Men’s soccer team captain John Lucchesi and his Buccaneer teammates have faced three top-five nationally ranked teams this season. Lucchesi is a Johnson City native. He attended school at Science Hill, and his father is actually a former tennis player at ETSU.
“I think I have grown on and off the field since coming to ETSU,” Lucchesi said.
Before attending ETSU, Lucchesi was a defensive star at Science Hill, earning region defensive player of the year twice. In his senior year, he helped the Hilltoppers to a 21-1-1 record.
As a freshman, Lucchesi redshirted using the year to get stronger and develop his game. The following year as a redshirt, freshman Lucchesi only started the first game of the season, which ended up as the only game he played that season. He left his imprint though as he scored one goal on his only attempt of the season.
In his redshirt sophomore season, he earned valuable playing time in 12 matches and starting in one game.
“A big moment I remember celebrating was when we got an at-large bid,” Lucchesi said when discussing his favorite memory so far at ETSU. That year the Bucs made it to the NCAA tournament.
“I remember everyone just being really excited.”
This season Lucchesi and the Bucs are 4-5 under new head coach David Casper.
“Coach Casper definitely came and gave a new look at my game, what I could do differently as well as better,” Lucchesi said.
The Bucs are still learning a new system, but their goals still remain the same.
”We came into the season looking to win the SoCon regular season and SoCon tournament championship,” Lucchesi said. “All these games we are playing right now is just building up to that.”
Lucchesi does feel the season is going good and the team is learning from their mistakes, which will ultimately make the Bucs a better team going into conference play.
