For The Tribune
High school soccer players have different responsibilities during a match, and for Seymour’s Cole Luedeman, it was playing physical.
One of the things Luedeman tried to do in games was mark opponents by taking the ball away from them, and muscle it to his teammates so the Owls could score goals.
“I tried to be one of the rougher guys on the field,” he said.
“I tried other sports. I tried basketball one time, but I really didn’t like it because it was just plays and you knew what was going to happen. Soccer is nonstop and you can be creative.”
The senior began his soccer career playing in the park and recreation leagues, and he played travel ball with the Cyclones before he began playing for the Owls.
He played defense on the junior varsity his freshman year. “My sophomore year I was on JV for one game, and they moved me up to varsity,” he said.
Luedeman said he played defense on the right side his sophomore year, then switched around on defense his junior year.
“My senior year he had me up top in midfield, and he switched me to midfield defense,” he said. “I liked playing on the right side.”
With 11 men on the field, Luedeman said he feels that every position has its importance to the team.
“My first few years in soccer we had a couple star players,” Luedeman said. “That was the focus. But up until my senior year there wasn’t any single player that stood out.
“It seemed like the whole team worked together this season. This was our most team-involved season. I’d say communication is very important because it’s not a game that takes breaks and stops for plays. Everybody has to know what’s going on. We had mainly vocal signals because you wanted everybody to know what’s going on. Not everybody can see. We had soccer lingo.”
At the start of games, Luedeman said he thinks it’s important to get a jump on the opposition by scoring the first goal.
“It sets the tone for the game,” Luedeman said. “How you start out has a big influence on how the game is going to be played.
“After every games our coach would tell us how many minutes he actually thought we gave it our all. Sometimes we would start out great and then play the rest of the game awful, so you’ve got to work on the whole thing. You can’t give up. We had to play hard every game. You couldn’t go in there think we had it won. We did that a couple times and it wasn’t too good.”
This season, the Owls advanced to the sectional championship game in Columbus.
“I’d say this year was special,” Luedeman said. “I remember, when I wasn’t in high school yet, that (Coach Matt Dennis) came to one of our Cyclones practices and he came to some of us (seniors) and you could tell he had special feelings about us. He said he couldn’t wait until we became seniors and that we would able to change the program and keep getting better.”
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Parents: Angela Luedeman, Larry Luedeman
Sibling: Mora
Sports: Soccer, four years
Organizations: Band
Plans after high school: Attend college or go into real estate
Favorite food: Italian
Favorite TV show: “Family Guy”
Favorite singer: Steven Tyler
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Q” What was it like playing at C.B. Hess Memorial field.
A: “I liked them. We had a lot of support from our fans throughout the season, especially the big games.
“Senior night was kind of bittersweet because we knew it was our last time to play on that field. I kind of grew up on that field. I’ve been out there since I was five.”
Q: Did you have a preference towards day or night matches?
A: “I liked the night matches because our cheer section would come with us, and on the weekend matches were early and a lot of people didn’t get awake by then.”
Q: Have you enjoyed your time at SHS?
A: “I like it here. It taught me a lot, not only the classes but growing up here. The seniors provided pretty good leadership this season.”
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