Soccer, Baseball
Favorite athlete: My favorite athlete hands down is Michael Jordan; he is the one who really showed me pure determination and dedication to what he does. Watching him play is an honor to me and I live by the quotes he has!
Favorite team: I live by my Philadelphia teams: Phillies, Eagles, Sixers, Flyers, and Union. Even when they don’t have the best of years, I still love to watch them.
Favorite memory competing in sports: Hitting a walk-off grand slam when I was 11 years old at the Central Perk State Tournament. The game was tied going into the bottom of the sixth inning and I came up with bases loaded against the best pitcher I had ever seen and his team was undefeated. I maintained focus and just put a nice level swing on a pitch and watched the ball sail over the fence!
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: One of my closet friends who basically is a brother to me now is half deaf, and also he is my center back in soccer. When we first started playing together I didn’t know that he was half deaf and while communicating to him during a game he didn’t hear me and we both got caught in no man’s land, allowing an opposing player to walk right in between us and have an easy goal. This happened to us on numerous accounts, but finally I have been able to pick up on how to communicate better to him. We have been playing soccer together for almost 10 years now and its like I know what he is going to do in every situation during a game.
Music on your iPod: Before games, you can hear me listening to mostly Eminem and blink-182, I have a wide variety of music I listen to - sometimes you can even hear me listening to country. But most recently a teammate named Felipe Silva showed me these motivational speeches by Eric Thomas, which really draw me in and focus me for a big game.
Future plans: My plans are to attend either Bloomsburg University, Saint Joes, or Shippensburg in the fall and major in Medical Imaging/Radiation Therapy. During college, I will attempt to play at any one of those schools, if not at least play club. I can’t give up on sports, they really are my life. After college I definitely will keep playing sports in community leagues or just pick up somewhere with some of my friends. Finally I want to coach and give back to my community just like my coaches (Coach Quintios and Coach Benner).
Words to live by: “I can accept failure - everyone fails at something, but I can’t accept not trying” and “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Both quotes by Michael Jordan.
One goal before you turn 30: My one goal is to get back to a State Tournament and win a game. There is no better feeling than that! Also stay healthy and keep going with sports along with earning myself a steady job!
One thing people don’t know about me: I don’t like things handed to me. I love working for the things I want. Seeing what you have achieved by yourself is surreal along with achieving something, though there always is room for improvement, so I love to push myself to strive for better results. Finally, ever since I was five years old, my brothers and their friends have referred to me as “Tank.” It’s a nickname I picked up as a young child and to this day has never left me.
By Mary Jane Souder
Adam Strogis is one of those special players every coach would want on their team. Not only because of the athletic contributions the Souderton senior has to offer but because of the intangibles that set him apart.
Consider only that Strogis, an outstanding soccer goalie, was relegated to the role of varsity backup until his senior year as he bided his time behind Tyler Afflerbach, the starting keeper at Drexel this year.
Instead of lamenting his fate, Strogis made the best of it, assuming the role of 12th man.
“Even though he wasn’t seeing time on the field, he was the emotional leader for us on the bench,” coach Matt Benner said. “He would always inspire the rest of the guys on the team to be loud and encourage the rest of the guys on the field.
“He kind of took the 12th man to heart last year, and he really pushed Tyler Afflerbach as much as he could and learned as much as he could from him. He handled it with great class and respect.”
Strogis came to terms with his fate early on in his high school career.
“I knew I wasn’t going to play until my senior year,” he said. “I took that into account.
“My sophomore year I got involved with being the 12th man. I didn’t really take it to where I took it my junior year when I realized, ‘Hey, we have a really good team this year. I need to step up and contribute something,’ so I created the 12th man, which was basically a cheerleader. I cheered from the sidelines, I gave motivational speeches during halftime and did whatever I could just to give us a spark.”
His contributions did not go unnoticed, and when it came time to elect captains at the end of the season last year, Strogis and Nick Stulb were elected.
“We knew a lot of seniors were exiting, and we were looking for guys that would come in and be a positive example and a positive voice moving forward, and Adam was one of those guys that was automatic in the boys’ minds,” Benner said. “Along with Nick Stulb, he was the guy they looked to right away to lead them moving forward to this year.”
