Lessons From Soccer - On and Off the Field

A capable and dynamic athlete with one college season under his belt, goalkeeper Erik Lauta ’25 has already proven himself to be a standout Division III player. Here, he sits down with Coach Kyle Dezotell to discuss his recruiting process, the Tufts soccer team culture, and his aspirations of becoming a professional player. BY VALERIA VELASQUEZ ’23

Coach Dezotell in action.

How did you come to be at Tufts?

KYLE DEZOTELL (KD): I’ve coached since I got out of college. I actually tried to play after college and quickly realized I probably was not good enough to be a real pro. I was lucky enough to get into coaching and fell in love with it. I bounced around and coached at a number of lower-end Division III schools—really focusing on improving those programs and having success. Tufts is the fifth program I have worked at in seventeen years—it’s a dream job. The transition from the previous coach in 2020, now at Harvard and a good friend of mine, was as smooth as can be.

ERIK LAUTA (EL): COVID hit halfway through my junior year, which made things difficult because that is the prime time for recruiting. I had been talking to highly academic schools for a long time, but the pandemic then made it difficult for coaches to see me. Coach Dez reached out to me in May at the end of my junior year. We got in touch and I learned more about Tufts, which was a school I did not really know much about. When you’re from the West Coast, you don’t really know about the smaller schools—even if they are as prestigious as Tufts. The academic prowess of Tufts and the opportunities I was offered by the team quickly made it my number one choice over other schools.

Erik Lauta standing in the goal holding a soccer ball.

What makes soccer at Tufts unique?

EL: Before I committed to Tufts, I reached out to teammate Woovin Shin, who is a junior here and played at the same club I did in California. He told me that the best thing about the Tufts program is that the team truly is family. You hear this sort of thing when being recruited, but you don’t really realize how true it is until you get here. The captains work with us before we start training with the coaches, and as soon as I started getting to know my teammates, I fell in love with the program. All the guys on the team are good guys, we have excellent coaches, staff, training—everything.

KD: When going through the recruiting process, we look for students who are both academically talented and great athletes. We try to find student-athletes who want to compete at national championships and NESCAC championships but don’t want to sacrifice their academic, cultural, and social interests. Players here can compete at a national championship, get a 4.0 GPA, study abroad their junior year, and not miss out on the countless clubs and opportunities that exist on campus. For us, soccer is a really, really important piece of our student-athletes’ Tufts experience, but it is just one piece of what they do—I really believe that. We really encourage them to take advantage of everything Tufts has to offer, not just athletics.

Erik is a freshman goalkeeper. Is this typical for a first-year student?

KD: The line that we try to recruit on is that we want to recruit athletes who truly could be D-I players, but come to D-III because of the academics and for what a Tufts education looks like and can mean for their future and their life. There was a situation here, where there was some turnover in the program and the goalkeeper position was there to be won. We have a lot of wonderful goalkeepers, and Erik had the opportunity to compete against another top choice and ultimately won. The good thing about this program is that we are always going to have healthy competition because we’re always going to have good players.

What impact has your relationship with Coach Dezotell had on your Tufts experience?

EL: Starting during the preseason, I immediately wanted to show Coach Dez why I deserved to be on the team and become a goalkeeper. Athletically, Coach has pushed me, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous during the preseason. He helped me build confidence, especially during my first few games, and he’s pushing me to be the best athlete I can possibly be and not letting me slow down or slack off. The other coaches, Max Lichtenstein and Mark Waterman, and the entire coaching staff, have done a really good job at helping me adapt to college soccer.

KD: Early on in preseason when Erik was working for the goalkeeper position, I thought to myself that there aren’t too many D-III soccer players that can do what he does. He’s as athletic as a goalkeeper can be which is why Erik aspires to become a professional goalkeeper. At the end of the day, what is important for Erik is that we continue to support him and work hard and that he continues to become the best athlete, leader, and teammate he can be. The goalkeeper is often a loud voice and instills confidence in his team, and Erik does that as a first-year already, which is unique. Ultimately, he’s going to graduate with an amazing soccer career and an amazing education. Additionally, there are moments where you look back on the season as coach, and recognize that Erik made a play or a save that—without it—would have likely resulted in a loss. There was a specific moment in a game against Stevens Institute of Technology where we were initially losing. I imagine a lot of athletes would have felt pretty defeated and under a lot of pressure. But Erik, who already has plenty of confidence and thrives in these high-pressure moments, stepped up, made a save, and allowed us to continue. A round or two later, we won.

EL: That moment felt so great. It was definitely the craziest moment of my soccer career, in terms of how big that moment was. It was just such a fantastic and unpredictable game and at that moment, we could have lost and the team’s seniors’ college soccer careers would have been over. I was never nervous—I honestly enjoyed it—but the relief that hit me after making that save was incredible.