For Russos, love of soccer is a brotherly thing

When you have an older brother who loves soccer so much, it's only natural you start to follow the same path.

That is what happened with Matt Russo, a senior on the Batavia boys soccer team. His older brother by two years, Chris, loved soccer, so Matt did too. Chris made his college choice (Western Illinois University) because of soccer, and Matt did the same when he verbally committed to Wisconsin-Green Bay in June.

In an odd coincidence, both brothers spent one season on varsity out due to injury. Before Matt made varsity, Chris sat out a season with a concussion. The very next year, when Chris was a senior, Matt broke his arm in the fourth game of the year. The opportunity for the soccer-loving brothers to play on the same team was denied.

"They really wanted to play together," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "They both live and breathe soccer more than a lot of the players I've had. I mean, that's their life, so to watch them not be able to play together...but they both handled it really well. It put life in perspective for them, so that was good.

"It would have been a great thing (to play together). They have a close relationship and a lot of respect for one another."

Two years later, Matt Russo is a stronger and better person, not to mention soccer player. He's injury-free and ready to lead the Bulldogs to a successful season.

"It's been good so far," Russo said. "Everyone gets along and there is great team chemistry. It feels good to be a leader and someone who people look up to. I feel better I have a few more goals and will keep going with the assists."

As a sophomore, he scored a goal and posted 4 assists before he broke his arm in a game against St. Charles North. He went up for a header and fell before another player landed on his arm and snapped a bone.

As a junior, Russo scored just once again, but had 12 assists. As a team, the Bulldogs didn't do as well as they thought they should, but Gianfrancesco saw the team's potential at the end of the year. He also saw what Russo had to offer as well.

"He stepped up a lot last year," Gianfrancesco said. "He was somewhat of a silent leader. We really didn't have a lot of leaders last year, but to be a junior and do what he did, he did a nice job. He's propelled it to this year."

Part of that also included Russo's time sitting out with his broken arm. He had a year to think about what he was going to do as a healthy player.

"He had time to re-evaluate his goals," Gianfrancesco said.

Those 12 assists also helped Russo realize he didn't need to be the guy who put the ball in the net every time.

"I think that's my strength," Russo said of his assists. "It's instinct. You don't get as much of the limelight, but it's still fun.

"My brother was always in the right place at the right time scoring goals. I didn't seem to do that as much as finding people who could score."

Even though he can assist, Russo does have the ability to score too. That was proven this past weekend at a tournament at Morton, when he scored twice in one half of Batavia's 3-1 win over Morton. Through Thursday, the Bulldogs are 5-2-1 with Russo totalling 3 goals and 4 assists this year.

Just 8 games into the season, teammates like Matt Bernard have noticed a difference in Russo, one of the team's three captains.

"He's definitely stepped it up as a captain on the field," Bernard said. "He's the one keeping everyone in line. Since I'm new to varsity, a lot of the time he's telling me what to do. He makes sure I'm in the right place, and he does the same with the other guys on the field. He's the one talking through games."

Russo will continue to do so next year at Wisconsin-Green Bay, which he chose over Northern Illinois and Eastern Illinois.

Once again, it goes back to his older brother.

"Chris is the one who got me into it," said Russo, who started playing soccer when he was 4 years old. "Once I saw him play in college, I wanted to do that as well. When I was younger, I didn't think about playing in college much, but once he went to Western, that opened by eyes to the whole college scene. That was influential to help me work hard to play Division-I soccer."