By MICHAEL SMITH
Sports Editor
Published September 20, 2011
Patrik Ohlsson is the goalkeeper for the men’s soccer team here at Saint Rose. He is from Sodertalje, Sweden, one of three members of the team that is from Sweden. This spring, he’ll be graduating from Saint Rose with a degree in business administration.
Ohlsson found Saint Rose through an agency for schools. He had never even heard of Albany before he came over here.
“I wanted to go to college, so I went to an agency and played in front of a bunch of coaches,” said Ohlsson. “They came in contact with Saint Rose, they needed a goal keeper.”
Since his freshman year, Ohlsson has started 55 of 57 games. Though the team has had its issues, Ohlsson has found success on a personal level. A big reason for Ohlsson to come here was to work on his game.
“I’ve been trying to develop as much as I can, with good coaching, good teammates,” said Ohlsson. “I can’t really ask for more than my last few years here.”
The men’s soccer team this year is off to a 0-6 start, but Ohlsson is happy with the performance of the team so far.
“I think we’ve played fairly well, we’ve been unlucky in many games,” said Ohlsson. “I feel like if we get a win in, I think spirits kind of lift up.”
Head coach Matt Jones leads a coaching staff that is in its first year at Saint Rose, and Ohlsson thinks that this regime will yield benefits in the future. “I think they’ve come up with a lot of enthusiasm,” said Ohlsson.
This new staff came in with only three months left of work in the spring semester, leaving them not a lot of time to get to know the team.
“I think they’ve accomplished, as a team, tremendous stuff so far, in the short three months we’ve been together,” Ohlsson said.
Ohlsson hasn’t thought much about life after Saint Rose. “I don’t know when you really start thinking about closure, but it feels like, right now, it’s too much for my head to start thinking about that,” said Ohlsson. “I guess as soon as soccer’s over, or we start getting closer to graduation, I’ll probably think back.”
He also wouldn’t commit to a plan for where his soccer career would go after Saint Rose as well.
“I haven’t really thought about it that much, but as of right now I’m playing for some programs at home,” said Ohlsson. “I’ll probably play soccer at some level, probably not really, really competitive to start with, but you never know what will get me.”
The native of Sweden said that his home country and America are totally different, especially mentality. “Swedes are kind of laid back about everything, kind of like ‘you go first’, over here it’s like ‘yeah, I’m going to be the first guy’,” said Ohlsson.
Ohlsson had a long list of things he was going to miss about Saint Rose, mainly the people, saying that he has made friends he will have for the rest of his life. He loves the college community here, and is proud to call himself a Saint Rose student.
“I think Saint Rose has a solid future in front of it, especially since it’s growing every day,” said Ohlsson.
