By Christpher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Like so many other younger children, Grafton’s Owen Schnabel’s parents signed him up for all kinds of sports trying to find his niche. Soccer soon became that sport that intrigued the young Schnabel and at the age of eight he was playing for a club team and not long after that, he realize that he had the talent to continue with the sport.

“It was around sixth grade when things really took off for me,” he said. “The biggest thing was that my grandfather passed away that year and he was always at my games and now he wasn’t. I was really grieving when he died and soccer was something that made me happy so I began playing more consistently and in doing so found that I was getting better.”

Every time that he stepped onto the field to practice or take part in a game, Schnabel definitely felt his grandfather with him and it was a special bond they shared although he was no longer there.

Entering high school, he went into the soccer tryouts with an open mind.

 “If I happened to make varsity it would be awesome and would challenge me to improve, but if I made JV it wouldn’t be the end of the world. At least I’d get minutes and reps on the field,” Schnabel said. “I made the varsity team, but only saw the field occasionally as I was much slower and smaller than most of the other players.”

At times the young freshman was wondering if it would have been better to make the Junior Varsity team and often found himself discouraged, but his coach continued to remind him just to stay his course and he would get there.

Schnabel took his coach’s advice to heart and challenged himself in practice. He began running more and hit the gym.

 “Owen is one of the most coachable kids I’ve ever had, he pics things up quickly and does whatever is asked of him,” Grafton Soccer coach Dave Mitchell said. “As a four-year varsity player, in terms of his confidence, it’s night and day. You could see that when he was a young player that he had the ability to be a great player and would provide an impact.”

In addition to the sport clicking with him as a younger kid, he was also able to take part in it with all of his friends. Now as seniors, the large group of friends find themselves on the field together.

 “During that first year, six of us made the varsity team and the other six were on JV. Now as seniors we are all together for one last year,” he said. “This is something that we’ve been talking about since we were kids and now here we are, all together one last time.”

Although Schnabel is glad that he is able to have this final season amongst all his childhood friends, he is also glad that the younger kids on the team have connected and have been an important part to this year’s team.

One of those younger players happens to be his younger brother Gavin.

 “Playing with all my friends has been special this year, but to get the chance to play with my brother in the midfield is even better,” he said. “This is something that we’ll be able to remember for as long as we live.”

While Schnabel sees the entire team gelling and doing this together, Coach Mitchell noted that the now senior is having himself a dominant year controlling the middle of the field for the Gators.’

 “He’s doing it all - scoring as well as passing – he’s been completely dominant in all aspects of his game and everything that we do goes though him,” the Grafton coach said. “He’s a captain and a leader - the team feeds off that. He is also a better kid than soccer player, and he’s a pretty great soccer player.”

Mitchell continued to note that Schnabel has matured beyond his years and his aggressive play on the field shows the rest of the team what is needed to be successful and they buy in and follow his lead.

Being named a captain to the team was one of his ultimate achievements.

“It was kind of emotional; over the years I had worked hard and I had looked up to the previous captains and now I bear that same responsibility,” he said. “I’ve grown into the role, but it was my parents who pushed me in the right direction telling me that I needed to step up and be that person.”

At the time of this writing Grafton was 8-0-2 and according to the coach, Schnabel had a lot to do with the team’s success on the field. His ability to use both feet allow him to create and has allowed him to become a dominant force as a playmaker and team leader.

However, Schnabel is not willing to take all the credit for the team’s early success.

“Being 8-0-2 is not because of me, absolutely not. It’s a total team effort where everyone contributes. Ben [Clements] has saved us so many times and Declan [Donagher] is scoring a ton of goals,” he said. “We need everyone and pride ourselves going out there and playing as a team.”

Along with his teammates Schnabel is hoping that the Gators can make a deep run through the State Tournament this year. Grafton has been eliminated in the first round the past two seasons and would really like to check that box off getting a win in the tournament. In order to do that the Gators are playing one day at a time and hope that mentality takes them further than they’ve been in the past.

Growing up, Schnabel never imagined playing soccer on the high school level with success, in fact his grandfather always saw him as a football captain. Although he didn’t become a football player, his grandfather supported his decisions and continues to follow his game despite not being on earth to do so by his side. I’m quite sure that his is beyond proud of what Schnabel has become on the soccer field.