Student-Athlete of the Week-Carter Kruse

There wasn't much drama in Niwot soccer's 6-0 rout of Roosevelt on April 5, but at least one play will always be memorable to Carter Kruse, a longtime varsity defender who suddenly found himself with an unprecedented chance.

"There was not much of a lead up to it," the senior said of the play that resulted in his first-ever high school goal. "Orlando [Lopez] was fouled inside the edge of the box...and then Coach Dimit called me forward to take [the penalty kick]. While it was fun to score, I did not do much other than put it in the net."

Modesty aside, the goal also added two more points to Niwot's total of 182 over 10 games, the highest of all teams in Colorado as of April 12. That's against just 17 points allowed, an imbalance that both the offense and defense share credit for, Kruse said.

"It's been a little bit different, because we're starting with a whole new back line with the exception of Mason [Wright] and me," Kruse said. "But so far, it's been pretty good. We've been able to play well with one another, we've been able to develop a little bit of chemistry, and connect with one another. And then our frontline and midfield have really helped us to continue to score goals and get ahead in the game."

Kruse has always played on the back line during his long soccer career, which began when he was "three or four" on a St. Vrain Soccer recreational team, before he moved to a club team in Boulder. He said that "patience" is the key to being an effective defender, and also a reason why back line players don't score regularly.

"There's a lot of times when a player may try to dive in and win the ball, but that's not necessarily the thing to do as a defender. It's actually better to just kind of guide the attacking player away from the goal and try to protect our lead if we have one."

Ironically, Kruse's most enduring memory during his four years with the program isn't of one of his defensive plays, but another goal that ended up one of the most dramatic moments of the 2019 season. During overtime against Littleton, a well-placed pass from Kruse to fellow defender Andy Worrell turned into the game winning goal, and may have even saved Niwot's playoff hopes for that year.

"It was our only goal for the game, and it was a center back to center back connection, which was kind of fun," Kruse said. "I think that certainly helped us to gain a little bit of momentum going into the rest of the season."

Kruse said that the 2021 season has also had its share of "enjoyable moments," and, with Niwot's proclivity for scoring, he's expecting more of them in the postseason.

When he's not on the pitch for Niwot or his club team, Kruse is probably somewhere studying advanced mathematics, a side project he picked up after taking all the advanced high school classes, as well as those offered at the local community college. He is currently pursuing an independent study on "functions and their uses in discrete mathematics and combinatorics" through Front Range, and also taking abstract mathematics through the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, after passing their multivariate calculus class last year.

As for his classes at Niwot, Kruse is in the school's IB program, though he has supplemented those courses with Advanced Placement classes in physics and computer science. For his Creativity, Activity and Service project, a requirement for IB students, Kruse is designing a course to teach younger students how to code in the computer language Python.

"We have courses that allow students to learn how to code in Java, and I think that's super helpful," he said. "But I think Python can also be quite helpful in allowing kids to just work on small-scale programming projects."

The pandemic has curtailed many of Kruse's other extracurricular activities, but he has set aside time to volunteer at Longmont's Callahan House in a historic home on Hover Street that is a dedicated meeting place for women and women's organizations.

Kruse is still finalizing his post-high school plans, he is leaning towards the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, Canada, for its unique mathematics program and generous internship opportunities. He is also considering CSU, where both of his parents are alums. He also has yet to decide on a career track, though sees himself doing something more "theoretical than applied" when it comes to physics.

All of his soccer and studying doesn't leave Kruse much free time, but when he does get some, he enjoys fishing with his father and grandfather, and skiing at Eldora.