Redshirt senior Christian Sosnowski is an integral part of the culture of Eastern Illinois soccer for the last five years.

In his five years Sosnowski has led the team in scoring, has been a leader for this team and was able to come up big in huge moments for the Panthers.

In terms of family, Sosnowski’s grandfather played soccer professionally in Poland’s 2nd league for Lechia Gdansk and Ogniwo Sopot in the 1960s.

Though his grandfather played professionally, it was Sosnowski’s father, who also played soccer, that provided the most influence on his game.

“He sacrificed so much for me driving me to practice all the time and always being honest with me on what I should improve on the field,” Sosnowski said.

In his senior year of high school, Sosnowski was a team captain, named All-Area by the Daily Herald, and earned All-Conference and All-Sectional honors with 9 goals and 14 assists that season.

Sosnowski chose to come to Eastern because his high school varsity coach and counselor played for Eastern and told him a lot of great things about the campus and people.

Since coming to Eastern Sosnowski chose to be a finance major. In 2017, Sosnowski was named to the All-Academic Summit League Team.

Sosnowski did not play a game his freshman year at Eastern. In his first playing year in 2016, Sosnowski started 17 games and played 1,401 minutes.

In 2017, Sosnowski player in all 19 matches and started in 18 of them. He scored his first goal of his career against Valparaiso and tallied an assist on the season.

Sosnowski led the team in scoring in 2018 with three goals including the game-winner against Western Illinois.

In the 2019 offseason Sosnowski played for the USL Division II Mississippi Brilla FC. He played in nine games, logged 567 minutes, and recorded an assist.

This season Sosnowski scored one goal and recorded two assists, including the assist for the game-winning goal against rival Belmont Tuesday.

His ultimate goal for 2019 is to record five goals and five assists for the season. The team goal is to win the Summit League tournament and make it to the national tournament.

Sosnowki’s favorite memory so far in his playing career is the game-winning goal against in-state conference rival Western Illinois last season.

Though that is his favorite memory Sosnowski has a focus on his legacy and imprint he wants to place on Eastern’s soccer culture.

“I want to be remembered as the guy that didn’t take days off,” Sosnowski said. “I feel like every time I stepped onto the field at EIU I have given my all and I’ve been working on setting the standard to stay consistent everyday and take no days off to get better.”

Sosnowski still has his senior season to finish, but throughout an athlete’s career there are times where they can think about some things they could have learned when they were younger.

Sosnowski certainly had thoughts on those times.

“I would tell my younger self that if you come to EIU you have to earn everything here on the field,” Sosnowski said. “You have to love the game and want to improve your game every single day.”

Just like Sosnowski’s high school coach and counselor once advised him Sosnowski offered advice to players who look up to him, are playing the game or are waiting to come to Eastern.

“Everything is earned and we are all about development here,” Sosnowski said. “I have seen so many guys change and improve their game since freshman year. If you want to compete every day and be around guys that want to get better, come to Eastern.

Blake Faith can be reached at 581-2812 or bmfaith@eiu.edu.