice room over at the football stadium. All the players, coaching staff and all the players' families were there."
The overwhelming support from the community toward the team and the sport of soccer itself left an indelible impact on Tubbs as he went back home to Georgia after the visit.
"There were also a bunch of people from around the community, a bunch of Wake Forest soccer supporters were there," Tubbs said. "Most schools may tell you that they're family. But Wake Forest, I feel like is the only place where I truly felt that that was the truth. I was sitting at a table with a couple of the guys on the team and their family members — the love that the supporters had for the guys and their families was something I'd never seen before.
"You could tell how close everyone was and how much love they had for the game of soccer. They were so connected and so just immersed in that banquet. It truly showed me what Wake Forest meant to all the players and the community in Winston-Salem. I always tell people that is the moment that I knew that Wake Forest was special."
It's obviously been a perfect fit for Tubbs, who has a seemingly infinite list of accolades from his first three seasons with the Demon Deacons. He's been named ACC Defensive Player of the Week, and earned inclusion on the ACC All-Freshman Team in 2020 and the All-ACC Second Team in 2022. In December, he earned United Soccer Coaches First-Team Scholar All-American honors, becoming the sixth Demon Deacon to earn an Academic All-American selection in the process.
Tubbs was a team captain last season as the Demon Deacons finished 14-6 after an NCAA Tournament loss to Ohio State.
"It was definitely another season full of growth and learning," Tubb said. "Obviously the season didn't end the way that the team had expected. I feel like we had a lot of potential, and it was definitely on our goal list to make a deep run in both the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament as well. But we'll take the way the season ended into account next season and make sure we learn from it.
"I just go out there every single day and try my best to get better. That's how I'm going to take next season. That's the only way that you're going to be able to improve and get better every single day is just taking every experience and learning from itself."
Tubbs started all 20 games last year while leading Wake Forest in minutes played. He had two assists and two goals — both game winners.
"Both of the goals were game-winning goals," Tubbs said. "Getting into that attack, back in the day, believe it or not, I used to be an attacker. Then when I shot up to 6-foot-3, they kind of put me as a defender in the back. I've been a defender for a while now, so kind of losing that attacking edge, but I try my best.
"It's been a coaching point from coach [Bobby] Muuss and the staff to be more dominant in the air and be more dominant in the attacking half, and that'll be something that can kind of set me apart from other defenders in the future if I'm able to kind of hone in on that and get better in that aspect. So that was kind of a point of emphasis for me in my development from last season. I hope to continue to get better in that aspect for next season as well."
The lessons learned last season are likely to propel Tubbs in 2023 as he navigates his second year as a leader on the team.
"There is that extra added responsibility," he said. "It was a new position that I was in last semester in the fall, and I think I learned a lot. I was forced to hone in on a couple of leadership skills that I hadn't really used that much in the past. And I'm still learning, so hopefully I'll be able to take those experiences I learned as being named as a captain in my junior year and use those to further impact the team my senior year. Growing those leadership and communication skills is vital and necessary if you're going to be a capable captain."
Wake Forest announced an eight-match spring schedule and will host the finals of the Spring Soccer Cup at Spry Stadium on Sunday, April 16. The spring slate began last weekend with a pair of matches.
"Here at Wake Forest, obviously winning is number one," Tubbs said. "It will always be number one, even in the spring. But spring is all about development. So for myself and for all the other guys, we all just want to improve on our own individual skills and technical skill sets, as well as the team's technical and physical skill set as well."
Although winning is still the goal, spring soccer season is the time for development, both individually and as a unit.
"Whether that's weight lifting, getting some extra technical work, improving on your foot skills, agility work, sprint speed — anything that you feel that you need to improve on, that's what the spring is all about," Tubbs explained. "And getting better so that you can take those skills that you develop and use them in the fall when the championship season really matters.
"You'll probably most likely see more faces on the field than you did in the fall. So that gives some other guys some quality game experience that you wouldn't usually have. That experience is invaluable. So just getting on the field, getting out there and showing your stuff and improving — that's what spring is all about."
Last year, Wake Forest men's soccer logged nearly 1,000 hours of community service, earning the Helper Helper Team Community Service Challenge Championship. Tubbs particularly enjoyed partnering with 𝘼 𝘽𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘼 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠, which serves the Winston-Salem community by building beds for children in need.
Thank you @WakeMSoccer for helping A Bed and A Book deliver 5 brand new beds to these beautiful children! pic.twitter.com/KSvXNGv5An
— A Bed and A Book (@ABedandABook) December 4, 2022
"We partner with a local nonprofit and we have these bed kits," Tubbs explained. "We drive the kits to families in need and go into the house and construct a bed in their house. Then at the end, we'll read the children their bedtime story while they're in their new bed. So that's personally my favorite, just because you get to physically see the children so excited and happy in their new bed. Knowing that we could play a vital role in making that happen and making that child so happy in that moment is something special."
