By: Dakota Breuker
You might ask yourself, what makes a great soccer player? Maybe its speed, maybe its strength or maybe it’s just pure talent. All those characteristics might make a good soccer player, but they don’t always make a great soccer player.
I asked the varsity boys soccer team what they thought makes up a great soccer player. Here are some of their responses.
Justin Stark, ‘25. “They give their teammates their full support on and off the field.”
Jackson Hansen, ‘25. “A player that makes others on the field better.
Noel Vigil, ‘26. “A player who looks to play as a team because if you can’t play soccer as a team you can’t win games and you can’t be great”.
To be a great soccer player you need to be a player of the team and not a player of yourself. Justin, Jackson, and Noel all said that you have to be a team player to be a great player.
Drew Bierschbach, ‘25. “Being able to make good passes, and have good vision of the field. Also being able to make runs if you don’t have the ball, and helping by developing on the field.”
Caleb Oosterink, ‘26. “Someone who works hard, and has fun, but knows when to be serious. They have to be a good all around player, and have a very high IQ for the game.”
Drew and Caleb both told me that a great soccer player needs to have a good idea on how to maneuver around the field and do it at 100%. Like what Justin, Jackson, and Noel said, you have to be a team player and know when to pass the ball to your teammates.
Gavin Sabala, ‘25. “I think that there are two main things that it takes to be a great soccer player. The first thing is your attitude. If you have a bad attitude then it can have a negative effect on other players on the team. Having a positive attitude goes along with your work ethic because you’re more likely to have a higher work rate with a game and you always need to be a step or two or three ahead of your opponent, whether that’s finding a pass or predicting the other team’s move. Those are the two main things that I think it takes to be a great soccer player.”
Gavin told me that to be a great player you need to have a great attitude on and off the field. If you don’t it could “have a negative effect on other players on the team.”-Gavin.
A common theme these players told me was that to be a great soccer player, you need to be a great team player. You will never get anywhere in the game of soccer or even in the game of life if you are not a team player.
It’s true that you need some physical abilities to be good at soccer but at the end of the day you’re not going to win every game if you don’t play with strategy and smarts.