How To Play Soccer and Football in the Same Season:Michael Cantrell Proves It Can Be Done

After spending 14 years honing his soccer skills and taking them to a whole new level, Michael Cantrell has decided to take those skills to a whole new game: Football. Michael is a senior at North Raleigh Christian Academy, where he is playing soccer just like he has every year since he was five years old. But this year, he also has a spot as a kicker on the Knight's football team. He jumped at the chance to play football for the school, reasoning that his soccer skills could help the team, and the experience on the gridiron would help him round out his skills. No doubt his soccer kicking skills do help, but he has found kicking a football is a lot harder than it looks. There is much more technical skill involved in kicking a football, he says. "You have to make sure your body is properly aligned with the ball, that your shoulders are properly aligned relative to where you want the ball to go. A lot goes into it." Even so, his soccer skills bring a lot to the table, as witnessed by his managing a 32 yard field goal his first football game of the season. No matter how good his newfound football skills are, however, there is no chance he'll give up on soccer. When practice for soccer and football overlap, as they often do, Michael goes with soccer first, practicing his football kicks when soccer practice is over. And should a football game be scheduled the same time as a football game, football loses out. When asked to sum up the difference between football and soccer, Cantrell explained that while in football you have plays scripted out and decided in advance, in soccer there is much more chance for creativity and spontaneity. In addition, he says that the conditioning requirements for the two sports are vastly different. "In football, you have a short burst of activity, followed by a lot of standing around. But in soccer, you are running all the time. Some games, you might run 5 to 7 kilometers. Conditioning is much more important in soccer," he said. So what is next for Michael Cantrell? Good question. Right now he is examining his options, deciding whether he wants to continue his soccer career at the college level or just focus on academics. One possibility for the future is law school, something he is convinced he would be good at. His record so far and his proven ability to adapt, leaves little argument. Whatever the future holds, soccer is sure to be involved in some way. After all, according to Cantrell, soccer is "the most amazing sport in the world!"