Adel-DeSoto-Minburn senior Cael Orban reveals his decision to sign with Drake University in Des Moines to continue his soccer career following high school.

Orban shares that he began playing soccer when he was four years old after his parents were helping him participate in different sports, and at age nine, he transferred from the ADM Soccer Club to the Vision Soccer Academy in Waukee. He explains that when he walked on Drake’s campus last April, he loved how everything was so compact, but didn’t feel constrained. 

Also, Orban grew up in Adel and he appreciates that Drake University is in a secluded part of Des Moines. Orban says that he had a lot of different colleges in mind, but was focused on staying somewhere in the Midwest, and his choice was solidified after he attended a soccer camp there, where he met Head Coach Pat Flinn.

“I really felt like he was definitely somebody that was a good program leader, and I just felt like the program had some good stability and it was headed in a really good direction. And then it was also really super cool to see how much they value Midwest guys. A lot of Division-1 schools in America recruit heavily from Europe and there’s a lot of foreign guys coming in. And the Drake Coaching Staff, they really like guys that are local. There’s, I think, nine Iowa guys on the roster right now, so just seeing that was just like ‘Oh wow, this is somewhere that I would fit in really good’. It really opened my eyes to what that was and I learned more about it, and then from there, I was like ‘Yeah, this is where I want to go.”

When it comes to competing at the next level, Orban is stoked about traveling to different places around the country, then hoping to contribute to a building program. As far as this upcoming season for ADM, Orban outlines that the team goal is to make the state tournament, and believes that the Tigers have enough experience to get the job done. ADM’s first soccer game is set for March 30th against the Perry Bluejays.