Senior Daniel Schiller will be attending Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island to play for their soccer team.

According to Schiller, going professional has always been his long-term goal. Schiller said he has been playing soccer since the age of four, and plans to continue playing through college and beyond. According to Schiller his commitment to Brown University is a step in the right direction.

“It had everything I wanted academically,” Schiller said.  “Soccer -wise, it’s also a really good school. [It has a] great program and the campus is beautiful.”

Schiller said that as he was visiting colleges on the East Coast this past summer, the offer from Brown finally came in.  On the trip, he was invited to the soccer camp at the university.

“This sounds cliché, but I just went to play soccer,” Schiller said. “I wasn’t expecting anything out of it, I’d already gotten my offers. Then the next week [Brown] gave me a call and said, ‘I want you to be part of the team.’”

During his sophomore year, Schiller suffered from a knee injury called Osteochondritis Dissecans.  According to Schiller, it is when the cartilage in the knee starts to deteriorate and dry out. Schiller said the injury required arthroscopic surgery.  After this setback, he took his junior year to recover and grow stronger.

David Richardson, Schiller’s current club coach, said that his first game back was definitely difficult, but Schiller met the challenge.

“The first game is always the most difficult game, because when he came back from his injury we had to bring him back slowly through training,” Richardson said. “[Then we] put him into some games, [and we knew] he wasn’t going to return back to the highest level of competition [since] he wasn’t prepared to do that [yet].”

According to Schiller, most athletes that go on to play at the collegiate level get their offers in the first two years of high school.

“For me, it was a six-month process, which was fantastic,” Schiller said. “I hadn’t started playing until this winter again, and that’s when I started getting back in the swing of things.”

Schiller said he plays for Sockers FC Chicago on the U18 Developmental Academy team, which is run by the U.S Soccer Federation. Richardson said Schiller has been playing for this club since he was eight years old. He has never played GBS soccer because his coaches advised him against it.    

According to Schiller, for most of his soccer career with Sockers FC Chicago, he has played with Aidan Megally, his friend and teammate.

“I met Danny when I first joined the club when we were around 10-11 years old. We have been playing ever since,” Megally said.    

According to Megally, he has always enjoyed playing with Schiller.

“Playing with Danny is fun; we have good chemistry on and off the field which makes playing with him so enjoyable,” Megally said.

Both Richardson and Megally see Schiller as a leader to his team.  According to Megally, Schiller leads by example, and his work ethic really rubs off on the entire team. Richardson expressed that Schiller grew the most as a leader and a teammate when he suffered from his injury.

“That time that he didn’t play, he actually developed a new love for the game and an appreciation for the opportunity to play the game and to not get discouraged, [and to instead] overcome difficult challenges,” Richardson said.   

According to Schiller, his soccer schedule is very demanding with practices about three days a week and one-to-two games on weekends.  Over time, he has learned to balance his school and soccer life.

“I like to keep my soccer in its own sector of my life, then once I’m at school, I have to be a student first,” Schiller said.