Strogis has been an effective leader of a relatively inexperienced Indian squad.
“This is his first year as the leader back in the net, and he’s really risen to the occasion and become a vocal leader within the program, trying to show the younger guys who haven’t had varsity experience what it takes to be a committed player at this level,” Benner said. “He’s someone who pushes his teammates every day regardless of how things are going.
“As a goalkeeper, Adam does a fantastic job instructing our defenders and communicating on the field. Adam makes all the right saves and keeps us in a lot of games.”
Strogis also is the kicker and punter for the football team, a job he inherited last year when Jeff Wolf – also a standout soccer player – went down with an injury.
“In a week’s time, I had to learn everything,” Strogis recalled. “First of all, I’d never worn a football uniform, so it was cool doing that.
“All the different guys, all the different plays – it’s a whole different atmosphere.”
Strogis was apparently a quick study. In his first game, he was 4-for-4 on extra points and handled several kickoffs.
“I loved it,” he said. “It was so much fun.
“There were so many fans there. Going from a soccer game where there’s a 100 fans to playing in front of 2,000 fans, I was a little scared. I had butterflies, but I love that. Hands down, I wanted to do it again.”
This year, Strogis also took over the punting chores, a role that felt more natural to the veteran keeper.
“I’ve been punting my whole life,” he said. “It’s just getting the steps and motions down. That was the hardest part.
“If you mess up your timing or your steps, you’re getting hit right away, and that’s not fun.”
Playing two sports requires some serious schedule juggling, and two days a week, Strogis runs from soccer to football practice. On a recent Friday night, he went directly from a home soccer game to the football team’s game at Central Bucks West.
“Adam is a great kid, who has enjoyed trying to balance practice time between football and soccer,” coach Ed Gallagher said. “He’s very coachable and works well on all the different kicking techniques that we give him.
“He’s the first soccer player that we’re also using as a punter – his athleticism certainly helped sway our decision to use him there, and he’s doing a really nice job with punting.”
Keeping busy is part of Strogis’ DNA.
“If I wasn’t playing sports, I definitely would be in band or something,” he said. “I couldn’t be at home every night. I would have to pick something.”
Strogis has been competing in sports for as long as he can remember, inheriting his love of soccer from his older brothers.
“I probably started when I was three or four or maybe even earlier kicking the ball around,” he said. “By the time I was four, I had played my first game.”
He’s been playing ever since, moving from striker to goalie and following in the footsteps of his older brother, Dave, also a goalie.
“He was a big influence on my life,” Strogis said.
Baseball and basketball also entered the picture when Strogis was a youngster, and he continues to play both to this day, competing in basketball on the community circuit and playing baseball for his high school team.
Soccer, however, remains his number one sport, and to say he’s enjoying his final high school season would be an understatement.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “It’s literally a dream come true. I couldn’t picture anything better than my senior year being captain for the soccer team and also kicking for the football team. It’s surreal.”
In a soccer season that has had its ups and downs, Strogis manages to keep things upbeat even when the going gets tough.
“Adam’s always going to be a positive guy,” Benner said. “Obviously, we were all a little bit frustrated that some of the results early in the year didn’t go our way, but you go into the locker room the next day, and Adam’s the guy that’s got the music on, that’s getting the guys going, that’s smiling, that’s making his way around the locker room. He’s a great calming presence in the locker room.”
Strogis is a member of Souderton’s LINK Crew, which helps to orient incoming freshmen into high school life.
He has been accepted into Bloomsburg but is leaving his options open. He plans to enroll in a program called medical imaging/radiology therapy.
“Not many kids like hospitals, but I liked being around all the patients,” said Strogis, whose mother is in health care. “I like meeting new people, telling them what they need to do and helping them work at things.”
As for his future in soccer, that is also up in the air.
“I would love to play in college, and I’ll definitely play club if I don’t play for the school,” he said.
For now, Sturgis is making positive contributions to his high school squad.
We really respect him for the way he handled last season and the things he’s done this year because when it wasn’t his time, he was a great teammate and didn’t let personal pride or anything like that get in the way,” Benner said. “Now that he is getting his shot, he is continuing to excel.”
