Sports
Athlete of the Week: Alex Cruz
Bolingbrook's versatile midfielder is the inaugural pick for the recurring weekly series
Raiders senior midfielder Alex Cruz might not be the flashiest player out on the soccer field, but he is efficient and determined in whatever he does.
Even in the team’s 4-2 loss to Leyden on Wednesday, he accounted for one of the team’s goals and was constantly out there trying to set up plays for teammates and hold the line on defense as Leyden continued to apply pressure.
Soccer is very much a team game, and as a senior Cruz more than holds up his end. He is Bolingbrook’s first Athlete of the Week.
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How long have you been playing soccer? I started at an early age. Around 5 or 6.
So you started club and traveling soccer early on, then? No, actually, I didn’t start playing travel soccer until me and my family moved to Bolingbrook, which was like around sixth grade. I’ve basically loved soccer my whole life.
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Do you have any ambitions for the college game? Yeah, I’d like to play. My brother plays Division II and it is a fast-paced, tough game.
Have you yourself given any thought on where you’d like to go? Not at the moment. Right now I’m trying to keep my grades up, do good in school, and maybe play college soccer at some point.
Being a senior, you’re sort of the big man out there. Do you relish being a leader? Yeah, I like showing the underclassmen how to play with sportsmanship and I try to show them how to stay motivated and how if you focus on your game you’ll do well.
Do you have a favorite MLS team or athlete? Um … I really like Landon Donovan and the L.A. Galaxy. He’s a real playmaker as a midfielder. He’s strong and he has a lot of creativity out there on the field.
What about the English Premier League and the Euro leagues? I like Barcelona a lot for the Euro leagues. I also like Manchester United and some of the French teams out there are very good, too.
Even with the tough loss to Leyden today, what are your expectations for the season going forward? We have some time to put it all together. And Leyden’s a really good team. They should go straight to sectionals. We have a tough sectional, but I think we have a chance to win our regional, especially since it’s been 18 years since we last won it.
