Spicer voted m. soccer's model student athlete

Coming off a shellacking at Akron, the men's soccer team came into its home opener against Drexel on September 14 needing someone to step up.

Junior forward Darren Spicer, as he has done so many times in his Princeton career, answered that call and put away two goals in the second half to the adoring cheers of the home fans. His goals sealed the Princeton 3-0 shutout win.

Spicer has started off this season in style. He scored two goals in the Tigers' opener en route to a 3-2 win over Loyola, including the gamewinner. He leads the team with four goals, already matching his total for all of last year.

Yet Spicer is more than just a prolific goal scorer.

"Darren is the kind of player that makes his teammates better," head coach Jim Barlow said. "He gives everything he has every day in each exercise, and that kind of work rate rubs off on the other guys."

Spicer's dedication also carries over into the classroom, and this month he was voted the embodiment of a student-athlete by his teammates.

"I feel honored that my teammates thought that," Spicer said, "and it means a whole lot more at a school like Princeton."

A Politics major, Spicer is also pursuing a Near Eastern Studies certificate and is learning to speak Arabic. He is also a proficient speaker of French.

Yet Spicer admits that at Princeton it is far from easy to be a student-athlete.

"There is only so much time in a day and sometimes it just runs out on you," he said. "You try to balance everything as best as you can but sometimes it's extremely difficult."

After graduation, he hopes to pursue a career in professional soccer. If that falls through, however, he wants to do something in government service. With academic excellence here at Princeton he will be well prepared to enter that field.

Dedication leads to improvement

Spicer attributes much of his success both on and off the field to hard work and determination.

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This work ethic has shown its benefits in his playing ability, and has greatly helped both him and the team as a whole.

"He leads by example, constantly asking more of himself and finding ways to push through difficult stretches of games or practices," Barlow said. "As a player, he continues to improve at a great rate, and can make plays in tight spots, finish chances, and connect with his passes much better than when he arrived here."

Despite all his improvements, however, Spicer still made an immediate impact upon his arrival at Princeton. His freshman year he appeared in 17 matches, scoring three goals and notching two assists, making him the second highest scorer on the team.

He scored game-winning goals twice in the final minutes, first against LaSalle and then against American.

Last year Spicer continued his excellent play, starting in all of the team's 17 games. He scored four goals and was the team's leading scorer.

But despite his personal success, Spicer saw his team struggle. In 2001 the Tigers went 4-8-5 and 2-3-2 in the Ivy league. The Tigers improved to 6-8-3 last year, with a 3-3-1 Ivy league mark, but Spicer is hungry for an Ivy league title. He believes that this may well be the year.

"We have a really strong team with the best team chemistry since I've been here," he said. "We have the talent and I think we are going to surprise a lot of other Ivy League teams this year and contend for the title."

The team travels this weekend to Wofford, S.C. to take on Furman and Wofford. They start their Ivy League season by hosting Dartmouth the following Saturday, where Spicer will hope to keep the goals coming en route to a Princeton win.