How is a fire started? Before there is a flame, there must first be a spark.
On the soccer pitch, the player who sets the game on fire is often the one to receive recognition.
Yet this flame can only burn so brightly with the help of the player who ignites the fire, the ‘spark.’
In the Marquette men’s soccer program, head coach David Korn is recognizing these players who make the smaller and less glamorous plays that create the big moments.
“There’s a lot of actions in a soccer game that can go unnoticed in regard to a statistical category,” Korn said. “The guy that had the shutout or the guy that had the goal, they’re going to be the story feature. But maybe there’s other players whose impact on the game had a big part of us winning, and some positions sometimes or players sometimes don’t get that same accolade.”
Thus, the “SPARK” award was born. At the end of each winning match, it is given to the player whose hard work and energy helped the team to a victory.
It’s a new implementation to the program, along with Korn. Not to mention a roster featuring 15 new players with seven first-years and eight transfers.
Among these newcomers is junior midfielder Gabe Anguil, who transferred from UW-Milwaukee after two seasons.
“Coming from another school, it’s the first time I’ve had a coach that’s super personable and super easy to talk to,” Anguil said. “I think he’s seven for seven on pregame speeches, it makes you want to run through a wall. I think he preaches a very good culture and that will help us go really far this season.”
Anguil is the second player to receive the SPARK award after his performance in Marquette’s 6-1 exhibition victory over Aquinas College.
As a midfielder, Anguil has responsibilities on both ends of the field, which can become exhausting through the 90 minutes. However, the transfer won 37 balls, tallied interceptions, back-pressed and won the ball back when necessary.
“We felt like his defensive effort, his work rate, those things just generated so much momentum for us, made it so difficult on our opponents and fit in a lot with the identity that we want of our individual players,” Korn said.
Another newcomer who delivered a SPARK-worthy performance is first-year goalkeeper Marten Brink. In his collegiate debut, the Stukenbrock, Germany native earned a clean sheet and tallied six saves for the Golden Eagles in their 2-0 victory over Drexel.
To Brink, the honor is a positive way to be recognized by teammates.
“When somebody gets the SPARK, I think the whole team is happy for the person,” Brink said. “And honestly if you had it once, you want it again, so it’s another motivation to do better, so I really like it.”
He enjoyed it so much that he forgot to bring the Golden Eagle hat given to winners back for the next match.
“I thought about bringing it to the game but then I was so focused on the game and I forgot,” Brink said.
The award is focused on effort-based contributions rather than statistical.
It was senior midfielder Justin Milovanov’s goal that grabbed headlines during Marquette’s 1-0 victory over Yale and solidified the win. But Milovanov wasn’t the SPARK recipient that night.
“The Yale game, Justin scored a beautiful goal, and everything was focused on him,” Brink said. “But then the SPARK went to Mitar who had a great game, so it was not Justin because he scored the one goal, it was Mitar because of the small things.”
The new identity of Marquette men’s soccer is comprised of hard work and intensity, and the incorporation of the SPARK award this season motivates players to bring their all into every match.
“We talked about one spark could light a fire,” Korn said. “We discovered a lot of times when we talk about film or training that we never know which play is going to be the most important one of the game. And so, if we can continue to celebrate a lot of those individual plays, that help lead to the outcome we want.”
This story was written by Sofie Hanrahan. She can be reached at Sofia.hanrahan@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @SofieHanrahanMU.