What’s Up with David?

Greenville University’s outreach to athletes around America and the world is very important to our sports teams. We gather athletes from not just schools around us in Illinois, but also from various states and even countries. Greenville University’s Men’s soccer team has one of the most diverse groups on campus. Last year, they had the privilege of getting an athlete named David Yakim, who is originally from Cairo, Egypt. David Yakim or also known as “Yak” or “Yaks” is now a sophomore at GU. He is now in his second season with our GU men’s Soccer team. Yakim is an engineering major and is also a resident chaplain (RC).

Yakim’s main position on the field is a midfielder. His role in that position is when he gets the ball to create opportunities for the team to score. He is currently not a part of the starting 11, but he looks up those who start including senior, Edgar Bueno. Bueno is Yakim’s role model because he is amazing in the middle and Yakim has much to learn from Bueno. Because it is Bueno’s senior year and Yakim doesn’t have much longer to play with him, he does his best to learn from him each day. Apparently, Bueno and Yakim have been doing a great job creating opportunities for the team considering that after 8 games the team has 27 goals altogether. The team has gotten off to a great start on a 7 game win streak with the record of 7-1. They plan to continue to get better facing their upcoming opponent Washington University Monday, September 24th. I believe that having goals in the sports field is very important. Goals are an effective motivational skill that increases competitive performance. Yakim has obtainable goals for the team including winning conference this year. The Panthers have not yet played anybody in the conference, but they look forward to playing  Iowa Wesleyan on Saturday, September 29.

Yakim notices that Greenville University tends to have a lot of small heroes throughout the campus off the field. Yakim says that off the field he admires and looks up to the little things that people do every day. Everyone on campus has their uniques qualities that they share and all of them are important and play a role on campus. Yakim does not have a role model on campusSeptemberbut he does look up to everyone for doing their part on campus to keep Greenville the way it is. Yakim has been battling with his hectic schedule this semester. Traveling far to soccer games, a lot of practice, a lot of homework all on top of classes becomes overwhelming. Not to mention his duties as an RC. Yakim says that it’s tough obtainable but he has been managing through it all. He mostly studies on the bus because those are the best times for him to get the study time in.

One of his teammates, Donovan Graydon said that “Yakim is very positive. No matter the situation you can expect Yakim to be positive.” In some situations, Yakim may come off positive but he also has a few things he does not like to see on the field. For example, one thing he doesn’t like to see is talking or complaining to the referees. Another issue Yakim has is seeing his teammates yelling at each other. He just loves to see people play the game while showing sportsmanship. Yakim loves the game and loves how the season is going but they are not done yet. They have a lot of big games coming and Yakim feels that they have not yet performed to their absolute best but it is yet to come and the goal is to go undefeated from here on out. Stay on the lookout for the results of the games versus Washington University as well as Iowa Wesleyan.