(Photo obtained from Skidmore Men’s Soccer Instagram page)
Bobby Stratts ‘22 always thought about playing soccer in college, but because he used to live in the United Kingdom, he knew it would be difficult to get attention from coaches. Knowing that he had to be on the right team to get noticed, Stratts wanted to join a club soccer team but couldn’t figure out which club was right for him. After spending a year on a team that didn’t get him the exposure he craved, Stratts finally found a club that would go to more showcases and tournaments, giving him the opportunities he needed to get noticed.
Everyone on his dad’s side of the family had been soccer players their whole lives, and they tried to get Stratts into it. In the beginning, he wasn’t the biggest fan of the sport and only picked being goalie because the position ran the least on the field. Eventually, the sport grew on him, and he hasn’t looked back since.
Stratts also started playing basketball at a young age but didn’t expect to play in college. Despite the fact that he had never shot a ball before, Stratts was put into the sport because his fourth-grade teacher owned the league and signed him up based solely on his height. “I was just kind of stuck under the rim. And if somebody missed, I just grabbed it and tried to put it back up. I played a lot of sign-up leagues just because I was naturally taller than everyone. And I learned how to play with that ability.”
Now a junior on the Skidmore men’s soccer and basketball team, Stratts reflects on his time playing at Skidmore. Being a two-season athlete was not something Stratts had in mind. For his freshman year, he was only on the soccer team. But after meeting some of the guys on the basketball team, he realized he wanted to continue doing a sport in the winter and decided to try out for the team.
When asked if it’s hard to manage both sports, Stratts responded, “I would say it's a mixture of both easy and hard. I had to do checks and balances where I could play in soccer practice, and I could go to basketball practice, but I couldn't compete with them. I could do skill work. I could watch, I could learn the plays, but I wasn't able to jump in with them until the soccer season had officially concluded.”
Finding a balance between soccer and basketball took time, but transferring over skills between the sports made it easier. “Obviously, in goalkeeping, you have to use your hands to be able to catch and throw the ball. And with basketball, it's nearly the same concept as if you're throwing like a haywire pass or a fast pass, and you have to be able to catch it and convert it.”
Using his soccer skills for basketball allowed Stratts to help his basketball teammates effectively catch the ball, gaining recognition from his coach. “I think as a walk-on my sophomore year, it was really rewarding to hear that coach one day said I had the best hands on the team and just kind of to show people how to catch a ball because that was something we really struggled with.”
However, Stratts notes adjusting to the difference in time playing between both sports was challenging because, as he describes, “soccer is very short bursts of high-intensity intervals and basketball is similar but elongated over a much longer time. So for about three to four minutes, I'd be really doing well. And then I would start to fall off because that's cardio that I'm not used to.”
Despite this, Stratts was able to get the full experience of being on the team during his first season and was not directly influenced by the spring semester getting cut short. “I got what it was like to have a good day of games and a good day of practice and then a lot of lows and how to overcome those, and that’s why I was so excited for this season because I thought we would have some scrimmages, both for soccer and for basketball.”
With the pandemic restricting fall and winter athletes from competing, Stratts found ways to make use of the time, choosing to focus on different areas that needed improvement and found an appreciation for practices. “We didn't really have any scrimmages or games; there was just practice day in and day out. I used to dread practice so much, and that's been a common theme since I’ve played club soccer in middle school; I would hate to put in the work, and I would just want to play the games cause that was something to wager and put on the line and get the crowd excited.”
He continues, “I've come to realize that there is never a bad day to practice and get better. And that's for soccer. That's for basketball. I can sit and wait and pray for these games to come, or I can really focus on what I need, like talking to a coach, asking for feedback, and start working in those departments.”
As for next season, Stratts has hopes for both teams. For soccer, he thinks the team could be in a good position to win the Liberty League, which would be the teams’ first championship win:
“I've pictured so many different scenarios of this, whether it's making a game-winning penalty save to win the Liberty league or we're just so good that we can't be touched and that we win the league with such confidence and ease. It gets me so excited to think about these things because they have the potential to come through. And I think the more and more I dream about it, the more and more I want to make that a reality.”
The same extends for basketball, and he hopes the team can re-establish themselves in the league. “they used to call the Liberty league for basketball the ‘skiberty league’ because Skidmore's dominance was just so annoying, they kept winning every year.”
Stratts wants to make the most out of his senior seasons and give it everything he has because he didn’t get to do that this year. “This year makes my last season essentially that much more valuable to me, and it makes me that much more appreciative of the little time that I have to play these things. I really am grateful for both sports. I haven't been tested so far to the point where I’m like, ‘oh my God like I hate this, this was the worst decision.’ But it's been fun to be able to do both.”