Gliding gracefully over the pitch, the soccer player resembles a gazelle running at full speed. He makes one move, two moves, and in an instant it’s just him and the ball in open space, slicing towards the goalkeeper. The ball is in the back of the net before the spectators know what happened.

For freshman Felipe Herrmann, life used to be very elementary. He would wake up everyday in his home country, Ecuador, then eat, sleep, and play like any normal kid. Then he turned three, was introduced to soccer, and began his courtship of the game that he has come to love.

Today, soccer has come to permeate all aspects of Felipe’s life.

“I’m always playing soccer. Or at least thinking about soccer. Or watching soccer,” Felipe says with a laugh. “It’s what I do.”

With dreams of one day playing soccer professionally, Felipe is already well on his way towards achieving his goal. He currently plays for the Iowa Rush in Ankeny, and last year he was selected to play on the Rush national team, the only Iowa player to make the team. Over the summer he went to Spain to attend a Real Madrid camp.

“It was hours of soccer a day. We had two 3-hour practices, an hour long classroom session, a one hour swimming exercise, and a lot of conditioning.”

This year, Felipe hopes to make the Ames High varsity team. Besides that, he’s still getting a feel for things at Ames High and hitting his studies square in the face with a brilliantly placed cross and perfect bicycle kick to knock it home.