Eastside Catholic varsity soccer captain Eddie Davis enjoyed terrific start to this year’s campaign, leading the Crusaders from central defense and even managing to put his name on the scoresheet — including a few game winners. But unfortunately, amidst his stellar season, in a grueling nil-nil match against Bishop Blanchet, Davis broke his left arm taking him out of Coach Lund’s plans for the rest of the season.
Given his influential role early in the season, due to his injury, Davis has had to look at the game differently than he did while on the field.
“The way you that you view the game from the sidelines to the way you do in the game is just way different. I feel like you see different angles and different parts of the game. With me knowing that I’m injured and can’t like step in and play anymore definitely disconnects me from the team on the field.”
Davis has been apart of Eastside’s soccer journey from day one. But with a injury putting him on the sideline for the foreseeable future, how does Davis go from on-field leader to the sidelines?
“I just try and be like a coach almost. I definitely still help out especially with the back line and their positioning because I can see more of the field. I feel like, if you’re on the sidelines, you can focus on more things than one, and you can see stuff that players aren’t seeing and tell them what you see.”
Eastside Catholic’s Crusaders have stumbled in the lead up to state and playoffs with a 0-0 draw and 2-1 loss against Bishop Blanchet. But, Davis still has bright hopes and confidence in the team’s ability to compete against the best.
“I feel like it doesn’t matter how good the other team is; it’s just whichever team wants to win more when on the field.”
Davis, being the captain of a young team comes with many pros and cons. You have a talented and star-studded roster, but at the same time missing the size and physical maturity of a team built up of seniors.
“I feel like our team is a a young team for sure. It’s mainly sophomores and freshmen, and that might not be a great aspect for the team because usually other teams are pre-dominantly juniors and seniors with more experience. They’re bigger, and that plays a big role in games and they are way more developed because the difference between a freshman and a senior is very big. But, I feel like it doesn’t matter if we play fast and stay calm on the ball.”
In addition to that, he compared the differences between high school and club soccer, and how for new players coming in or having just arrived (freshmen class) it can be quite a change.
“The difference between high school and club and games is way different since club is way more structured. You kind of know your opponent because you can search them up on YouTube and see their playstyle and they probably will play like that when you play them. But for high school their pace and style can change drastically, like we started with a formation, then we switched it halfway through and we were playing a completely different game. But I feel like you should expect to see players that are clearly bigger than you and stronger than you and faster than you but you should just work around it shouldn’t be that big of a problem.”
Some of his ways of keeping the team in tip top shape include working hard, all the time. Davis believes that how you practice is how you play and it should be at 100% intensity.
“I feel like the tempo at which people practice not play at but practice can be low. I feel like everyone can play hard in the game because they feel like it’s way more important, more important than practice. But the people that take practice seriously and take every little bit of it seriously will get way more out of it than someone else just doing half of what they should be doing.”
Davis has also been connected with Varsity Coach Phillip Lund. The two have since reunited again at EC and have brought a winning culture to spring soccer.
“I’ve known Phillip for a long time, he was my assistant coach for my club team but when he came here he had set goals and he wanted to achieve them. He didn’t really have any restraints against them and he obviously can do so much in only two months with with the team.”
The Eastside Catholic Crusaders look to continue their domination of Metro Sound at West Seattle on April 26th, their last regular season game. Playoff’s start on April 29th.
