When Southview High School closed, it hit close to home for Bobby Soler, whose entire family has graduated from the Lorain school located on State Route 57.

Just a year away from graduation, the Saints’ soccer standout was stressed about the closing and didn’t know where he wanted to attend high school for his final year.
His mom suggested moving to Amherst and the rest is history, so to speak. Solar signed his letter of intent to Tiffin University on Wednesday at the Steele High School library in front of his family, coaches and teammates.

"It was very tough, it really put a hurting on me," Soler said of the school closing. "I was pretty depressed about that. My mom mentioned that we could move to Amherst and I knew that Amherst had a pretty nice soccer program and it came through and we made a nice run."

Soler played two years at Southview before Lorain City Schools consolidated the school with Admiral King.

His Lorain roots run deep and he’s proud to be the first member of his family to attend college.

"It feels great. I wanted to please my family as the first generation to go to college," Soler said. "I wanted to prove that no matter where you come from, you can go to college."

Last fall was only Soler’s third season of soccer. He began playing his sophomore year and knew the odds that would be a collegiate player were against him, but what he didn’t have in talent and pedigree, he made up for with effort and heart.

"From the day that Bobby came in here, that’s the one thing that he brought," Amherst coach Brett Thompson said. "You saw how hard he worked. The things that impressed me instantly about Bobby were that he came in and had a tough team his senior year and he was determined to outwork everybody."

"I knew coming into varsity level that I wouldn’t have enough talent to be up to speed with everyone else," Soler said. "I thought if I just gave it my all then I’d make something happen on the field and that’s what I’ve done."

Soler finished the season at Amherst with six goals and two assists as the Comets reached the Division I district semifinals.

Picking a school is never easy, but when Tiffin came to Soler late in the game, things progressed quickly from there.

"I had a couple of offers from D-III but what makes (Tiffin) standout the most is that this one came out of nowhere and I got that call the weekend of my birthday saying they wanted to offer me to come play there," Soler said. "I got the call on Friday and went and on Monday I went and visited. Everything happened kind of fast but I went and visited and I loved it."

Soler said he’ll study forensic science at Tiffin.

courtesy of Colin Wilson