With the help of his teammates, Paul Noble, a graduate student in sports administration from Peterborough, England has won three consecutive intramural soccer tournaments during his time at Eastern.

Noble’s team was victorious in the tournaments during the indoor season in 2016, the outdoor fall season of 2017 and spring of 2018.

“It’s all my team,” Noble said. “We are all good friends with lots of experience in soccer, with playing in high school.”

Noble’s teammate Chris Neate, also a graduate student in sports administration from Devizes, England, said they were lucky to have good teammates.

Noble was the starting goalkeeper, while the rest of the team played in the field.

Noble got involved with intramural soccer by becoming the graduate assistant in intramurals.

After he saw the staff get involved, Noble said he decided to give it a try.

Noble said he enjoys playing intramurals because it gives him the chance to be active and competitive.

Neate got involved in intramurals because he missed playing soccer competitively.

“The intramurals are great,” Neate said. “Playing with friends is always fun.”

Though they have been relatively successful on the field, the team said they just want to go out and have fun.

“Winning isn’t something we consciously do,” Noble said. “We play other sports. We just happen to be the best at soccer.”

However, Neate said it is always fun winning sports competitions.

Neate’s secret to success is to “focus on defending first.”

“It’s always going to be hard to come back having conceded. We keep creating chances and the goals soon follow,” he said.

Andrew West, a graduate assistant in sports administration, said having a solid defense is also important. From there, teams need to score when opportunities present themselves, West said.

For Noble, there is no pressure to keep the winning streak up.

“We just like the game,” he said. “We just go out and play the game. If we win that’s nice. If we lost, we wouldn’t be bummed.”

Neate agrees with Noble.

“I don’t think any of us feel any real pressure on keeping it up,” he said. “In both indoor and outdoor we didn’t lose a game, but we don’t really think or talk about anything like that. At the end of the day, it’s just fun playing the sports we love.”

While Noble believes there is not really pressure, West believes there is for those still on the team hoping to continue an unbeaten streak.

Noble is graduating before the next season, but hopes his team members will start recruiting because they “have a legacy to uphold,” he said.

Rachel Stanevich can be reached at 581-2812 or rmstanevich@eiu.edu.