Three years ago, Sean Klauer was playing for a U16 C team here at Crossfire Premier. This Friday, Oct. 7th at 7pm, the freshman will be in Portland, ready to sub-in when the University of San Diego plays the University of Portland on national television in the NSCAA Game of the Week on the FOX Soccer Channel. Sean has now played in the last 5 games and has 1 goal and 5 shots recorded for USD this season.
Sean joined Crossfire at U12 and played through U16 on C teams. When he got to high school, Sean grew and began to develop as a player. At U17, Sean trained with the B team in addition to his C team. He had always played center mid, but the coaches moved him to striker and he scored goals. Soon after, Sean was moved to the B team and led the team in goals that season. Sean never played for an A team. He was picked up for the Crossfire U-18 Academy team at the next try-out in the spring of 2010.
On the Academy team, Sean started in 23 of 24 games, played up top and also center mid and had 7 goals - 6 coming late in the season. Sean was a captain for the Eastlake High School team his senior year and they won their first ever WA State 4A Championship in May. On his high school team, Sean had 19 goals and 6 assists. The 2011 Eastlake State Championship team was made up almost entirely of boys that played for Crossfire Premier at some point. In June, the USD coach saw Sean play in Dallas with the U18 Academy. Sean had already been accepted to USD, but still wanted to play soccer. He attended USD’s high school ID camp in early July. After camp, Sean got the call and left for training camp with the USD team as a "walk-on" freshman. His first college goal for USD came against Manhattan College on Sept. 11th off a cross from the far right wing from about 10 yards out. "The tough Crossfire coaches at the higher levels really do prepare you to play soccer in college."
"I never thought I’d be playing D1 soccer, especially against a team like UCSB with their 13,000+ fans," said Sean. "Coolest experience ever, even though that game didn’t go our way..."
USD will play the University of Portland on Friday, Oct. 7th on the FOX Soccer Channel, and they play at Gonzaga on Sunday, Oct. 9th at 1pm. You can follow the USD team and Sean at http://usdtoreros.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/usd-m-soccer-body.html
