Super power fuels Buol to WWS success
By Chris Walker
She has a special name for her calling card on the pitch.
If defender Sam Buol had her own high school soccer cartoon, Brittany The Big Bad Striker would come to wreak havoc on Red Grange Field, but just as she and the rest of the visiting villains are ready to get the upper hand, Buol activates her skill and thwarts Brittany, one of the many super-talented forwards in the alternate DuKane Conference, and leaves them whining to a Chicagoland Soccer writer afterward, “And I would’ve scored if it wasn’t for that meddling outside back!”
“I miss having someone that’s bigger and faster and will undermine me, thinking they can win over me,” said Buol, a senior at Wheaton Warrenville South. “But actually, I call them my Turbo Wheels. I really miss the sprinting, and the tackling, the making plays.
“And I miss talking to my teammates and seeing them achieve things, and all of us getting really happy, running and hugging each other after we score. That’s always fun.”
Competitors love to compete and Buol, whose name rhymes with fuel, seems to have a bottomless tank, playing the game with an unmatched intensity 100 percent of the time.
“Sam has been a mainstay. It’s unfortunate with what’s happened, because she had an incredible preseason and had come prepared,” Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. “It’s her physicality and intensity and her willingness to lead and by example on the field. She’s taken her role seriously, and you always know what you’re going to get with her. Sometimes we have to pull her back and tell her to relax and let the game come to you a little bit.”
As the team’s most experienced returning player, and just one of two starters who are back, this was supposed to be a huge year for Buol, before a global pandemic decimated high school spring sports, ruining the final seasons of seniors like her and millions of others across the country.
“She gives you everything she has,” Callipari said. “She’s got a great personality, and you got the feeling that she was going to have her moment to shine. This might’ve been her moment.”
While the pandemic may have kept Buol off the field, that’s been about the only thing that’s been able to keep her away from the game. She’s been extremely dependable and durable, having only missed a couple of games due to a bad ankle, which is huge in a sport where bodies take a beating.
Junior Becca Hauenstein, the Tigers other returning starter, didn’t know Buol prior to her arrival at Wheaton Warrenville South, but got to know her pretty quickly despite the one-year difference in class.
“High school is different in the sense that when you have friends in your grade while in club you’re not really worried about ages and stuff,” Hauenstein said. “I would say as a freshman you’re scared to get to know the seniors sometimes so you often go to the grade right above you.
“I got to know Sam, and she’s a super caring person. She always reaches out to see how I’m doing. Even if it’s not soccer season, it’s always exciting to see her. We don’t get to see each other much out of season, but I’d definitely go and get ice cream with her.”
When Hauenstein was a freshman, she’d often bum a ride to and from practice from Buol.
“Being a freshman, I didn’t want to wake up my parents to take me, so she drove me to a lot of practices, and I think that made us closer,” Hauenstein said. “That’s how I really got to know her. As a soccer player she’s one of the hardest workers I know. I can tell she wants to be there to give it her all and compete.”
A third-year player for the Tigers, Buol expected the team to be good, or at least to have the pieces in place so that they’d be competitive. The worldwide pandemic put a kibosh to that so we’ll never know.
“I think we would’ve been successful,” she said. “We had some strong freshmen in (forwards) Lauren Barnett and Kate Hartnett, who are both quick and tall girls, like 5-foot-9; they’re both good, speedy, assets for us.
“Sophomore (defender) Olivia Vassios was taking Maria Dohse’s place and having played alongside (Maria) I felt the same way with her. So we had some strong assets, but they didn’t get to shine this season. Hopefully we’ll get to see it this next season.”
Buol won’t be back in Wheaton next year. Hopefully she’ll be Iowa City, Iowa, at the University of Iowa beginning this fall. While she planned on enjoying her final season with the Tigers and beginning the college chapter of her life without soccer, the coronavirus got her thinking about losing the game she loves from her life.
“I was cleaning out my closet a couple weeks ago and looking at all the jerseys, and I didn’t remember the last time I put on a jersey. And I don’t have a last one,” she said. “Once you’re done doing that, you’re done being an athlete, and I’ve always identified myself as an athlete. I know when I didn’t play club this last fall it felt weird, because I was then in my off-season. I think the college club team would be a great way to be a part of a team again.”
