Following his family’s footsteps, freshman Daniel Radeljic has always had a love for soccer, and knew that he wanted to play from a young age.

Participating in soccer has given him a rush of happiness and energy that doesn’t compare to anything else.

“It makes me feel happy when I play. It makes me feel free by doing what I love, it’s like I’m a different person, like I can actually be myself when I play,” Radeljic said.

Playing for eight years, his passion has grown and continues to grow daily.

“My favorite thing is that it’s very competitive and it’s a sport that I love, and can play word-wide,”

Although it’s his favorite sport, he didn’t play for the school team this year and just continued playing club.

“I had to do club, and club is better for me than school is because there’s harder competition, so it helps me improve more,” Radeljic said.

Radeljic has high-hopes for his soccer career in the future as his talents and love for the sport grow.

“I want to become a professional soccer player. I plan to work hard and do my best every day in order to get there.”

Soccer has given such a solid friend group not only from this school, but friends from different schools.

“I’ve met a lot of people through soccer. I’ve become really close with them all, and they’ve become some of my closest friends,” Radeljic said.

Freshman Gorkem Gundogdu loves being able to talk about soccer with Radeljic, and how their friendship has grown because of it.  

“We both love soccer and due to that, we both have a really good friendship. He always helps me with soccer and motivates me to be better. I know he works really hard everyday and he’s very dedicated in pursuing his dreams to become a professional soccer player,” Gundogdu said.

Radeljic loves sharing what he knows with his friends, and they help each other when they play.

“We have been close friends for a long time now, and playing soccer has made us closer. He taught me how to train for soccer to be a better player. He taught me new stuff, and I taught him some tricks. Training for soccer is hard to do, but when we do it together, we’re always having a good time and improving more and more,” freshman Jeffrey Sawah said.