The Jag 

By Aizak Miller 

Sports Editor 

Sports can allow for an escape from reality or from life. They can take your focus off things going on in your daily life. For Carter Derksen, that’s exactly what soccer does for him.

“It gives me a good opportunity to express myself and get away from all that’s going on outside of soccer,” Derksen said.

Derksen is a 17-year-old South Junior from Lee’s Summit. He made his professional soccer debut with SKC II on March 8th as a midfielder against the Houston Dynamo 2. (Kansas City ended up losing this game 3-1.)

“It was a really fun and cool experience for sure,” he said. “I’m already looking forward to the next one even though we lost the first one.”

Derksen has been playing soccer ever since he was five years old. He has been with the Sporting Academy for 7 years. He did not know when this opportunity to play for Sporting KC II would come.

“I really did not know when it would happen. I knew I would have opportunities over winter break that would help my chances, but I had no clue when it would go through.”

He talked about the path and what it took to get to this point in his soccer career.

“It took a lot of time and a lot of commitment. There were many hard times and even times when I would get caught up in comparison and question myself If I was ever going to get this opportunity.”

He knows his strengths are his IQ and fitness.

“My ability to know what to do in certain situations and to understand the game well and also just being able to play hard for a long time and run with anybody,” he said.

Derksen is always on the road and has to miss a lot of school for soccer.

“This is definitely the hardest part about all of this because school is really important to me and missing two to three days a week adds up,” he said. “I bring my schoolwork on all the trips and do homework on flights or at the hotels.”

Derksen still has some goals for his soccer career.

“Right now, I am just an amateur (amateur contract) but at some point, I want to sign a pro contract. Eventually the goal is to play first division in Europe but I’m just embracing playing with Sporting right now.”

 Playing in the Sporting Academy means he cannot play for the high school team.

“Even though I can’t play for the high school team, I still can play in college, and I do plan on playing soccer at a college somewhere,” Derksen said.