UIC a keeper for Prospect’s Reibel

When Brad Reibel was growing up, soccer ranked third on his sports playlist behind baseball and basketball.

But that began to change after he came to Prospect and was promoted to the varsity soccer team as a backup goalkeeper his sophomore year.

Now it’s the sport he’ll be playing in college as the Daily Herald’s All-Area honorary co-captain and Mid-Suburban East player of the year verbally committed last Friday to play at the University of Illinois-Chicago as a preferred walk-on.

“My sophomore year I started to take it more seriously and thought maybe I do have a chance to play at a higher level,” said Reibel, who had 10 shutouts this season and 18 in his career. “I knew it would probably be easier for me to play Division I soccer than Division I basketball.

“I started to enjoy soccer more and it really took off my sophomore year. It’s kind of funny because I didn’t play much but everything about it, my teammates were awesome and I had a good time.”

Reibel chose UIC over DePaul and also had interest from Michigan State. Reibel’s Arlington Aces coaches, former Palatine keeper Chris Jamal and Hoffman Estates grad Stein Garcia, played at UIC and helped get things rolling with head coach Sean Phillips.

Phillips came to see Reibel play when Prospect won its first MSL title and during a win in penalty kicks in the sectional.

“I wanted to find a situation where I could get into something that would push me as a soccer player,” said Reibel, who is also a starting guard for Prospect’s basketball team. “I’ve played my whole life but not as my No. 1 sport.

“Coach Phillips said straight up, ‘We love that about you. We wanted an athlete we could push and you may be raw right now, but we want somebody we could help make a better soccer player.’”

Reibel, who has a 4.25 grade-point average on a 5.0 scale and scored 26 on the ACT, also liked the campus just outside of Chicago’s loop because of the potential opportunities for his eventual goal of working in college or professional sports.

And Reibel doesn’t mind the fact there is plenty of work ahead for him at UIC since finding playing time for a goalkeeper can be difficult.

“A lot of people say you haven’t been playing soccer that long and already you’ve done some of these things,” Reibel said. “I do have the athletic ability and the skill set and the size (6-feet-1). I want to tap into the rest of my potential.”