When Brad Napper was being recruited by the Northwestern men’s soccer team, there were a few reasons for him not to come to Evanston.
For a Texas boy, Chicago weather had to be one of them. Or maybe the fact that NU won only one game that year. And none the year before that.
But Napper, a captain who plays defense and midfield, viewed playing for NU as a challenge, and the coaching staff convinced him they were building something big.
“When they started talking about what we were going to do with the program, I was excited,” said Napper, a junior. “That makes the guys coming in feel really enthusiastic when you have coaches so optimistic.”
It has taken three years, but the Wildcats have built the team they set out to become when Napper arrived. NU is 10-3-2 overall and 2-1-1 in the Big Ten, giving it the best record and the best conference placement in the program’s history. The Cats also received their first national ranking in team history this week when they came in at No. 25.
Napper, a sports buff who loves the Dallas Cowboys, has had a great season. He is second on the team with six goals and also leads the Cats in shot percentage.
Napper was named to “Soccer America” and “College Soccer News” teams of the week this week for his game-winner Sunday against Michigan and his game-tying goal last week against Loyola.
Napper’s success may be due to his competitive nature. He’s so competitive that coach Tim Lenahan said he often makes bad calls at practice just to see how much Napper will argue them.
Napper “has really blossomed” this year and has grown more consistent, Lenahan said. He’s been especially good at set pieces.
“He’s so good in the air, even the Penn State coach came up to me after that game and asked me, ‘Does Napper ever lose a head ball?'” Lenahan said.
Napper was never used to losing much. Back home in Dallas, where “Texas football is in a league of its own,” soccer is played year-round, and that’s the sport Napper was eventually drawn to.
Napper won state championships with both his high school team and the club squad he captained for eight years, so coming to a 1-13-3 NU team was a bit of a change.
“It’s always tough at first,” Napper said. “No one likes to lose, obviously, at all. But (my teammates and I) were sold on the fact that we could turn it around.”
And, step by step, Napper and his recruiting class have turned NU’s program around. The Cats went 8-12-0 in 2002 and 7-7-6 in 2003.
This season is the Cats’ best ever, and several NU players been nationally recognized. And, of course, there was their upset of defending-champion Indiana two weeks ago.
They take on Ohio State today in a battle for second in the Big Ten, a matchup that will feature the conference’s leading scorers: NU’s Gerardo Alvarez and the Buckeyes’ Justin Cook.
“The effort we had to put through to get where we are now is tough, and it’s something I’ll always remember,” Napper said. “And now you get to see the benefits from all the hard work.
“To get national recognition is awesome, because we’ve been doing so well. Now that we did that, we have to make sure we can back it up. With that ’25’ next to our name, teams look forward to playing us. We can’t let them sneak up on us.”
Reach Courtney McCarty at
No. 25 NU (10-3-2, 2-1-1 Big Ten) vs. Ohio State
(7-5-2, 3-1-1)
When: 3 p.m. Today
Where: Lakeside Field
