The father of English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer, famously stated, “Patience is a conquering virtue.” That is a quote that applies to Ames High’s goalkeeper: senior Fin DeLisi.  DeLisi has had plenty of patience throughout his time as a Little Cyclone. Now, his patience is being rewarded.

DeLisi has taken on the role of starting Goalkeeper this season, following the departures of Ian Spry (’24) and Nick Alexander (’24). Although he had one start last year against Johnston, DeLisi didn’t get many more chances in the Varsity lineup last season, even though he was on par with the older goalkeepers.

“I had felt like he was the better keeper last year, but he just didn’t get playing time because of the senior keepers,” senior and team captain Christian Gallt said.

To start the season, DeLisi kept a clean sheet in six out of eight matches and also kept a clean sheet in a scrimmage against a solid Gilbert team.

The Potential Has Always Been There

Many of DeLisi’s teammates have always known that he had potential. The Little Cyclones’ JV teams have had great records in the past years, largely due to having DeLisi in goal. Those who have played with him at Ames Soccer Club have also recognized his talent.

Seniors Srikar Reddy and Christian Gallt have been two crucial figures in DeLisi’s rise. Both Reddy and Gallt have played on the same team as DeLisi since they were young.

“I’ve been able to rely on Christian and Srikar a lot,” DeLisi said. “They’ve been the ones going to open turfs with me throughout the offseason and helping me get better every year.”

Reddy and Gallt have always valued DeLisi highly, perhaps even more than DeLisi does himself at times.

“They have always seen more potential in me than I saw in myself,” DeLisi said.

It can be hard to keep a teammate who has to wait as long as DeLisi has invested in the team or the sport. With the current demographic of high school sports, many student-athletes move schools–or “transfer”–after not being able to start on day one. DeLisi saw it out, though.

“A big thing about Fin is that he just loves the sport,” Reddy said. “He’s been playing the sport since he was about four years old, so he was always willing to show up and help us get better in the offseason too.”

The two seniors prioritized getting DeLisi reps and always gave him tips on how to improve at his position.

“We just continued to motivate him, too,” Gallt added. “He was still on the same team as some of his friends in the first few years, so he was still enjoying it. We’d go to turf sessions to help him improve, and it went both ways cause he helped us get better too.”

Success Has Been No Surprise

Many would think that a keeper who hasn’t started before his senior year would struggle and not play as well. That has been all but the case for DeLisi. DeLisi had an astounding 100% clean sheet rate in his first six appearances of the season. This lockdown in goal has propelled the Little Cyclones all the way up to #3 in the state rankings.

“We just want to go as far as we can.” DeLisi said.  “I think we can win it all.”

Although they had such a strong start, DeLisi knows the real business happens later.

“Six clean sheets in eight games, which was a cool accomplishment, having the most consecutive clean sheets in school history,” DeLisi added. “We just need to not get ahead of ourselves and take it one day at a time, and we’ll be okay.”

Those who haven’t been around the team will see DeLisi’s success as a surprise, but those close to him aren’t surprised one bit.

“It’s been great to see his improvement,” Gallt said. “He doesn’t have the most varsity experience, but it doesn’t look like it when he’s playing–and that starts with his growth athleticism-wise with his ability to save all the shots he’s been saving.”

For Reddy, DeLisi has continued to be exceptional and sees greater heights.

“He’s met and passed our expectations for sure,” Reddy added. “We’ve been around Fin enough to know that he’s capable of this, and seeing him do this has been wonderful.”

Taking Leadership Head-On

While Gallt is the captain, DeLisi’s leadership role on the team isn’t taken for granted. For keepers, they have to be very vocal on the field, as they command a lot of respect and presence within the defensive aspects and build-up of the game. While it is only his first season starting full-time, he’s already been well established in all aspects of his senior campaign.

“As a keeper, it’s almost like being the quarterback in [American] football in a way,” DeLisi said. “I can see the whole field and spots where the outfield players may not see, a lot of it is just maintaining communication to find a common mentality within the team.”

For DeLisi, he now gets to play the role of the older keeper this season. Freshman Troy Thayer is the current backup keeper for the Little Cyclones, but contrary to DeLisi’s path, Thayer will likely have three years of Varsity experience after this season.

Now, it is DeLisi’s job to be a good example and prepare Thayer for the rest of his career.

“He just needs to keep his head straight and not let people get into his head,” DeLisi said. “You’re going to get scored on, you’re going to mess up, but when you have the world to overcome, you can’t let it roll you over because you made a mistake or two.”

Experiencing the not-so-fun side of the sport has been a reality for DeLisi, as he’s had goals put past him and sat on the bench for long stints of time, but he has always stayed consistent, knowing all the bad times will pass.

“I know it’ll suck playing on lower levels of JV and then seeing all of your buddies playing Varsity minutes,” DeLisi said. “But you can’t let that distract you from the fact that your time is coming, and all the dreadful time spent not being where you want will pay off.”

Going through all of this adversity and displaying this perseverance has propelled DeLisi into roles of leadership this season, making life a bit easier for Gallt.

“He’s just been great in the leadership sense too, he stepped right up into that void that was left behind by our last two keepers,” Gallt said. “Having someone else with that leadership makes being a captain a little bit easier for me.”

Laying the Groundwork

The foundations for DeLisi’s success have been built for a long time, dating back to his first steps in Ames Soccer Club, which has produced a lot of Ames High’s Varsity soccer players for the boys and the girls.

“Ames Soccer Club helped me a lot,” DeLisi said. “We weren’t very good in middle school or early high school years because some people started to leave because they had interest from bigger academies or got too old, so we had to figure out who would fill those holes for a while.”

DeLisi experienced plenty of the same lows he faced playing for Ames High as he did during his time at the club.

“We had a couple of humbling years,” DeLisi said. “We would lose badly and I would get scored on a lot, but on the bright side of that, I think that playing those games with some of my high school teammates like Srikar and Ethan [Sigurdsson] really helps you learn to overcome adversity together, that just makes winning together even more special.”

All of these lows have built DeLisi into the player and person he is today, never wanting to let adversity get in his way. He’s dealt with it all, from waiting 75% of his high school career to seeing four goals put past him in his first Varsity start. Through all the adversity, DeLisi has earned all the success he’s experiencing at the moment.

“The progression I’ve had over my time here has been amazing,” DeLisi said. “I look back on how things were, even my freshman year, and the type of goals I used to not be able to save or collect, I never thought I’d get to the place I’m in today.”