With Naperville C.'s Zimmer, expectations fulfilled
Everything you need to know about Tim Zimmer might be contained in one simple question.
Heading into his fourth year as a varsity starter at Naperville Central, Zimmer's place among the state's best soccer players this season was secure. The central defender was a coaches' all-state and all-Midwest player as a junior, and is in the running to become a coaches' All-America this season.
Zimmer has played top-level club soccer for the Chicago Magic and in the Olympic Development Program. In short, as a senior this year, Zimmer really didn't need to prove anything to anyone. Everyone in the Redhawks' program knew what kind of effort he'd continue to put forth, as well as what kind of impact their big captain would have on the field.
But one day late in this season, Zimmer approached Redhawks coach Jay Konrad with a question. "He said 'Coach, am I living up to your expectations?' " Konrad said.
That's a question that you'll likely only hear from a driven, goal-directed kid, and this year's captain of the Daily Herald DuPage County All-Area team in boys soccer is certainly one of those.
"I asked that question because I respect coach Konrad a lot," Zimmer said. "Because he set the bar high for me, I just wanted to know if I was playing up to it. I want to meet as many goals as possible, including the ones he set for me."
Four years ago, Zimmer entered Naperville Central as a big freshman with big promise. Four years later, he leaves as the main cog of a defense that posted 48 shutouts while he was its best player.
"He is unbelievably good," said teammate and fellow Redhawks defender Mike Gross. "He's good at everything. His size helps him, he wins everything in the air, and for a big guy he's really quick. It's almost impossible to get around him."
Zimmer's question for his coach can also be answered qualitatively. Zimmer was a great individual defender as a freshman who evolved in four seasons into "a great player who made everyone around him better," Konrad said. "From playing with and against him, everybody on our team got better."
And where off-the-field expectations come into play, Zimmer has been the poster child for sacrificing his social life in order to become the best student and soccer player he can be.
While some of Zimmer's friends might have been playing Madden '08 until all hours of the night, "Tim is working on his homework," Konrad said. "A lot of people don't understand the sacrifices that a great player makes. If you want to be great at anything, you have to make sacrifices."
Zimmer has made his share. "I've definitely missed out on social events," Zimmer said. "Soccer games, practices and homework all play a big role in my free time."
Those sacrifices have officially paid off, but more on that later.
Prior to his freshman year, Zimmer had already been playing high-level club soccer. He showed up at summer soccer camp at Naperville Central after his eighth-grade year, "and within an hour, we knew what we had," Konrad said. "He was just ridiculous, even then."
"His physical presence, how he made tackles, how he struck the ball, how he tracked people defensively - it was never a question that he'd play on varsity. He was our best back, as a freshman."
At 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds, Zimmer's varsity acclimation as a freshman was relatively seamless, although playing with and against upperclassmen took a little getting used to.
"I was intimidated at the start of my freshman year, just by the size of the guys that were juniors and seniors," Zimmer said. "I knew I had to work hard to be able to compete, and that was good for me. It pushed me a lot."
His growth from freshman to senior year was also girded by a natural unflappability that he's always shown.
"Remember the movie 'Top Gun'? Tim is Ice Man," Konrad said. "He is so calm and under composure, all the time. He just never gets rattled."
Composure with a soccer ball at your feet is one thing, but taking hard fouls in stride is never an easy mountain for a high school soccer player to climb, and for four years Zimmer has practically been a Dalai Lama, sitting tranquilly on top of that mountain.
"I'm a calm person to begin with, and I've played a lot of soccer," Zimmer said. "And it never helps to let your temper get the best of you. It puts you in a worse situation than you're already in."
As good as he's been defensively for the Redhawks, Zimmer's big, strong leg on free kicks has also been a major component of their attack. He finished his career with 18 goals and 10 assists.
Naperville North walloped the Redhawks in their cross-town rivalry game last season, but that game will also be long talked about in Naperville for the free kick laser Zimmer buried from long range.
"That was as good a dead ball as I've seen, at any level," Konrad said. "He's a dead-ball freak. He strikes it so hard, but he's also very accurate with it."
This year Zimmer played on a team that was highly ranked and posted a 17-3-2 record, losing in overtime of a Class 3A sectional semifinal to Downers Grove South.
Defenders Zimmer, Gross and Darren Parker faced a new wrinkle this season, as Konrad opted to play with three defenders in back instead of four this year. Zimmer was the chief reason why, as all of his teammates knew they could rest assured that if they got caught up too high on an opponents' counterattack, he'd be there to clean up the mess.
"He just doesn't get beat. He allowed us to do things, formation-wise, that we'd never tried before," Konrad said.
"That intangible quality that an entire team has, because of one person, is pretty rare. Tim gives everybody else that confidence, and you can't put a price tag on that."
Zimmer quickly spreads the credit around before it lands too squarely on his shoulders.
"Darren and Gross played outstanding," he said. "We had a connection right away, and I felt like we were strong in the back. We played as one unit."
It still rankles Zimmer that he has to speak in the past tense when talking about this season. He'd much rather still be playing in the Class 3A Final Four today at North Central College in Naperville.
"It was tough losing that last game. I'm still recovering from it," Zimmer said. Then he added a comment that gives you another good measurement of what he's about.
"One thing that made me feel better about our last loss was something coach said," Zimmer said. "He told us we played with class, and that stuck with me. It's one of my favorite moments of high school soccer. Even though we lost, we still acted with class."
When you add class to Zimmer's commitment to the sport, his talent and his willingness to sacrifice, you see that Northwestern is getting the complete package.
Zimmer considered playing at Notre Dame, Harvard and Brown before making his decision to play for nearby Northwestern, ranked No. 8 in the nation in Division I men's soccer.
"He's a great kid, and he's the best player I've coached at Naperville Central," Konrad said. "My only failure was in not being able to find him a fifth year of eligibility."
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