After having a rather successful season with the Wachusett soccer team as a freshman, Danny Graves was looking to improve upon his first-year stats. Unfortunately, six games into his sophomore campaign, it all came crashing down when he broke his foot in practice. Not only was he sidelined for the remainder of the soccer season, but he also missed the entire basketball season with the Mountaineers.

“As a freshman making the varsity team, he actually played a decent amount of time,” said soccer coach Rick Porter. “He played every game for us and played in excess of fifty percent each game. We were looking for a big improvement for him the following year. As a freshman he was playing against older kids but was tall, strong and fast. However, he did play like a freshman at times.”

Graves was devastated to miss the opportunity to improve upon his freshman season.

“I was really hoping to put together a big season,” the now junior said. “I had played pretty good for my freshman year and wanted to keep things rolling in my second year. It was extremely tough, especially after I tried to get back with the boys two weeks in but realized that I couldn’t and just needed to take it off.”

From the bench last fall, Graves watched Wachusett go 8-4-6, earning themselves a spot in the Division 1 tournament, where they fell to Leominster in the preliminary round. Although he was thrilled for his teammates to make it into the post season, he was devastated when they lost, wishing he could have been on the field to help the team.

Following his five months of healing, Graves was sent to physical therapy where he spent the next three months rehabbing. As soon as he was cleared to return, he took part in the IMG Academy Showcase with his club team, NEFC U17. His club coach had him playing center back, where Graves was accustomed to winning a lot of balls in the air as well as on the ground. 

Soccer came into Graves’ life when he was around three or four years old. He started kicking the ball around with his father, who had played the sport at St. Anslem’s College in New Hampshire. And although he was young, he noted that he liked the sport from the first time he began playing.

Wachusett Coach Porter found Graves to be a very versatile player. But playing in the midfield was his specialty and where he was best suited to help the team. 

“Previously he showed that he could be a dominant threat in the midfield and the short time he was on the field last year, I think that he realized that he was just as good as the other players on the field,” said Porter. 

Graves believes his game is creating chances for his teammates with his passing skills through the middle of the field. As this year approaches, he is not only looking to put together some bigger assists, but he also wants to add scoring to his resume, especially by using his head.

Since he finished his physical therapy, Graves feels that he is playing better than prior to getting hurt. Recently he has been playing with NEFC, an under-23 team while he himself is a mere 16 years old.

“It’s a much more physical game as a lot of the players are already playing in college,” he said. “By playing with them I am learning a lot while building a name for myself. By the time I take to the field with my high school team, I am hoping that by playing with NEFC U23 that I’ll be able to run circles around the opposition while scoring some goals.”

Coach Porter noted that with Graves playing with the under-23 team, the junior should come into this year thinking that everyone will be smaller than him and that will give him a huge advantage.

“This year he should come in and be a defensive reckoning in the midfield with a lot of confidence to score a lot of goals,” Porter said. “I hope he takes that confidence to step up as a leader and lead by example and develop those skills.”

As he gets ready to begin his junior season, Graves is looking to help his team make a deep run through the Division 1 Tournament while having the team earn a home playoff game. Personally, he wants to score at least 10 goals and have five assists in addition to being named to the All-Star team.

Having played with older and very skilled players has only peaked Graves’ interest in playing soccer for a college team - but that’s still a few years down the road. For now, he has to get back onto the field with his Wachusett teammates. He will discover how he will deal with the high school opposition after playing the past few months with the big boys. W