Paul's Paradise
September 21, 2007 05:31 PM | General
September 21, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Many true freshmen get to ease into collegiate athletics, either redshirting their first year or playing a limited role on the team. Those that are ultra talented usually work their way into the swing of things as the season goes along, learning a little more each week while seeing their playing time increase as the season progresses.
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| Freshman Paul Paradise scored the winning goal at Duke last Saturday.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Then there is the case of Paul Paradise, the talented true freshman forward on the men’s soccer team.
Paradise has started all five games of the young season, recording an assist and a game-winning goal at No. 5 Duke in the process.
While this wouldn’t be as noteworthy if the Mountaineers had rolled to five easy wins over Cupcake U, the reality is West Virginia has jumped out to a 4-1 start playing at Ohio State, at No. 6 Maryland and at No. 5 Duke, winning the latter two contests for two of the biggest victories in school history.
Coach Marlon LeBlanc says Paradise’s play has proved ready for the trial-by-fire start to his career.
“Paul has been steady and he’s not trying to do too much. He’s got an experienced team around him which takes the pressure off of him but he’s playing good soccer and doing what we are asking him to do,” LeBlanc said. “Now if the goals start to come it will be just another feather in his cap.”
A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., Paradise was one of the top forwards in the country coming out of Plum High School as well as one of the best players to come out Western Pennsylvania in recent years.
Paradise isn’t surprised that he has started every game this year, and for a guy that scored 78 career goals and added 56 assists in his high school career, why would he?
“I scored a lot of goals in high school and coach recruited me and he expected me to perform well for him right from the start,” Paradise said. “I don’t look at it as a surprise, I just feel like I’m doing what I was brought in to do.”
He was brought in to score goals, and his first career goal -- a game-winning rebound at No. 5 Duke -- could not have come at a better time for the Mountaineers.
“It felt amazing. It wasn’t that great of a goal but a goal is a goal,” Paradise said. “Mike Anoia had the shot and I was just following it up. It hit the post and I was just there to finish it off.”
Goals have been hard to come by for West Virginia so far this season. WVU has won all four of its games by identical 1-0 scores. While much of that is due to the quality of the competition the Mountaineers have played, Paradise notes that the team works hard every day to ensure that they create a lot of goal-scoring opportunities.
“Our defense has been amazing but we just need to work harder off of each other and get open and create chances,” Paradise said. “It would be great to get more goals. We haven’t been scoring a lot but we have been playing well.”
They have been playing very well in fact. WVU is currently ranked No. 5 by the NSCAA/adidas poll.
“Every day we strive to be a national championship-caliber team,” Paradise said. “Every game is another steeping stone for our team. It’s been a great experience so far and we’re all doing really well.”
Almost every player that goes from high school to college has to adjust to the vastly superior talent at the collegiate level. Despite his early success, Paradise admits that he is no different.
“The speed of play and the physical ability of the players is the main difference,” Paradise said. “The players are lot stronger and faster so obviously it’s a lot harder.”
LeBlanc explains that the adjustment to the speed factor is even greater when coming into his up-temp attacking system.
“There’s always an adjustment when you go from high school to the college level. That is especially true with us and the way we like to play because everything is a lot faster,” LeBlanc said. “It took him a little time to get his legs underneath him and to catch up to what we were doing but he’s starting to do that now. His last three performances against Maryland, Duquesne and Duke have all been very good and the hope is that it continues throughout the season.
If the fast start to his career is any indication, Paradise will be ready for anything that comes his way.
