In love with the sport - Seymour Tribune

November 1, 2017

For The Tribune

Brayan Morales’ father played soccer on a second division team in Mexico before the family moved to Seymour in 2004.

When Morales got the opportunity to play, it was only natural for him to get involved in the sport.

“(Dad) was playing professional in Mexico. He started encouraging me about playing soccer, and that is how I got started. I fell in love with the sport,” Morales said.

“It’s a sport where you have to think fast, and also you have to think about the people around you. I love that part of the game where you have to think about the other people, as well, because I like to care about the other players.”

Morales recalled playing soccer with several members of the this fall’s Seymour boys team in the Seymour Park and Rec leagues at Freeman Field at an early age.

“I got to play travel soccer with them, which is pretty fun,” Morales said. “I got to share a lot of good moments with them.”

When Morales moved up to the high school, in his freshman year, he was a “tweener,” splitting time between JV and varsity.

“I started out as a tweener. The first game I got real upset because I didn’t want to be a tweener; I wanted to be varsity,” Morales said. “The second game against Columbus East, Brantley Adams got injured so that was my turn to step up in the game. Coach (Matt) Dennis gave me a chance as a varsity player. After that game he shook my hand after subbing me out and told me I was going to play varsity the rest of the way.”

Morales said he played midfield for most of his high school career.

“I usually helped to defend and attack,” he said. “Since our team is based on players that play other positions, he also put me out wide as a left or right midfielder.

“My responsibility was to win every single 50-50 ball, and always to recover and help defend, and also create chances. I feel like, as a midfielder, our role was to create chances as well as defend because you’re supposed to be 50-50, 50 percent defending, 50 percent attacking.”

On the schedule, Morales looked forward to all the matches.

“Once you step on that field and start passing the ball it is something different,” Morales said. “That’s when you really have to start playing game speed, and that is when you have to step up as a player, because once you step up you’re supposed to show what you’ve got, so the speed of the ball is a lot quicker.”

Morales, who said his favorite away field was Floyd Central, said he challenged himself to play good defense.

“I loved being physical against other players,” he said. “I would always look up their best player and try to mark him, and I always did the best I could to mark him. Usually what teams do they have their best players — if you’re marking correctly — they don’t do anything.”

He said players need to practice hard and communicate on the field.

“In order to for you to have a great game, and order to have great team bonding, practice is perfect,” Morales said. “You have to make practice like a game. During practice you have to play just like you’re playing against another team. You always want to do your best so the player next to you can do better and work his way up.

“The more you communicate the better understanding the team is. A lot of guys this year stepped up, like Zach Moore, Carter Wait and our captains. Even though I didn’t get to play much this year I would always support them in whatever they needed.

“I say, no matter what, you should always give 100 percent. Apart from worrying what you have to do, and focusing on what you’re doing in on your position, you have to worry about the other guys because it is a team game. If you make a mistakes, you never know when the other guy can make a mistake, so you always have to help each-other out.”

He said his highlight win was beating Columbus East in 2016 that helped the Owls win the HHC. His header put the Owls ahead 2-1 in that match.

Morales enjoys being a student at Seymour High School.

“I love every aspect of it,” Morales said. “I love the people around here, the teachers, the coaches, it’s just great. Hopefully, in the near future I’ll be back as a teacher. That’s my goal, and to coach here as well.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Morales file” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Name: Brayan Alexis Morales Calleja

School: Seymour High School

Parents: Lorenzo and Gaudia Morales

Siblings: Metztil

Sports: Soccer, four years

Athletics highlights: 2016 HHC champions, All-Conference honorable mention, coaches award

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