Eddie Santos, captain and right back for the Ardsley Varsity Soccer team, has played soccer all of his life. He wears number two but says that “it doesn’t have any sort of special meaning. When I was a freshman, it was one of the only low numbers that was open so I picked it.” Soccer has been important to him since he was a kid, but his inspiration really comes from,“my dad and my grandpa. They played soccer most of their lives and I was always surrounded by soccer, whether watching it or because my relatives played it. That's what really got me wanting to play.” One of his favorite players and someone he looks up to is Sergio Ramos, who plays for Real Madrid. Ramos also plays right back. Eddie admires Ramos because “he is a fighter and a warrior in the back, and that's the play style that I like, and he's willing to throw anything in front of the ball to block it.”
Eddie loves the game of soccer, but his favorite aspect of the game is “the passion for the game that people have.The grit and the drive that some people have, that’s what makes me happy. I see soccer as an art. People may say that it's easy, but it's really not. The skill required for it is difficult to master.” He enjoys seeing that love that others have for the game because it motivates him to do better himself. When taking a look at his work as being captain, Eddie quickly credited his leadership, to how he is “very vocal on the field. Not in a bossy sort of way but I like to give people a heads up or tell them where they should be. From my position I see most of the field and can really see the open field. That gives me the ability to really place the ball on someone's foot.”
He credits his success as a leader to his previous captains, and he loved “learning about what these guys put onto the team. I was honored to be captain this year, and I got to pick my favorite parts of what they did and use it this year.”
The Ardsley Panthers Varsity Soccer Team has been quite successful this year, and Eddie credits a few other players. When asked about who deserves credit for the team’s success, he mentioned junior Pierce Dillon. “He has scored a lot of goals this year and last year, and he does the background work. He keeps the team balanced and does great work in the midfield.” Pierce wasn’t the only player he mentioned, as he gave high praise to senior Aidan Muldoon. “He is a very quiet player, he doesn’t say much but he gets the job done and is having a breakout year.” Another player that Eddie has had good chemistry with is senior Luca Fuente. Eddie credits their success together to their communication. “We both speak Spanish, which gives us the ability to communicate well, and we just know where each other are going to be at all times. I know if I look over my shoulder, Luca’s gonna be there at all times.” The soccer team’s chemistry is what has made them have a successful season this year.
Eddie has high hopes for the team, and believes that they “can go all the way and win the championship because the pandemic has really driven us. We have that dog mentality that gets us going and we really try to win everything on and off the field.” The pandemic has greatly affected all sports programs worldwide, but Eddie thinks that Covid could have actually benefited the soccer team. “I think since our loss last year, and the lockdown in March, it kinda boosted us and made everyone work harder. We all did a lot of work over the summer, even though we didn’t know what was gonna happen, but we did as much as we could to grow as a team. This pandemic has really moved us, and we play every game like it’s our last. We never know when we might stop, or have our season completely end.” Eddie also mentioned how the Soccer team made it to the semifinals his Sophomore year, but weren’t able to come home with a championship. He and the rest of the Panthers look to change the past in the next few weeks, and not only make it back to the semifinals, but win the championship.