Q: What got you into soccer? 

A: I started playing when I was 5. I started watching sports on TV, and I’d watch my dad play pick up games. He kind of rubbed off on me and was the reason I started playing. I started playing at Albion when I was in 2nd grade, and it’s just been like that since so I’m just constantly around the game and that’s why it’s grown on me so much.

Q: Who do you want to  be like and why?

A: I wanna be like my dad because he went through a lot of struggles to get here cause he’s an immigrant, so it would be really awesome if I can repay all the hard work he’s put in and sacrifice in terms of finances and time. Hopefully playing professional or even getting a better scholarship for school is just something that I can say, this one’s for you, Dad. 

Q: What school are you going to for soccer? 

A: I committed to the University of South Carolina. It’s a Division 1 school on the east coast in Columbia, South Carolina. It’s a school I really wanted to go to. I’ve been looking at them for a while. I think it would be a great opportunity for me to take that next step in my career. 

Q: What did you want to be when you were younger and what do you want to be now?

A: When I was younger – and now – I wanted to be a professional soccer player. I had realistic expectations for myself, but I just wanna do as much as I can. My hope is after my professional career I can form an agency, in a sense, with the connections of coaches and players and using that to allow people that are less fortunate to have a platform to showcase themselves, because not everyone has the opportunity to play at a higher level so I just wanted to allow kids that are talented enough to have that opportunity. 

Q: What positions do you play?

A: Well, at club I’ll sometimes play center back but my main position is left back. My coaches experimented with me playing center midfielder at the start of the year, but that just didn’t work for me and a few years ago I played left wing before I shifted to left back, so I played a bit of everywhere. I’m a pretty well rounded player. 

Q: What did you do to get better?

A: It was just constantly training, just always trying to find reasons to push myself, to become even better. I was never really the most talented player when I was younger, I was always more so the middle of the pack so I had an underdog mentality. That’s always has just pushed me to become better and better, always feeling that you’re never in the lime light. People would look at the other players before they look at you, so that’s something that helped push me to become better so I can become that guy that everyone looks up to, not just another guy on the team. 

Q: What was your favorite game?

A: Last year’s game when we beat Tompkins 4-3,  the first round of districts. We were down 2-0 at half time and there was nothing going our way. It really seemed like we were gonna get our first loss of the season. I think we were 16-0 going into the game, and then we scored the beginning of the second half, making it 2-1. Then about 10 minutes later, Tompkins scored again, making it 3-1, and that’s when I thought the game was really over. But then in the last 15 minutes, we made our comeback and won 4-3. 

Q: What’s your favorite part of a game?

 A: Probably just scoring, like the feeling you get or when you win a really tight game and you know that you guys have been working hard all week and finally playing its dividend. Just the feeling of success.