Life without soccer probably would be an easier life transition for Buol if things had played out like they always had before. Instead life became a movie: get ready for senior year; sit and wait due to health care crisis delay; learn there will be no soccer; get on an emotional rollercoaster of anger, confusion and frustration looking for closure; and finally roll the credits.
“I just can’t see myself without soccer and I have a couple of other friends who are going to do club in college too,” she said. “It was that chatter of hearing what other people are doing next year that made me envision what I want and with everything that’s been happening I have a new perspective.”
It really means something to Buol to be able to say that she’s an athlete. Take away the competition from a competitor, and they’re going to suffer trying to fill that void.
“I would say I’m a very tenacious and driven girl, and I love competition,” she said. “I also love a schedule and having a time block that I can play a sport that I enjoy since it’s a nice escape. I can’t see myself without having something to do since I love keeping myself busy. Yes, I can go to the gym and compete with myself, but why not compete against myself and others?”
There’s no competition between Buol and her mom when they get out and walk, but there’s a lot of conversation. The two walked for eight miles on a recent Sunday so these aren’t leisurely strolls to grab the morning paper (do people still do that?) or a walk with the now ever-present headphones.
“We’re very talkative, and it’s just the two of us,” she said. “My mom will have my little brother stay home and vacuum the house or something. We’ll go to Herrick Lake or go through the neighborhood Prairie Path a lot. I’ve been able to build up my endurance again with all the walking and running.”
You’ve got to stay active and that can include baking during an unprecedented shelter-in-place order.
“I’ve just been journaling, walking and baking,” she said. “I’m a huge person in creating like 10 million situations that I can be upset about.
“This is something where we can’t go back to normal, but I’m excited for the new outcomes that our society will make. We can do a lot better.
“A lot of people will be more sanitary. A lot more caution will go into what people are doing. Like I’ve said before, something like this changes your perspective. You cherish being in the moment.”
Buol was already preparing for major life changes later this year with college looming in the fall. After considering a few options, Buol chose the Iowa, finding the environment there warm, welcoming and encouraging.
“The head of business at Iowa knew my name and was super friendly,” she said. “I need a family aspect in a school and a friendliness.”
Although she has an older brother who went to college, he commuted. So her family will also have an adjustment to make with her moving away.
“I’m most excited for new experiences and new beginnings,” she said. “College is a time to meet new people that will hopefully be there for the rest of your life. Most importantly I’m excited to take classes that will help me pursue my degree and that will lead me to succeed in a career, and also will help me build connections with future employers which Iowa is huge in doing.”
Like playing at Red Grange Field, there’s the unique tradition of the “Iowa Wave” at the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium during football games. At the end of the first quarter, fans turn away from the field to wave at the children and their families who are watching from the University of Iowa’s Stead Family Children’s Hospital that overlooks the stadium. Buol hopes to be in that stadium this fall, participating in that tradition, waving back and tiny smiling faces from afar.
“It’s a great atmosphere and football is the main sport there so I’m excited for that,” she said. “It’s a weird feeling not stepping onto Grange again. I know we’re talking about playing one game together since this year’s team has so many new players, and we haven’t even had a chance to scrimmage another team.
“I just want to play with my teammates and actually see how the freshmen and sophomore newcomers are. I haven’t even had a chance to bond with the girls.”
For Buol, there’s always been something special about stepping on the field named after Grange, a Hall of Famer in both the college and pro football Hall of Fame.
“It’s the home for lacrosse, football and boys and girls soccer,” she said. “It’s a huge thing for Wheaton and whenever you hear ‘Red Grange’ people know that that’s Wheaton Warrenville South’s field. When we were younger that history was all instilled in us. It’s special and getting out there again is a part of the closure.”
That would be a fitting finish for Buol -- one final standout game in her Tigers uniform.
Then she can put in her ear buds and turn up something from Jason Isbell or Morgan Wallen, or perhaps something from one of her all-time favorites, the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughn, and slowly stroll off Red Grange with her Turbo Wheels headed in a new direction.
