Conversations with Daniel:
In the last two seasons, the defense allowed a goal or less in 24 matches. What makes the group so successful?
Our group is truly special. I think what makes a strong defense is one that is never individual and is constantly communicating. We are the last line, so we can see most of the field and have a good view of what is happening in front of us. A huge part of our job is communicating with our midfielders and attackers because, at the end of the day, it’s not just the defenders defending our goal; it’s the entire team.
That statistic really goes to our entire team, not just the defensive line. If our attackers are pressing well and our midfielders are doing their jobs, it makes it really difficult for the other team to create chances. Our defense is really rooted in communication, togetherness, and trusting the people around you.
Have you always been a defender, including in high school, at URochester, and with club ball?
Since I started playing soccer at five years old, I have always been a defender and haven’t looked back. I played center back for my Amherst travel team, stopper and sweeper for my modified soccer team, and left, right, and center back for my club team, RNY, throughout high school. So pretty much every position in the back line at some point.
Someone actually asked me a few days ago why I enjoy being a defender, and I think it’s because I can really leverage my strengths there. I was never the fastest player on the field or the best shooter or dribbler. My strengths were passing, reading the field, and communicating, which all happen to be pretty important for a defender. Once I started playing the position, I never really wanted to go back. Every level has been different, but those basic skills have stayed pretty consistent.
When did you start playing organized soccer?
I first started playing organized soccer when I was five years old. My parents signed me up for Timbits soccer, and from that moment I was hooked. I was always playing in the backyard with my dad and my dog when I was younger, so it just naturally turned into playing more competitively as I got older.
You averaged almost 77 minutes per match in 2024 and nearly 80 minutes in 2025. How do you train in the summer to get ready for that?
Summer training is probably the most important part of getting ready for the season. I’m always balancing lifting, running, soccer, and injury prevention. I play on a U23 summer team in Rochester called RNY FC, where I usually have games twice a week and practices a couple times a week.
On the days I’m not playing soccer, I’ll usually do some fitness work at the turf, lift, or spend time stretching and working on mobility. Summer is really about preparing your body for the intensity of the fall. For me, staying healthy throughout the season is the biggest priority, so making sure my body is ready before the season starts is really important.
You are working at M&T Bank in Buffalo on an internship. What duties do you have?
I worked with the Compensation team for my internship. I was able to use a lot of my background in statistics and mathematics to compare pay data across the bank and see how we were positioned against the market. The goal was to help find accurate and fair ways to make sure employees were being paid competitively.
There was a lot of analysis involved, but there was also a lot more collaboration than I expected. Talking with people across different business lines helped me get a much better picture of how a large company like M&T actually functions. I also looked at some pain points within our team’s processes and found ways to improve them, which I eventually presented to leadership on my team.
What will that internship do for you when you are in the fall semester?
I learned a lot about leadership and how teams function during my internship. Being in a large corporate environment and seeing how managers prepare for meetings, communicate with their teams, and get to know their employees on both a personal and professional level gave me a lot to think about going into the fall.
I’ll be a captain of the soccer team and the president of TAMID, a business club on campus, so I think I can apply a lot of those lessons to both organizations. One of the biggest things I learned is that gaining the trust of the people around you can really help drive results and success. Whether that’s in a corporate environment or on the soccer field, people are much more likely to work toward a common goal when they trust the people around them. I’m excited to bring some of those lessons with me this fall.
Please tell us how your majors (Financial Economics and Mathematics) tie together.
I didn’t really know what I wanted to study when I got to college, and I was undecided until the end of my sophomore year. I eventually decided to pursue a double major in Financial Economics and Mathematics because I thought both were challenging and interesting, but in very different ways.
Financial Economics gave me a strong understanding of financial markets, economic factors, and how those things affect businesses and people. Mathematics forced me to approach problems in a much more abstract way. As my classes became more advanced, I was doing a lot of proofs and theory, which was definitely different from what I was used to.
I don’t necessarily want to pursue a career in mathematics, but I think studying it has made me a much better problem solver. It taught me how to break down complicated problems and look at situations from different perspectives, which I’ve found useful in finance and really in everything I do.
Sports fans are used to the term ‘analytics’ as it pertains to statistics (batter A hitting .211 in night games, shooter B averages 25 ppg. when guarded by a shorter opponent, etc.). Business analytics is more of a dollars-and-cents focus, isn’t it?
Yeah, I think the idea is pretty similar, just applied to a different problem. In sports, you’re using data to figure out what is helping a team win. In business, you’re using data to help make better decisions, whether that’s understanding customers, evaluating performance, managing costs, or figuring out where a company can improve.
My statistics and mathematics background has made me interested in that side of business because I like taking a lot of information and trying to find something meaningful in it. That was actually a big part of my internship at M&T. I was looking at compensation data and trying to turn all of those numbers into information that could help the company make better decisions.
Did you have a chance to see any of the World Cup matches in person? Did any of the teams catch your fancy?
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to see any of the World Cup matches in person, but the overall atmosphere throughout the country was amazing. I tried to watch as many games as I could and really enjoyed following the tournament. The World Cup only happens every four years, so being able to experience it in the U.S. was something I really wanted to take in. I especially enjoyed watching France because they have so many talented players and somehow get them all to play together, which is not always easy to do. The Dutch fans also really caught my eye. They were always dancing and singing in the streets before games. Americans were definitely confused by it sometimes, but I thought it was really cool to see all the different soccer cultures come together for a month.
How did you become involved with the University?
I became involved with the University primarily through athletics, joining the men’s varsity soccer team. Once I got to campus, I wanted to get involved beyond soccer, so I joined business organizations like TAMID and MELFIG and became involved in student-athlete leadership through VSAAC. Soccer was really my entry point into the Rochester community, but getting involved in different organizations has allowed me to meet people outside of my team and become much more connected to the University as a whole.
