Soccer
Favorite athlete: Sepp Dasbach (brother)
Favorite team: Liverpool F.C.
Favorite memory competing in sports: Scoring a goal at nationals for Penn Fusion Celtic
Music on iPod: Blue Scholars, Common Market, Cool Calm Pete, CYNE, Nujabes, Toro y Moi
Future plans: Enjoying life as it dictates
Words to live by: ‘If we can’t make love, we can always make peace, can’t we?’
One goal before turning 30: To not be overwhelmed and to have found bliss.
One thing people don’t know about me: I’m a philatelomanic
By Alex Frazier
Being a captain can be a daunting responsibility.
That’s especially true after an upset loss.
Wissahickon was cruising through the American Conference until Monday when Upper Moreland spanked the Trojans 3-1 for their first league loss.
For senior captain Stefan Dasbach, it was a call to leadership.
“You have to get the players to realize what happened but not to dwell on it,” said Dasbach. “What happened, happened. We’ll move on from it, we’ll learn from it, we’ll grow from it, and make sure we train harder. We have to focus better and we have to play more unified in order to get over that speed bump and peak during playoffs.”
Coach Stuart Malcolm is impressed with his maturity as a leader.
“He’s very unselfish and does the right thing,” he noted.
For example, when players are shooting at goal during practice and miss, he’ll be the one to go collect all the balls.
“He leads by what he does, not necessarily what he says,” said Malcolm. “He has been a steady influence on many of the younger players on the squad. He is willing to do the little things in practice that show the squad how to prepare for games.”
Being a leader isn’t easy.
“It’s always tough because you are a role model for everyone,” said Dasbach. “All the players rely on you, consciously or not because the captains are the morale of the team. When you’re in games that are really tough, you have to fight through them. It’s up to the captains to bring the team to the next level and get things done.”
Although he may not always offer an opinion when asked for it, Dasbach demonstrates his savvy.
“He’s pretty insightful in terms of what we need to do,” said Malcolm. “He goes along with what our expectations are.”
Dasbach has been playing soccer since he started intramurals at Shady Grove when he was six. He played travel team for Whitpain beginning at eight. When he was about 12, he also started playing for Spirit United Celtics, a team he has since committed to entirely. Spirit is now called Penn Fusion Celtics.
Two years ago, Penn Fusion went 2-1 at Nationals, losing a tiebreaker on goal differential. This past summer the team placed second at the national championships, losing in the finals on penalty kicks.
For most of his soccer career, Dasbach has played center midfield.
As a sophomore at Wissahickon, he had the chance to play forward.
“That was a lot of fun,” he recalled. “I really enjoyed that.”
This year, however, Malcolm decided he would be more valuable in the back, so Dasbach has moved to center back.
“He’s a very smart player, and we can play him in any position,” the Trojans’ coach said. “He’s so good at organizing the rest of the team, so he’s stayed in that defensive role.”
Which has proven beneficial to the team.
“He has taken an unselfish approach by playing out of position to help the team and was instrumental in two great performances against two very strong programs in St. Benedicts and Salesianum,” noted Malcolm.
“I would prefer to play center midfielder, but the way the team is playing out this year, it’s in the team’s best interest that I play back there,” said Dasbach.
Even playing in the back, Dasbach gets his chances to come forward for set plays and direct kicks. Sometimes he is a target player in front of the goal, but more often he is taking corner kicks and free kicks past half field. Although only 5-9, he goes up for long throws.
He scored the lone goal in a 4-1 loss to Pennridge and netted a pair of goals in an 8-0 rout of Upper Merion.
“He reads the game very well,” said Malcolm. “He strikes the ball very well and puts dangerous balls into the box. He’s an offensive threat too.”
Although he plays soccer year ‘round, he still manages to become involved in other areas at Wissahickon.
Dasbach is a member of the National Honor Society and is co-president of the Foreign Language Society.
One of his favorite clubs is FANS, which happens to be one of the most popular clubs at Wissahickon.
“There’s a designated group of fans who go out to sports games dressing in the same shirt and representing Wissahickon school spirit and who try to get organized chants going,” said Dasbach.
They are especially visible at football games.
Next year, Dasbach hopes to continue soccer at the next level.
Academically he is a strong student, and he is taking an impressive course load with advanced placement economics, calculus B/C, statistics, physics and Spanish as well as honors English.
“It’s pretty tough so far,” he said.
Though his top college choice is Stanford, he admits it would be “a reach.”
He is also considering Carnegie Mellon, Columbia and Penn.
“Because of soccer, that allows me a higher reach,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I was one of the more prestigious students, but it’s certainly within my capabilities to go to those institutions.”
With the exception of Carnegie, which is Division Three, the others are D-1 programs.
“I’m still working out how soccer is going to fit in with where I go,” he said.
He’s already been told that there wouldn’t be a spot for him at Penn. On Oct. 28 he will be making his official visit to Carnegie.
“They are a really strong engineering and computer science school and coupled with their sports, they’re top-notch,” said Dasbach. “I wouldn’t say it’s my top choice at this point, but it’s top three.”
Dasbach is planning on majoring in computer science. Someday he hopes to become a programmer or software developer.
“I attribute that to my activity on the computer,” he said. “I have an interest in how things work as far as machinery goes, and also the magic behind the programming and being the creator behind how users interface with programs.
“One thing that spurred my interest was phone apps and trying to figure out how to program those and just kind of seeing the growth in the field and the opportunity for entrepreneurialism.”
It sounds like he’s already figured out a good program.
