Seth Stammler: Setting The Standard
9/22/2003 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 22, 2003
By Adam Zundell
Maryland Media Relations Staff
Seth Stammler is the Maryland men's soccer program. Not in that the program will collapse without his presence next season, but that he represents all of the qualities that head coach Sasho Cirovski wants in his players: talent, leadership, tenacious, hard-working and conscientious about being a student-athlete. Stammler, the 2003 team captain for the second consecutive season, is the mold in which current and future Terps will strive.
Yet while he is held in such high esteem by coaches and players, what makes him easy to relate to are his vulnerabilities. The truth is that things never came easy for Seth Stammler. While he now stands among the top players in college soccer, there were times when things weren't so rosy and he didn't think he would make it.
As a talented but skinny sophomore in high school, Stammler worked out to put on some weight to try and get to the Division I level. He was not the most coveted recruit, but he walked on at one of the emerging powers in college soccer. Despite seeing significant action as a freshman playing in 19 matches and starting nine, there was a twinge of feeling like he didn't belong and that he didn't have what it took to make it at Maryland. He actually considered leaving College Park that year, but a refreshing spring season re-energized Stammler and made him decide that he was going to leave his mark on the Terrapin program.
"I was pretty intimidated by some of the guys I was surrounded by," Stammler admits. "All of our forwards were pretty big-name guys and had real good reputations, and it kind of gets in your head a little bit. I just didn't know if I had what it takes to play at Maryland. But in that spring I did have a lot of fun, I got to know the guys better and just have fun playing."
Stammler moved from forward to back as a sophomore and has flourished in his defensive role ever since. As the team's best long-ball passer, he is still able to start the offense, but his speed and knowledge are keys to Maryland's smothering defense. Now, not only does Stammler belong at Maryland, he is a huge catalyst for the team's success.
"Seth is a coach's dream," head coach Sasho Cirovski says. "He's our captain, our leader, he's our glue in the back.
"Seth has the rare quality of competitive greatness--he does whatever necessary to to win the game. Last year in the ACC semifinals, he played through food poisoning and a high fever and played all 90 minutes. The next game he risked life and limb and made a game-saving clearance. Those are the kinds of things you want in your leader."
It's not just his triumphant ascent over adversity that has earned him the respect of his coaches and teammates, but it is his well-roundedness that makes him the guy that people look to.
"I don't think I'm the most skillful or the best soccer player on the team, but I think I have a lot to offer as a leader because I try to put priority on family life and school as well as trying to be successful and help out on the soccer field," Stammler says.
Yet his soccer skills are undeniable. Last December, a few weeks after the Terps' season had ended in the NCAA semifinals, Stammler got a call from Cirovski telling him he was a likely candidate for a trip to Portugal with the U-23 national team, consisting of a pool of players in which a few will be selected to play in the next Olympics. Stammler, who was vacationing in the Caribbean at the time, got confirmation that he had made the team and when he stepped off the boat from his trip he boarded a plane to join the team before they left for overseas.
With the U-23 team full of Major League Soccer (MLS) standouts and former college stars, Stammler again felt slightly out of place. However, his abilities overcame his apprehension as he started in two and played in four of the team's five matches.
"There is no greater feeling than putting on the U.S. jersey because growing up you always see the national team and all of the guys that have come through there: Pat McBride, Claudia Reyna, Casey Keller. To just be on the trip was a great honor."
Adding to the list of honors, Stammler now has the distinct recognition of leading the No. 1 team in the nation this fall. The season is early, though, and he knows what challenges lay ahead as the top team in the nation.
"It's going to be up to us as players to be prepared to play like it is one of our top games each time we go out, because we are the biggest game on everybody's schedule and they are going to give us their best shot," he says.
There is a long road between the Terps and the NCAA title, but that is the standard in which this team wants to be measured. Just as Stammler has set the bar for Maryland soccer players, he hopes that this season will be one that all others will be compared to here at Maryland.
