Athletics

Maryville Soc­cer: From Ger­many to the USA

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It has been a good 2021 year at Maryville Uni­ver­sity for Saints soc­cer cap­tain Cedric Sengl.

Last year, Sengl was se­lected to par­tic­i­pate in the Mid­west Pro Soc­cer Com­bine. The com­bine al­lows play­ers to show­case their abil­ity in front of pro­fes­sional coaches which could lead to a pro con­tract. The se­nior mid­fielder from Wet­stet­ten, Ger­many, also re­ceived All-GLVC sec­ond team, and third team that year.

To Sengl, this sport is more than just a game.

He says “be­ing able to ex­cel both in the class­room as well as on the field with my team­mates. Hav­ing that ca­ma­raderie and be­ing able to com­pete in a Na­tional Cham­pi­onship year in year out is a great ex­pe­ri­ence that gen­er­ates life­long mem­o­ries.”

Sengl talks about how you need to work hard on and off the field to main­tain his pro­duc­tiv­ity. He also men­tions that it is some­times im­por­tant to just re­lax, take a day off and do noth­ing to recharge for the up­com­ing ac­tiv­ity. 

“Hard work pays off on the field as well as on the aca­d­e­mic side of things. Noth­ing is given to you and you have to earn every­thing. Also mak­ing sure to take some time off and make the best out of the off days to re­cover your body for the next prac­tice or game.” 

GLVC Champions 2021

Sengl said that he likes to im­i­tate other ath­letes. He likes play­ers that are re­ally tech­ni­cal and have a good un­der­stand­ing to the game, by watch­ing them he be­lieves he learns the most.

Sengl also talks about how im­por­tant it is that his coach pre­pares well for games. He says “coach makes sure every­one knows their role in the game and also restarts, Ad­di­tion­ally, he puts big em­pha­sis on re­cov­ery, sleep, and hy­dra­tion be­fore games. Right be­fore games he goes over restarts with us and makes sure every­one is on the same page”.

Af­ter a good year of soc­cer for Sengl, it would­n’t be sur­pris­ing if he got­ten an op­por­tu­nity at the next level. Speak­ing to him about what he thinks an ideal soc­cer player is, he said, “a com­plete player is one who is com­pet­i­tive, has dis­ci­pline and a strong work ethic, and is pre­pared to learn.”

To reach a high level of soc­cer, it is im­por­tant of Sengl to stay on top of these terms, but with­out his friends and his fam­ily sup­port­ing him noth­ing would be pos­si­ble, he said.

The year has also been chal­leng­ing for Sengl, he men­tions that the COVID-19 pan­demic made it much more chal­leng­ing, on and off the field. Which made the col­lege life ex­pe­ri­ence a quite bit dif­fer­ent than usual.

Sengl men­tions that he wants to stay in­volved with soc­cer af­ter grad­u­a­tion, he hopes that he could get an op­por­tu­nity to play soc­cer pro­fes­sion­ally in the next years.

“Soc­cer was and will al­ways have a big part in my life,” he says.

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