Samuel de Menezes '20 Recruiting Profile

Being the son of two Brazilian immigrant parents, soccer was one thing that I wasn’t escaping. As soon as I was able to walk there was already a ball at my feet. In the years to come I would fall in love with the game for its beauty and intensity. On the pitch my strengths lie in playing hard-nosed soccer and allowing my roots influence my game in the aspects of skills and scoring. Both at my school and club team my priority is to win tackles and break down the opposing team’s build up. Being 6’2” allows me to dominate in areal duels and use my leg length for slide tackles. Although my first job is to defend, I also look to go forward when the chance presents itself and create chances either with my passing or by taking on defenders. As long as I’m the field I won’t stop running and will push my teammates to give their best as well. Although soccer is my passion, I’ve also pursued to be the best student that I could be. In doing so I’m fortunate to say that my efforts weren’t fruitless. I’ve been accepted into the National Junior Honor Society in 2015 and 2016 and later into the National Honor Society in 2019. The achievement that I’m most proud of is the fact that I have a 4.0 GPA. I will be just as excited to be in a college classroom as I will be on a college pitch. Outside of school and soccer I play the drums as a hobby and even play at my home church from time to time. Giving back to my community as well is something that I love to do and do so by volunteering at my church, at a local organization called Topsoccer, a program for kids with mental illnesses to play soccer, and being a member of my town’s Junior Fire Department.