FORT COLLINS, Colo. — There's two sides to every story. Aleyse Evers' story as a CSU student-athlete has two very different sides.
"I'm on the CSU women's soccer team, and I'm also a ram handler, meaning I'm a representative for our school's animal ambassador, CAM the Ram," she said.
Soccer was in her blood from a young age, but with CAM? It was love at first sight.
"When I first came on my visit here, I met CAM. They had him on campus and he was on the [intermural] fields and I got to take a picture with him and I was just really excited about it," she said. "I mean, CAM is a great guy. He's so fun to be around and he's very sweet."
But there's more to handling than just posing with the most popular guy on campus. Evers is on a pre-veterinary track and uses her time with CAM to prepare for her future.
"Our main role is taking him to events and interacting with the public and being a representative for the university, but we also take care of him, so we take him on walks, we care about his health, we trim his hooves," she said.
Caring for large animals is nothing new for Evers, but it still prompts some jokes from her teammates back on the pitch.
"They all know that I'm the farm girl here," she said, laughing. "I'm from rural Nebraska, so I did grow up on a farm and I've been around animals a lot, so it's so fun when I get to put on the black cowboy hat and they're like, 'oh there she goes with the cowboy hat!'"
Whether she's wearing a hat and boots or a kit and cleats, Evers is proud to stand in the spotlight and represent her school.
"I take a lot of pride in wearing the jersey and as our coaches told us, it's really something special to be able to play for the university, so I think as a team, we all know this and when we step onto the field, we try our hardest to play not just for ourselves but for our university and for our teammates," Evers said. "And then being front and center with CAM, I mean, that's just so much fun."
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