Myles N is a senior star player for the College Prep varsity soccer team, which just made history this past week by winning the Division II NCS Championships against Sonoma Academy. Myles played four years of soccer at College Prep and has forever been committed to winning one NCS title during his high school years. Over the summer, I carpooled with Myles to preseason basketball workouts, and remember him saying:
“Yeah, I’m probably more excited to play basketball this year, but I’m more committed to soccer. We’ve gotten so close—me, Derek. All the time that the seniors have put into this team—we have to win NCS this year,” he stated.
5 months later, Myles and the Cougars have made their dream come true.
This interview is between Myles and me on the Head Royce field—the NCS medal around Myles's neck—as we debrief the joy and success of this 2022 men’s soccer season.
Sutro: So, I think it's on record that before the season, you and Derek said that you were gonna win [NCS]. You made the prediction… You took the picture (see to the right) before the year… What can you say about making that come true, this senior group and the connection that you share with them, and how you’ve kind of made your dream come true here in your fourth year?
Myles: Hundred percent, yeah. Today I was just thinking about that—I saw some photos from our freshman year when we played in NCS finals and lost, and had to receive those second-place medals. It felt kind of like the end of a journey, but really it was the start of one. It wasn’t a perfect road, and it didn’t happen right away, but that group of seniors—which grew as we added more people—we knew we wanted to get back there, and we knew when we got back there, we would win. And I think going into this year knowing the group of guys we had, just knowing how much we wanted this, it was top of mind as soon as we lost [last year], [that] we were going to win, and we were going to go undefeated. That's been in a notes app for about ten months at this point. Goals for 2022: go undefeated in soccer. It's special, man—it's the most special team I’ve been a part of. Yeah, that’s all I can say, I guess.
Sutro: And then obviously, you went undefeated, and there’s been so much talk about senior year at College Prep, and playing in the fall season with so much going on outside of your life. The journey’s been so hard, and how do you feel now that you are finally there—that you are finally all done and undefeated?
Myles: Uhm… *pauses* I don’t think that I’ve really processed it yet. Like I said, it has been a top-of-mind goal for the past ten months, and a goal in general since I was a freshman. Yeah, I don’t think I’ve really had time to process what it means. It hasn’t been easy, you know, it’s been waking up in the middle of the night… like when we first tied Head Royce, and we lost our 12-game win streak, I got 3 hours of sleep that night. But I know that that’s the commitment that not just me but all the seniors—the whole team—were putting in, and I think that’s why we were able to win and why we all made it work—because we were all putting in that level of effort and we all cared that much.
Sutro: Great season, congratulations!!
Myles: Thanks, man.
The chants of star sophomore Noah Beltran can be heard in the background: “Campeones, campeones.”
Your 2022 men’s varsity soccer team: NCS champions.
If you haven’t already, read more on the men’s varsity soccer team’s big championship win in Avi Paulson’s feature article here.
Comments