Player Profile: Leo Lopez

Leonardo Lopez is a sophomore at Walnut Grove High School. He plays soccer and doesn’t have a set in stone position. He plans to work this offseason to make Varsity for the Warriors and to overcome his previous injuries.​
by Drew Caraway

​Leonardo Lopez is a sophomore at Walnut Grove High School. He plays soccer and doesn’t have a set in stone position. He plans to work this offseason to make Varsity for the Warriors overcome his previous injuries.

Leonardo, also called Leo by friends, has played or watched soccer, for practically his whole life. When asked about when he started playing, he reminisced about his childhood and said, “I started at 3, started playing around 3, watching my brother and them playing for the high school team.”

Leo plans to work hard to achieve what his brother did- play on Varsity. He hopes to improve to hopefully make varsity this upcoming winter season. He states, “I definitely need more conditioning. I also definitely need a mentor like [Dylan] Calvo, he’s a class act.” Calvo also works on the Viridian News as a fellow member of the sports team.

Throughout the past 2 years, Leo has had some struggles with his knees. He tore his knee, and also injured it four other times, but not as severely. He says, “So, the funny story [is], I jumped, I fell, it snapped, [and] the rest is history. Jake Moss, you can blame him for the second one, then the other three were just me being dumb.”

Lopez plays everywhere on the field, but mainly in midfield. So it makes sense why the three players he models his game after are midfielders. When asked, he says, “I really don’t have a certain set position. I model my game after Edson Álvarez, Kaká, and Sergio Ramos.” Álvarez plays as a defensive midfielder, Kaká plays as an attacking midfielder, and Ramos plays as a defensive midfielder, similar to Álvarez.

Lopez is looking to bounce back this season after multiple injuries. Adversity hasn’t stopped him though, as he has trained all offseason to prepare and make Varsity.