Becoming a soccer fan

Before I came to Ohio Northern, I knew very little about soccer. It didn’t interest me and I wasn’t friends with very many soccer players. Since then, many things have changed.

By the end of the first week, I had already seen two home soccer games and made friends with Dakota Swisher, a freshman varsity defender. Some things immediately drew me to soccer:

1. Our men’s team is competitive on a national scale, which makes the games fun to watch. It is much easier to become a soccer fan when your team wins the majority of its games.

2. The basketball team plays a lot of FIFA, which is a professional soccer video game (so, naturally, I play now as well). Although video games are hardly similar to the real-life game, FIFA did help me understand the rules to the game.

3. Having seen many ONU games in person, I now have great respect for soccer players as athletes. Soccer players not only need to be in great condition, but they also must be agile and great with their feet. Like any other college athlete, they must possess a very high, unique skill level.

4. Games at ONU are fun to go to because of our new stadium. Kerscher Stadium, complete with a brand new track and turf soccer field, and surrounded by evergreen trees and three daunting windmills, is a great place to watch soccer. We also now have a student section, which allows students to further engage in the game.

5. Most importantly, I have friends on the team. This allows me to gain insight into what the sport is like and what challenges soccer players face. It makes the sport more relatable, which is important to a fellow athlete like myself.

Growing my passion for soccer has been a great experience so far at ONU. It is always well-worth one’s time to find interest in new endeavors, and learning about soccer has helped me broaden my interest in college athletics.