David Minchew '22 Recruiting Profile

I was born and raised in Southern California, where it was always warm and always soccer weather, I was always outdoors trying new things and when I was just starting school all my friends around me were playing soccer and I like to try new things so I decided to try it out for myself, I immediately fell in love with the game, I worked hard with all the extra time I had to get better because I wanted to become a professional soccer player. I learned I can just be myself when I am playing soccer, I also learned that no matter how hard I try I can always get better and no matter how good I am there is always going to be somebody that is a better player than me and I set small goals all the time to beat and get better than that player that is better than me. I am trying to get through High School with good grades while also enjoying myself and having fun but not to much fun. I want to major in Engineering in college and also play soccer. I am mostly a straight A-B student but I took a woodshop class and that was hard for me because I have never worked with wood before and I was not very good at building things out of wood so I failed that and it lowered my GPA down to a 2.7 and I am working hard to get that up to what it should be at least a 3.0. I now live in Illinois and the weather here limits my time to practice so I practice as much as possible whenever I get the chance. Before a season will start i always go to my local park and I ran around it a dozen times dribbling the ball getting comfortable controlling the ball again and sprinting and changing directions making it as much game-like as possible, I also get home and go run a mile or two right after school right before the season starts for conditioning trying to put myself in top condition. I can almost promise you will not find a more hard-working and dedicated player to the sport than me when I get focused on the game and get my blood flowing I can dribble through a whole teams defense alone multiple times over but I don't like to do that because soccer is a team sport and I am a team player that will make the most out of every opportunity I get. My dad died in February of 2019 and I work hard and give it my all for everything I do because that is what he taught me to do. He always told me to not be anything like him when I grow up and he is the most selfless, hard-working, dedicated, and consistent person I have ever met so I am trying to be like him and make him proud. Every game and practice I will give it my all, work as hard as I possibly can to become a better player. In-game I won't ever give up no matter how tired I am, I will keep going until the ref. blows that whistle three times. Soccer is like art to me, I am a passionate, dedicated, and strong-willed person when it comes to soccer. I have always lost most of the games I have played in my life and that gets old but two things that helps me and my team with are, it makes us work harder than ever in the next games and practices, and it teaches us to play on no matter what we might be down eight to zero and we will still be giving it our all, the score doesn't stop me from going all out. I think I will be great as a college player because I have great work ethic, I am a great leader, I am serious when I need to be, I am a team player and I might not show it but believe me I want the win in every game more than I can show.