By Chris Walker
She has a special name for her calling card on the pitch.
If defender Sam Buol had her own high school soccer cartoon, Brittany The Big Bad Striker would come to wreak havoc on Red Grange Field, but just as she and the rest of the visiting villains are ready to get the upper hand, Buol activates her skill and thwarts Brittany, one of the many super-talented forwards in the alternate DuKane Conference, and leaves them whining to a Chicagoland Soccer writer afterward, “And I would’ve scored if it wasn’t for that meddling outside back!”
“I miss having someone that’s bigger and faster and will undermine me, thinking they can win over me,” said Buol, a senior at Wheaton Warrenville South. “But actually, I call them my Turbo Wheels. I really miss the sprinting, and the tackling, the making plays.
“And I miss talking to my teammates and seeing them achieve things, and all of us getting really happy, running and hugging each other after we score. That’s always fun.”
Competitors love to compete and Buol, whose name rhymes with fuel, seems to have a bottomless tank, playing the game with an unmatched intensity 100 percent of the time.
“Sam has been a mainstay. It’s unfortunate with what’s happened, because she had an incredible preseason and had come prepared,” Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. “It’s her physicality and intensity and her willingness to lead and by example on the field. She’s taken her role seriously, and you always know what you’re going to get with her. Sometimes we have to pull her back and tell her to relax and let the game come to you a little bit.”
As the team’s most experienced returning player, and just one of two starters who are back, this was supposed to be a huge year for Buol, before a global pandemic decimated high school spring sports, ruining the final seasons of seniors like her and millions of others across the country.
“She gives you everything she has,” Callipari said. “She’s got a great personality, and you got the feeling that she was going to have her moment to shine. This might’ve been her moment.”
While the pandemic may have kept Buol off the field, that’s been about the only thing that’s been able to keep her away from the game. She’s been extremely dependable and durable, having only missed a couple of games due to a bad ankle, which is huge in a sport where bodies take a beating.
Junior Becca Hauenstein, the Tigers other returning starter, didn’t know Buol prior to her arrival at Wheaton Warrenville South, but got to know her pretty quickly despite the one-year difference in class.
“High school is different in the sense that when you have friends in your grade while in club you’re not really worried about ages and stuff,” Hauenstein said. “I would say as a freshman you’re scared to get to know the seniors sometimes so you often go to the grade right above you.
“I got to know Sam, and she’s a super caring person. She always reaches out to see how I’m doing. Even if it’s not soccer season, it’s always exciting to see her. We don’t get to see each other much out of season, but I’d definitely go and get ice cream with her.”
When Hauenstein was a freshman, she’d often bum a ride to and from practice from Buol.
“Being a freshman, I didn’t want to wake up my parents to take me, so she drove me to a lot of practices, and I think that made us closer,” Hauenstein said. “That’s how I really got to know her. As a soccer player she’s one of the hardest workers I know. I can tell she wants to be there to give it her all and compete.”
A third-year player for the Tigers, Buol expected the team to be good, or at least to have the pieces in place so that they’d be competitive. The worldwide pandemic put a kibosh to that so we’ll never know.
“I think we would’ve been successful,” she said. “We had some strong freshmen in (forwards) Lauren Barnett and Kate Hartnett, who are both quick and tall girls, like 5-foot-9; they’re both good, speedy, assets for us.
“Sophomore (defender) Olivia Vassios was taking Maria Dohse’s place and having played alongside (Maria) I felt the same way with her. So we had some strong assets, but they didn’t get to shine this season. Hopefully we’ll get to see it this next season.”
Buol won’t be back in Wheaton next year. Hopefully she’ll be Iowa City, Iowa, at the University of Iowa beginning this fall. While she planned on enjoying her final season with the Tigers and beginning the college chapter of her life without soccer, the coronavirus got her thinking about losing the game she loves from her life.
“I was cleaning out my closet a couple weeks ago and looking at all the jerseys, and I didn’t remember the last time I put on a jersey. And I don’t have a last one,” she said. “Once you’re done doing that, you’re done being an athlete, and I’ve always identified myself as an athlete. I know when I didn’t play club this last fall it felt weird, because I was then in my off-season. I think the college club team would be a great way to be a part of a team again.”
