Soccer
Favorite athlete: Clint Dempsey
Favorite team: Seattle Sounders
Favorite memory competing in sports: Playing soccer in Italy.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Getting chipped from 40 yards out in a game.
Music on playlist: Zach Bryan
Future plans: Go to college and work in health sciences.
Words to live by: “Nobody cares, work harder.”
One goal before turning 30: Visit all 50 states.
One thing people don’t know about me: I was born in Seattle.
By GORDON GLANTZ
Mammas don’t let you babies grow up to be football players, huh?
Soccer, considered the safer alternative, is not exactly badminton.
That is especially true for goalkeepers.
For proof, just ask CB West senior keeper Griffin Blokker about the inherent job hazards.
“It feels like I have been in physical therapy once or twice a year,” he said. “I’ve had broken fingers. Last year, I separated both of my shoulders within a two-month span. That was not fun. I screwed up my hips a little bit a few years ago.”
Heeding the words of former West coach Stefan Szygiel – “no one cares, just work harder” – Blokker fought through those injuries, barely missing any playing time since becoming the starter his sophomore year.
But, while trying to perfect his goalkeeping chops at a camp this summer, he met his match.
“This happened a week before preseason, like in early August, when I was at a camp,” he said. “I went to dive for a ball on my left. As I went to push off on my left foot, my foot got stuck in the ground and I ended up breaking my fibula. They originally thought it was a high ankle sprain, but in the end, it turned out to be my fibula.
“I wasn’t sure at first because I managed to walk off the field on my own, but there was a lot of adrenaline. That’s probably what got me up and off the field, but I knew that something was wrong right away.”
The Comeback Trail
While the initial diagnosis hit him hard, Blokker repeated the mantra of “nobody cares, work harder” to himself and got back on the literal and figurative treadmill as soon as he was able.
“You just have to put your head down and keep on working,” said Blokker.
Instead of feeling too sorry for himself for too long, Blokker began working to get back onto the field.
“It’s my senior year,” he said. “I started all but one game, within the past two years – my sophomore and junior year – I was pretty devastated when I first heard it. But, now, I’m handling it pretty well.”
Aside from the physical work, Blokker refused to go into an emotional cocoon.
“I’m making sure I show up and can help out in any way possible, whether that is with the goalkeepers or helping the freshmen get acclimated to the program. I’m just being vocal and being present and helping out in any way that I can.”
For first-year head coach, John Adair, Blokker’s willingness to be of assistance has been both invaluable and inspiring.
“It’s a tough thing for a senior, going into his last season, but he has been great,” said the coach of Blokker, who serves as a captain. “He has been mentoring a lot of the younger guys, which is something that I, as a first-year coach, really emphasized. I really wanted to build a whole program, and not just focus on the top 25 guys.
“Griffin has consistently been working with and encouraging our freshmen goalkeepers and our JV goalkeepers. And, overall, he has just been involved and engaged and being an extension of us, the coaches, on the sideline. He has been a bigger asset than anything I could have expected from someone who is not playing in the games.”
Honing His Craft
Although his dad, Kevin, was a soccer goalkeeper, he did not allow his son to play the position right away.
“I was not always a goalkeeper,” he reflected. “My dad, who played at a high level, was a goalkeeper. He was my coach. He wouldn’t let me play in goal my first couple of years. He said, ‘If you want to play in goal, you are going to have to play in the field.’ These days, playing goalie is just as much about using your feet as it is about making saves.
“So, yeah, I played my first couple of years in the field. I was miserable. But, in hindsight, I thank him for making me do that. Now, I’d say I’m really good with my feet.”
Target Date
Blokker and his younger sister, Janelle, a soccer and basketball player at West, have a running contest about who has to go to rehab more.
Right now, he is piling up points in a quest to be back on the field for Senior Night and then play out the season.
“We don’t have a clear time table yet, but our target date is Oct. 10, our Senior Night, and that’s for obvious reasons,” said Adair, who had been familiar with Blokker since he was younger. “That is what we are hoping to do.”
For his part, Blokker feels he is on pace for that goal, having just begun training on the field.
“I just started taking some volleys and what not,” he said. “There is not a whole lot of movement, but I’m getting a feel back for some of that stuff.”
Moving Forward
Despite the ill-timed injury, Blokker is still looking to play at the college level, whether it is at a Division II or III school.
“He was already on track, and fully ahead of the recruiting process, before the injury,” said Adair. “The injury has put a little bit of a pause on it, but he still has everything that he needs to be doing in front of him. Hopefully, he can get it back and put to bed any doubts in his ability, if there are any out there.
“He is an incredibly bright kid. He really thinks about things and has a really good perspective on a lot of things. He doesn’t seem to look at things through the lens you would expect of a kid his age. He has an ability to take a step back, as opposed to being more reactionary. He is super mature, and incredibly well-spoken and well-mannered, in terms of what you could ever ask for, in terms of a representation of the program.”
A Possible Homecoming
Born in Seattle and moving to the area around the age of 9 or 10 because his father’s job, Blokker is looking return to his native Northwest, but all offers are still under consideration for the Academic All-American.
“I would love to go to school out there,” said Blokker, adding that frequent visits to the Seattle, along with social media, have allowed him to stay in touch with friends and family from his native area.
Blokker realizes that his work in the classroom, maintaining a 4.3 GPA, has kept him on the radar for interested schools.
“I’m taking a lot of AP classes,” said Blokker, an officer in the school’s NHS chapter while also in some STEM clubs. “I’m taking four this year. I took five last year and got some really good standardized test scores.
“I’m looking at some higher academic schools but, even at the more mediocre academic schools I’m looking at, I’m getting half of my tuition covered in just merit scholarships alone.”
Blokker, who says he probably boasts a 15-hour long eclectic playlist on Spotify, is as much influenced by his mother, Jeannie, as he is by his dad.
“I’d like to do something with nursing,” he said. “My mom runs a doctor’s office in our area. I’m constantly in that environment. I’m constantly around people like that.
“I think it’s intriguing, and that’s what I really want to do.”
And then are the teammates/friends he gained after moving east.
“When we first moved out here, it was tough to adjust,” Blokker explained. “I wouldn’t say it was a culture shock, but I came into this place where everyone had known each other for years on end. I just didn’t fit in for the first couple of months.
“Soccer helped with that a lot. I created some lifelong friends through soccer in this area that I would have never met had I not played soccer.”
In the final analysis, Blokker would to thank his parents for their guidance and support, particularly recently.
“In these last few weeks – with my broken fibula – they have constantly been in my ear,” he said. “Even when I’m down, they are like, ‘You’ve got this. You’re fine. Just keep on working.’ And my teammates, too. They have been big as well, staying in my ear.”
