Photo: Kevin Eckleberry
TONI SOSA
I know the next level’s going to be even harder.”
By Kevin Eckleberry
Toni Sosa knows the challenge facing him is a tall one.
when he signed. “I know the next level’s going to be even harder.”
Sosa was a successful member of the LaGrange High boys’ soccer team, and he helped lead the team to the third round of the state playoffs last spring.
Fully aware of how difficult it’ll be to find a place on the field, Sosa accepted the offer to join Keiser’s program without reservation.
With his high-school days behind him, Sosa is trying to make a go of it in college, and he’s a member a Keiser University (Fla.) team that has been ranked near the top of the NAIA national standings all season. Sosa has spent the fall season on the developmental team, which gives players who don’t get playing time on the varsity level an opportunity to acclimate to the college game. At Keiser, Sosa is surrounded by players who were at the top of the ladder on their high-school rosters, and he knows there are no shortcuts to success. “The work has just begun,” Sosa said
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“I’m excited,” Sosa said. “I know going into there, it’s a really great program. It I can help them, if I can play, that’s great.” Sosa became a member of the LaGrange High soccer family as a freshman, and after playing sparingly on the varsity squad his first two years, he was a starter his final two seasons, and he was a team captain as a senior. “Toni was on the varsity as a freshman, and didn’t play a lot,” said LaGrange head coach Shane Pulliam. “The next year he didn’t play a lot, and then he started, and this year he was a captain. The difference between Toni as a junior and Toni as a senior is night and day. That’s why he’s (signing). Something in him
flipped a switch, and he decided that I’m going to be better. He started running on his own, training on his own, and he came out and became a leader on our team, was a captain on our team.” Sosa, Pulliam added, “got better every year because he chose to be better, and chose to be a leader.” Pulliam’s respect for Sosa only grew after LaGrange fell to East Hall in the state tournament last spring. “We lost, we’re in the locker room. I give the seniors a chance to go around and talk,” Pulliam recalls. “(Sosa) said, every player on this team matters. Whether you are a starter or not, everybody matters. I wouldn’t be where I was, doing what I do, if it wasn’t for you guys. All of you guys helped make me a better as a player. That is exactly the kind of leadership I expressed to the Keiser coach.”
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