Senior Alex Vasilakis - Norseman Podcast

Journalism adviser Rebecca Dominy sat down with senior Alex Vasilakis to talk to him about his time playing soccer for Bryan High. Look for a more in-depth newspaper article in the first edition of the BHS Norseman newspaper coming out soon.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey Vikes, I'm Rebecca Dominy, the journalism advisor for the Bryan High Norseman and I'm here

(00:05):
today with senior Alex Vasilakis. Alex, I know you place a lot of soccer can you tell us a little bit
about how the soccer team is looking this year? Yeah sure, so I've been playing soccer for all
four years here at Bryan High and I've been on the varsity team for three of those four years.
I'm currently one of the two captains of the Bryan High soccer team. This year we are looking very

(00:31):
very good. We were fortunate to only lose two of our seniors from last year so that means nine of
our former starters are coming back again meaning they have a lot more experience and we're actually
able to to compete with a lot of these, you know we're us we're like a small 6A school and we play
against a lot of these very large 6A schools which have a lot of talented players, but this year,
especially more than ever, I think we're going to be able to really really compete with them

(00:53):
and really play at their level and maybe even win our district. When does y'all's district start? I
believe our district starts in two weeks. I know we have one bye week after this weekend and then
I think we get into games almost immediately. What do you, what drives your passion for soccer?
Well for one, the game itself is just really really fun. I enjoy it and I've been doing it

(01:13):
for pretty much as long as I could walk but also the whole kind of community and culture
that surrounds it. I love all the guys who I play with so it's just hanging out with them and doing
something I love. It's just really really fun to me and really really appealing. What position
do you play? I play center back so I'm pretty much like the last defender of the team before
the goalkeeper. Okay, what do you enjoy about playing that position? It's a very stabilizing

(01:37):
role I would say. I'm not you know doing all the super flashy stuff, scoring a bunch of goals,
but it's more securing the team and making us keep the win and I find that very fun. Also just like
sort of the tactical parts of the position I enjoy doing, fulfilling. How have you felt that you
have grown as a player over the last four years? I've definitely just grown as a player by working

(02:03):
through adversity and working with different people because the thing with high school teams
is every year you are playing with new people as new people come and new people go. Just being
able to work with people who I've maybe never played with before and then get that chemistry
and get that teamwork going has really really been a challenge, but I really like competing
against that challenge. So I also know you play for a club team or travel team or whatever,

(02:25):
how is playing for that and who do you play for, and how's playing for that differ from a high
school team? I play for the for a Houston Dynamo traveling team which is one of the better teams
in the state but it differs heavily because with a team like this you know we all train together,
we all play together, and we've done so for numerous years so I'm very familiar with every

(02:46):
person who I'm playing with which kind of gets back to what I was saying is that I'm playing
with different people in high school. Another big thing is that high school ball itself is played
very differently which can be different. It can be sometimes challenging because it can be a lot
more physical than club soccer sometimes because obviously you're gonna be playing against people
who are older than you who are stronger than you so you encounter that a lot. Also just doing

(03:09):
different play styles and playing with different people really is really different. You have to
adapt to that. So you say it's in Houston, how often do you have to go to Houston to practice?
Back when we were in season, I would commute to Houston three or four times a week for practice
and then probably once or twice over the weekend for games. How did you balance all of that,
I know you're taking IB courses and things like that, how did you balance all that? Balancing it

(03:33):
is really really tricky. I would pretty much just have to cram and work where I could or just stay
up really late at night in order to get it done so it would be like I would get home, and have
maybe 30 minutes to do work before I would have to leave and drive off to soccer and then I would
get back and by the time I'd finished eating and showering and everything I'd maybe be like capable
of working at like 11:30 so I just had to like cram and work where I could and then just like

(03:55):
not get much sleep to finish the rest. Where were some of the most interesting places you've
traveled to play? I've traveled, I don't know if this is interesting but it's kind of cool because
it's far away, I've traveled up to we've like done a 12-hour drive to Oklahoma to play against teams
there and on a more personal level I've completed college showcases and stuff like that all the way
up in the Northeast such as like Ithaca and places pretty much all around the U.S. You mentioned

(04:19):
college, are you hoping to play soccer in college? I am hoping to play soccer in college. I wanna
kind of focus on education first and then play soccer as an addition, but I am hoping that a
school that I get into will also have a soccer program for me to play for. What are some of
the schools that you're just looking at right now? Schools that I'm really looking at that I
would love to play soccer would be a school like UPenn or MIT which like very high, very hard to

(04:42):
get into, and have very high educational status also they do have a soccer team and I'd love to
be a part of that. Okay and if, you know as a last resort, hopefully, you will be playing
with the team but you know would you play club soccer or something just to keep playing? Yeah,
yeah definitely. My love for the game is or I guess kind of supersedes just wanting to play

(05:03):
at the highest level I can so even if I go to a school that maybe doesn't have a college program
for soccer, I'll still do like clubs or just like intramural soccer programs just around the area.
What's one of the biggest benefits you think players can get from playing an organized sport
like soccer? I mean there's so many, but being able to work under pressure and just being able

(05:24):
to because when you're in the games and stuff you have a lot of pressure on just being able to adapt
to that pressure and work hard and consistently is a big one. The other thing is just adaptability
and working with a tight schedule you know because if you're not, if you don't have all the free time
in the world being able to adapt to that and still get what you need to get done finished is very
valuable. What has been the most challenging part for you when it comes to playing soccer? The most

(05:49):
challenging part is definitely the mentality. Sometimes you know if you lose a game or you
perform badly individually it can really get in your head and that's something that I used
to really really struggle with, if I would screw up once or twice in the game I would be thinking
about it for the rest of the game which would cause a lot more mistakes on my part. Developing
just a kind of mental toughness to essentially forget about making your mistake and just keep
playing is probably the biggest challenge I faced. Have you seen that lesson transfer over

(06:13):
into the rest of your life? I definitely have. I don't want to say I've stopped worrying about
mistakes but when a mistake happens I kind of move on from it. I learn from it but I move on
and I don't dwell on something in the past. Okay, Alex, I appreciate you sitting down and talking to
us a little bit and I hope you have a great season. Of course thank you for having me.