Stillwater High School soccer coach Seth Condley has established a pretty solid feeder program for his high school team as a club soccer coach over the years. And one of the guys that is a product of that process is junior Marco Uscanga.

“Coach Condley saw me wearing a soccer jersey in school in fifth grade right after we had moved to Stillwater, and he invited me to play on his club team. I fell in love with the sport and was my club team coach until I got to high school,” said Marco. “He and my dad are really my role models. Coach has taught me so much about soccer and my dad has been teaching me what it means to be a player on and off the field like time management.”

Marco plays midfield and is the junior captain of the team this year-a position that came as a surprise but one he has embraced.

“I really wasn’t expecting to be a captain, and I think it’s about more than managing a group of juniors. I think it’s about managing the whole team. I wasn’t a very vocal person prior to this but communication is so vital in soccer, so I try to keep everyone accountable, direct traffic when needed and keep everyone uplifted. Because I’ve grown up playing club soccer with a lot of these guys, I sometimes have a challenge in separating friendship and leadership because as a leader you have to treat everyone the same.”

That meeting in the hallway several years ago has developed into a close relationship between coach and player according to Condley.

“He’s become like my fourth son. He and my boys are best friends and he’s at our house all the time and the families are all pretty close. Most of my players this year are off my club teams, and they are a solid group that trains together, plays high school and club soccer together and do a lot of things together away from soccer,” said Condley. “I think that’s helped us compete against the much larger schools in 6A like Broken Arrow and Union which we recently upset in district play.”

In addition to soccer Marco is in the Engineering Academy, Technology Students Association, Beta Club, and National Honor Society while carrying a 4.2 weighted GPA and says his goal for this soccer season is to have at least 15 assists.