Lucas Santos '23 Recruiting Profile

My name is Lucas Santos, and I am a sixteen-year-old high school senior. I hope to become a cardiothoracic surgeon when I am older. For that, I intend to receive a bachelor's in science and later join a medical school. Throughout my life, I have consistently excelled academically. I currently have a weighted GPA of 4.361 and am expected to graduate with a 4.4-4.6 GPA. I will graduate early because I started receiving high school credits in seventh grade. Although I have only been in high school for two years and am now in my third and final year, I have already received the National Recognition Program from College Board, been recognized as Academically or Intellectually Gifted in Math and English (AIG), am in the National Honors Society, and have been in the honor rolls as a freshman and in the Principal's List as a sophomore. Another reason I am graduating early is that I joined the Wake Tech CCP program, a dual enrollment program that allows me to take college classes in high school. I started this program in the summer of 2022, in which I took three college classes. I am currently taking four college classes, as well as an honors class in high school, and will take five college classes in addition to an AP class in the Spring semester of 2023. I will graduate high school with 40 to 50 college credits, including AP credits.

I am a good candidate for your team because I have played soccer since I was three years old in Brazil. After returning to the United States, I joined the lowest-ranked team in Orlando City. Only two years later, I was already in their second-ranked squad due to my hard work and commitment. I later joined Disney IdeaSports' highest-ranked 06 team. After one year at Disney, I was placed on the highest-rank team in the age group older than me (2005). After playing at Disney 05 team for two years, I was scouted by Orlando City DA and joined them. After a few months, my family moved to North Carolina. I tried out for the NCFC DA team and was offered a position after trying out for only three days. I became a starter for the NCFC DA team, and our team was doing great in the season. Sadly, the DA program was defunded due to COVID, and I also got injured, which caused me to stop playing soccer. I had to stop playing the sport I love, soccer, due to this injury, but I was finally correctly treated in the summer of 2022 and now am playing for my school's varsity soccer team. It was unfortunate that I had to stop; however, I believe that was needed for my complete recovery. My health is a priority, and thankfully, being fully recovered, I am playing soccer again. Although I stopped playing for two years, I believe that I still have the skill and ability that I previously had when I played in the DA program.

Another reason I believe that I am a good candidate for your team is because I am a very organized and hard-working student and athlete. I have consistently received good grades in very rigorous classes, mostly college, while playing soccer for my school team, having a job, and helping my community through volunteer work. My classes require me to spend a significant amount of my time on them, but I am successfully working a part-time job at a float therapy spa, where I can develop my interpersonal skills, and volunteering in a community garden and a thrift shop, where I give back to my community. Whenever I have free time, I go to my school's soccer field and train. I do shooting drills, dribbling drills, and much more. I believe that working, volunteering, studying, practicing, playing games with my high school team, and practicing soccer independently shows that I am a very dedicated, hardworking, passionate, and disciplined student and athlete.