Boys soccer: Simply put, Jacobs' Melick is one driven athlete

You can say junior midfielder Colin Walsh knows his teammate Noah Melick pretty well.

After all, they've been friends since they were 5 and Walsh remembers when the two would take part in pickup games while growing up in the neighborhood.

Even then Walsh knew that Melick had some special athletic attributes.

"Even if we weren't playing soccer, we'd play football and he was so good," Walsh said. "We actually had to make special rules for him like he had to catch with his weak hand. It would have to be a one-handed catch and he'd still get it. He's just a natural athlete and good at everything."

If Melick surprised teams last year, he certainly didn't this year. Special rules certainly had to apply to him during his junior year. After all, he achieved a rare feat becoming all-area co-captain as a sophomore. His 18 goals and 8 assists, along with his speed, toughness, will to win and efforts to help the Jacobs boys soccer team earn a sectional bid made a case for such honors in 2015.

Things could've easily gone to his head this season after such a boost or at the very least got tougher on the field. But while there was no guarantee he would earn honors again, the humility he showed in accepting the honors while using that to propel him into this season in a humble manner couldn't sum up Melick better.

"Coach (Anthony) Cappello told me about last year, 'this can't get to your head too much, you still have to work and you can't think you're the best player,' " Melick said. "He said 'continue to work and continue to do what you're doing and just pull out everything you can.' "

Melick certainly did just that. From 6 goals his freshman year to 18 last season, that alone showed significant improvement. But going from 18 to 33 goals along with 8 assists this year, Melick, who earned an all-state bid and all-Fox Valley Conference honors, once again is the honorary captain of the Daily Herald's Fox Valley All-Area boys soccer team, repeating the honor with flying colors. But just how did Melick meet and exceed expectations?

"We made him a team captain as a junior which happens here and there but it was really a no-brainer because his teammates look to him for motive, look to him to push and challenge and also look to him for support," Cappello said. "And that's been helping the drive but he's always been a team-first kid. And to know he can have a greater affect on the field and on his teammates than he maybe he understands, to make him own that is really pulled more of that in his game."

Another longtime friend and teammate, Dan Buirge, served up a lot of free kicks for the Golden Eagles and looked to diagonal balls to Melick. He also noticed that difference.

"This year at practice he just seemed to be more confident and seemed to have more fun playing," Burige said. "He seems a lot more confident on the ball."

"We won the sectional on Friday for the second time in school history and he comes out Saturday and he's as lively as ever at training the next morning, not even 24 hours," Cappello chimed. "He was ready to get back at it and put it back out there."

And that's all the confident Melick wanted to do. He didn't want to worry about the individual awards. It was simple: work hard, get the win and go to the next game and do it all over again.

"From last year to this year, it's such an honor. Honestly it's a big honor but at the same time I still have work to do and so I have to focus on that right now."

With his bloody nose ailment a thing of the past, there were two glaring issues for him in 2016: improving his play with his back to goal and handling the amount of double teams he'd see this season. The 15-goal increase says that he made the proper adjustments, whether it was exposing back lines, finishing on breakaways, keeping the ball on the ground or feeling out his best matchup. He had three 4-goal games, including one in the regional final against Elgin, and scored a hat trick in the sectional final, his second hat trick against Rockford Guilford this season.

"I remember he scored 6 (goals) total freshman year and that wasn't enough for him," Buirge said. "Last year he scored 18 and that still isn't enough for him. I knew he'd score a lot more than last year."

Jacobs didn't start out of the gate in 2016 particularly well with a 2-2-3 record and last year it wasn't Melick's job to make sure the band stuck together. As a co-captain, this year it was.

"The biggest obstacle for me was making sure the team was in check and making sure we were ready to play," Melick said. "A lot of times in practice we play like it's a game and it gets some guys frustrated and puts their heads down and some go at others. You have to control that as a captain and I thought we did a good job of controlling that as a team, not just the captains but the team."

"At practice he always pushes us to get better because he's so good, you're lucky to have a player like that at practice because we're probably playing with the best forward in state," Walsh added. "It makes us better and that's how our defense is so good. If you learn how to control one of the best players in state its easier to play against other players."

But Melick was a nightmare at times for opposing teams. This year in particular, he wrote a number on his hand before every game as a motivational tool to try to score as many goals as he could. Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes not. Sometimes he exceeded his expectations. But Melick knows his job and it's for the greater good of the team's overall performance. And while the individual accolades is something he'll look back on with pride, he also knows it's team first and what his role is.

"I'm all for winning. If we play well as a team it gets me going. But from the first whistle I'm thinking in my head 'I'm going to win, I'm going to win,' " Melick said. "I'm thinking of memories I had from earlier in the year, I'm thinking of the four goals in one game, I'm thinking of all of that. It just gets to me and it's like, 'Ok, I have to do this in order to win.' "

When Cappello talks to the kids he coaches at the middle school level, he always reminds them of how hard Melick works, not the individual accolades.

"When I stop and think about what he does on the field, his work rate and his ability to put backlines under pressure is because he just wants it more than anyone else and obviously he has some God-given talent and athleticism," Cappello said. "But to have this mindset that I'm just going to work you into the ground you're going to have to battle with me for 80 minutes is really second to none. Man, as coaches, we would love to have a player or coach a player that can bring that. Some kids just have that in him and that's what Noah has on top of everything else that just drives him."

Just think … that drive will be on display for one more season. If other schools don't come up some special rules to limit his ability, who knows how many goals Melick might score next season.