Soccer lore stereotypes the goalkeeper as an obsessive loner who\u2019s chosen a Sisyphean task. Sometimes they\u2019re hot heads, sometimes misfits or flamboyant prima donnas, but rarely are goalkeepers portrayed as level-headed.<\/p>\n
Thunder Mountain High School goalkeeper John Seymour doesn\u2019t fit the stereotype.<\/p>\n
The senior Falcon is cool and light hearted. He depends on hard work and communication rather than appeasing the soccer muses. Perhaps it\u2019s his pragmatic mindset that has carried him to an athletic scholarship with Edmonds Community College in Washington, where he starts his college career next Fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to deal with ups and downs well,\u201d Seymour said as he warmed up for practice. \u201cMost people don\u2019t like goalie because of how hard it is. You\u2019re having balls kicked at you. To play goalie you have to think about what you can do for your team, not necessarily what your team can do for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of Seymour\u2019s progress has come from being the backstop of a growing program. He started with the varsity squad midway through his freshman year.<\/p>\n
\u201cVarsity experience has helped me a lot. A lot of guys will go to JDHS because they think they can\u2019t get the experience here,\u201d Seymour said. \u201cWith TMHS, we\u2019re trying to get the program to progress. Honestly, I think I\u2019ve progressed through this program very well. I think I have gotten a lot of good experience, especially playing goalkeeper. Even those games when I have a lot of shots on me, it\u2019s good experience,\u201d Seymour said.<\/p>\n
TMHS assistant coach Josh Odum, who has worked with Seymour since his youth league days, said Seymour\u2019s dedication has made him a special player, physically and mentally.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis communication from the backline in directing his defense is pretty incredible for his age,\u201d Odum said. \u201cIt really comes with experience and hard work. We come out here three days a week an hour before practice to just work on goalkeeper stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since his youth days, Odum said, \u201cJohn\u2019s biggest progress has been his tenacity in the box. When he was younger he was much more timid, which is normal for young goalkeepers, but he\u2019s fearless now. His spatial awareness is perfect. I see great things out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seymour played in the Olympic Development Program and travelled to San Diego, California, to play in the Nomad Tournament. The ODP work helped him polish his game against tough competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played against some really good players down south on the Alaska team,\u201d Seymour said. \u201cI mean, I didn\u2019t know what a knuckleball was until Antonio Hafferty hit one from like the 30-yard line and it was just moving everywhere for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seymour checked out schools last summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coach at Edmonds was the only coach I was actually able to meet, and I really liked him. \u2026 He seemed like a very nice guy who was also very serious about the game. … But he was easy to joke around with, too. Since then Edmonds has been on the top of the list.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Seymour doesn\u2019t have a major picked out, he plans on pursuing something in the sciences. He is most looking forward to developing his game in an atmosphere which revolves around soccer.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Kevin Gullufsen at kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com or at (907) 523-2228.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Soccer lore stereotypes the goalkeeper as an obsessive loner who\u2019s chosen a Sisyphean task. Sometimes they\u2019re hot heads, sometimes misfits or flamboyant prima donnas, but rarely are goalkeepers portrayed as level-headed. Thunder Mountain High School goalkeeper John Seymour doesn\u2019t fit the stereotype. The senior Falcon is cool and light hearted. He depends on hard work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":9041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9040"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}