Fall sports spotlight: soccer player Aidan Wall

 Aidan Wall gives a hard kick of the ball in a home game against Bethesda University. Photo courtesy of Steven Olveda

Coming into Chapman University as a freshman men’s soccer player, Aidan Wall, who is now a senior business administration major, has always been an impactful piece of the squad. 

In his first year on the squad in 2018, the forward earned five starts, led the team with six goals and hit a memorable game winner against Pomona-Pitzer. Coming into his second year, he played in all 18 matches and made 12 starts. He also began the season with two goals within the first two matches. 

Moving onto the 2021 season, Wall was named the Southern California Intercollegiate Conference Offensive Player of the Year for men’s soccer. He also secured the 19th hat trick in school history and first since 2014 in a 4-1 victory over the University of La Verne. 

Now in his senior campaign, he has already hit two game-winning goals and has started in nine games. In addition, he also has six goals along with three assists. 

Wall told The Panther about how he got to be such an impactful player for the soccer team at such an early time in his career. 

“I just got here and saw some of the older players on the team who were the better players and realized that I wanted to be at that level,” Wall said.“I realized that I wasn't far off from that level already.”

He can also credit over 15 years of experience playing the spor, another contributing factor for him. 

“When I was walking around my house, pretty much my entire childhood, I would always be kicking the ball against the wall or against the couch whatever I could try to shoot at,” Wall said. “I did that for four or five years straight, where I just constantly took the ball. What I would do with my friends in our free time would be, go play; we'd go shoot around or play soccer.”

He continued to build on his athletic experience along with boosting his confidence. 

“I just became pretty confident in my abilities to play,” Wall said. “I was becoming a better player as I started playing with people who were much better than me, it made me a lot better.”

Additionally, Wall credits his love for the game and fandom within the professional soccer world that kept him going throughout his career. 

He was also candid about down times when he wasn’t so into the sport.

“I definitely have had periods where I'm not as into it as others, but it just takes one moment for you to just remember exactly why you play and like why you spent so much time,” Wall said. “ I remember scoring a goal last year and being like, ‘Oh, I remember exactly why I love to do this.’”

Overall, Wall said he feels that he has created some great memories from his career at Chapman. His favorite, however, is from the beginning of his collegiate experience. 

“My freshman year, we ended up winning the conference and we went to penalties in the semi final,” Wall said. “I took the fifth penalty to score it,and it ended up being the winning penalty. That brought us to the final and then we won in the final, so scoring that penalty and stepping up as a freshman has made me a better player just because it sparked my confidence.” 

In the spirit of giving back, Wall has advice for anyone trying to get better at the sport. 

“You just have to fall in love with it,” Wall said. “If you're not then you're not going to really get to where you want to be because you kind of have to be doing it all the time and thinking about it and wanting to get better.”

Fans can catch Wall and his team at the next men’s soccer game on Oct. 5 as they face off against Pomona-Pitzer.