Life without soccer probably would be an easier life transition for Buol if things had played out like they always had before. Instead life became a movie: get ready for senior year; sit and wait due to health care crisis delay; learn there will be no soccer; get on an emotional rollercoaster of anger, confusion and frustration looking for closure; and finally roll the credits.
“I just can’t see myself without soccer and I have a couple of other friends who are going to do club in college too,” she said. “It was that chatter of hearing what other people are doing next year that made me envision what I want and with everything that’s been happening I have a new perspective.”
It really means something to Buol to be able to say that she’s an athlete. Take away the competition from a competitor, and they’re going to suffer trying to fill that void.
“I would say I’m a very tenacious and driven girl, and I love competition,” she said. “I also love a schedule and having a time block that I can play a sport that I enjoy since it’s a nice escape. I can’t see myself without having something to do since I love keeping myself busy. Yes, I can go to the gym and compete with myself, but why not compete against myself and others?”
There’s no competition between Buol and her mom when they get out and walk, but there’s a lot of conversation. The two walked for eight miles on a recent Sunday so these aren’t leisurely strolls to grab the morning paper (do people still do that?) or a walk with the now ever-present headphones.
“We’re very talkative, and it’s just the two of us,” she said. “My mom will have my little brother stay home and vacuum the house or something. We’ll go to Herrick Lake or go through the neighborhood Prairie Path a lot. I’ve been able to build up my endurance again with all the walking and running.”
You’ve got to stay active and that can include baking during an unprecedented shelter-in-place order.
“I’ve just been journaling, walking and baking,” she said. “I’m a huge person in creating like 10 million situations that I can be upset about.
“This is something where we can’t go back to normal, but I’m excited for the new outcomes that our society will make. We can do a lot better.
“A lot of people will be more sanitary. A lot more caution will go into what people are doing. Like I’ve said before, something like this changes your perspective. You cherish being in the moment.”
Buol was already preparing for major life changes later this year with college looming in the fall. After considering a few options, Buol chose the Iowa, finding the environment there warm, welcoming and encouraging.
“The head of business at Iowa knew my name and was super friendly,” she said. “I need a family aspect in a school and a friendliness.”
Although she has an older brother who went to college, he commuted. So her family will also have an adjustment to make with her moving away.
“I’m most excited for new experiences and new beginnings,” she said. “College is a time to meet new people that will hopefully be there for the rest of your life. Most importantly I’m excited to take classes that will help me pursue my degree and that will lead me to succeed in a career, and also will help me build connections with future employers which Iowa is huge in doing.”
Like playing at Red Grange Field, there’s the unique tradition of the “Iowa Wave” at the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium during football games. At the end of the first quarter, fans turn away from the field to wave at the children and their families who are watching from the University of Iowa’s Stead Family Children’s Hospital that overlooks the stadium. Buol hopes to be in that stadium this fall, participating in that tradition, waving back and tiny smiling faces from afar.
“It’s a great atmosphere and football is the main sport there so I’m excited for that,” she said. “It’s a weird feeling not stepping onto Grange again. I know we’re talking about playing one game together since this year’s team has so many new players, and we haven’t even had a chance to scrimmage another team.
“I just want to play with my teammates and actually see how the freshmen and sophomore newcomers are. I haven’t even had a chance to bond with the girls.”
For Buol, there’s always been something special about stepping on the field named after Grange, a Hall of Famer in both the college and pro football Hall of Fame.
“It’s the home for lacrosse, football and boys and girls soccer,” she said. “It’s a huge thing for Wheaton and whenever you hear ‘Red Grange’ people know that that’s Wheaton Warrenville South’s field. When we were younger that history was all instilled in us. It’s special and getting out there again is a part of the closure.”
That would be a fitting finish for Buol -- one final standout game in her Tigers uniform.
Then she can put in her ear buds and turn up something from Jason Isbell or Morgan Wallen, or perhaps something from one of her all-time favorites, the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughn, and slowly stroll off Red Grange with her Turbo Wheels headed in a new direction.