It's All About Soccer
By Amber Cronin '11
At first glance, senior Nic DeZenzo looks like a typical college student, cramming for a test in the Thornton Living Room and trying to make it through the last few weeks before graduation. Not until you actually sit down and talk with him do you realize he is much more than your average college student.
DeZenzo has made a name for himself here at Colby-Sawyer, and will no doubt do so out in the “real world” as he has big plans for his future.
In his four years as a member of the Colby-Sawyer men's soccer team, DeZenzo has seen incredible success. This past year he was named a part of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) first-team All Conference, Third Team NSCAA All-New England, Second Team All-New England (he was the first player from CSC to be named as such), and more recently, he was the seventh player in Colby-Sawyer history to be named NEISL New England Senior All-Star player.
After graduating from high school, when most people are getting ready to head off to college, DeZenzo was offered the opportunity to play soccer for a team in Portugal, but chose to attend Colby-Sawyer to pursue his education. “It has always been my goal to play professional soccer,” he said. “I had a chance but chose to go to school instead, and I always kind of wondered what that would have been like.”
Currently DeZenzo is busy with his internship, coaching and working in an administrative position at Seacoast United, one of the premier soccer clubs in the country which resides right here in New England. The club started 10 or 15 years ago and now has more 40 teams in the area.
“It's fun because I played for the club and saw it from the player's perspective, and now I am seeing it from the coaching/administrative perspective,” said DeZenzo. The opportunity to intern at the club has provided DeZenzo with valuable experience in coaching and is helping him to figure out what to do and not to do in his future coaching jobs.
After graduation, DeZenzo will leave the states for Australia sometime in mid-June to play soccer for a week and a half. While there, he plans to try out for a couple of teams and hopes to stay there for awhile, either for soccer or for work.
On the off-chance that his plans for soccer overseas do not pan out, DeZenzo plans to come back to the states and try out for a couple of teams. It's a scenario he is familiar with, as he went to a Major League Soccer (MLS) “combine” in January with fellow teammate and TCCC First Team All-Conference selection, Chris Rafferty '08.
While this combination was not a full-blown trial for a specific MLS team, there were representatives from several clubs there watching. “It was a good experience all around,” said DeZenzo. “We got to play with players from different divisions and schools.”
When asked about his experience at Colby-Sawyer, DeZenzo's answers mostly involved his time on the soccer team. “It was interesting. Soccer wise, I definitely saw both ends of the spectrum. My freshman year, having a great season and making the semifinals, and my sophomore and junior year being kind of, I'd say, underachieving, as to what the team expected,” he said.
“Senior year it was like we … I'm not going to say we expected to do as well as we did, but we played really well, we did really well, we won a lot of good games," he added, "and we got the first ever ECAC bid for the school. So, it was pretty cool because we got to see a banner put up, and it was really great to be a part of that.”
In his four years here at Colby-Sawyer, Nic DeZenzo has made a name for himself on the field and around campus. Yet for someone who has achieved so much, he is humble about his accomplishments. There is no doubt that this Sports Management major will walk across the stage at graduation on May 10 and go on to great things, whether it is with soccer or whatever else he may choose to do.
