This year St Thomas has progressed further than ever before in the NCAA DIII Championship. They passed the Round of Eight this past Saturday with a comeback in overtime. Many of their goals are coming from an unexpected source.
In his five seasons as the head coach of the University of St Thomas’s men’s soccer team, Jon Lowery has taken a single upperclassman in tryouts: Tony Kuplic.
Kuplic grew up sleeping with a soccer ball in his bed. Now a senior, he was cut from the team as a first-year. This season, Kuplic didn’t make it onto the field for St Thomas until its eighth game of the season, and he still hasn’t started a game.
Lately though, Kuplic has been scoring. When St Thomas went down 1-0 against St Scholastica, Kuplic scored the tying goal in the 87th minute and the winner in overtime. He helped bring the Tommies back from a 2-0 deficit against University of Redlands, scoring first in the 71st minute, and then knocking in the winner after teammate Shae Bottum had sent the game into overtime.
“He was my leading scorer for all four years,” said Hendrickson. “That’s unheard of. He has a nose for the goal. If there’s a very small window for a shot, he finds a way to hit that window.”
Kuplic leads the NCAA DIII Championship in goals scored. He’s turned his twelve career shots into five goals.
Steve Hendrickson coached at Trinity School, a small Christian high school in Eagan. Hendrickson said that as much as the recent streak has been a surprise, he was surprised that Kuplic never made the team in the first place.
“He was my leading scorer for all four years,” said Hendrickson. “That’s unheard of. He has a nose for the goal. If there’s a very small window for a shot, he finds a way to hit that window.”
“His senior year, the first four or five games we had to pull him off because he was running so hard that he was getting cramps,” he added. “He just wouldn’t stop running.”
Kuplic made all-conference in both soccer and basketball all four years at Trinity. He made the all-state team in soccer his senior year, and honorable mention all-state in basketball.
Kuplic said he was disappointed after getting cut, but also saw it as an opportunity.
“I have always had to decide between soccer and basketball,” said Kuplic. “I love both of them, so which one do I focus on? Getting cut made that decision for me. So I was grateful for that.”
But with his pedigree, why didn’t Kuplic make the soccer team in the first place?
“We played some small-sided games and just didn’t feel like the level was right for him, technically,” said Lowery. “The thing that was misunderstood from my end is that he has that thing most coaches can’t teach, he just has instinct inside the area.”
Lowery said that in Kuplic’s senior year tryout, his athletic ability stood out more than anything else. He decided to take him. But he wasn’t sure how Kuplic would fit into the locker room.
“We’ve been building this culture since I’ve been here, and we have a core in our team that has been here for the duration of that. A piece of hesitation was bringing somebody new into the fold, because we’ve been working on it for so long.”
Kuplic stands at 6 foot 3 inches. He has close-cropped blond hair. He wears small, round, glasses that could easily be worn by your nephew, but on his well-defined face seem to presage his measured disposition. He speaks quietly, in deliberate clauses, often trailing into silence that is presumably filled with more consideration.
Dr. John Buri coached Kuplic’s basketball team at Trinity school and had him in psychology classes at St Thomas. He described Kuplic as someone who could get along well with anyone.
“When he would ask a question or make a point in class it was in a way that was not going to offend anybody but it was definitely very assertive,” said Buri. “He knows who he is and he knows what he believes, and he’s not afraid to express it. But he does it in a way where he’s not going to step on any toes.”
Hendrickson echoed these views.
“He’s a lot of fun,” said Hendrickson. “He’s very joyful, very personable, very interested in what’s going on in your life as well as his. You’d almost be surprised that he’s such an athlete.”
“I’ve had other players that are nice guys and all competitive,” Hendrickson went on, “But nobody that has succeeded like he has on the field, and then off the field is so happy go lucky, loves everybody, everybody loves him.”
This might seem like a dichotomy, but David Gruber, Kuplic’s teammate on the soccer team at Trinity and present-day roommate, said he’s focused enough to do both.
“He can handle a lot on his plate and he can do it well because he’s so self-disciplined,” said Gruber. “He’s just really intentional about everything he does. I think all the success he’s experiencing now on the soccer field, I see that as a continuation of all the work he’s habituating through his normal day.”
St Thomas faces Tufts in the NCAA DIII Final Four on December 2nd, but it’s likely Kuplic won’t be starting.
“When we feel maybe a level of fatigue in the opposition, maybe an opportunity to throw something different at them, we bring Tony on,” said Lowery. “I think for now we’re using him the right way. He’s a great kid. No matter if he’s playing for us or not, he makes us better.”
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