The State Newspaper Feature - Eduardo Adam

By Akilah Nelson 3/19/2008Eduardo Adam has an agenda.

The Brazilian exchange student is hoping to use his junior season at Brookland-Cayce to help the Bearcats bring home a Class 3A title.

“When I leave here, I want to go back with a championship. I don’t want to go back, just say I scored a lot of goals but we didn’t win,” said Adam, who has tallied five goals.

Coach Kevin Heise saw Adam’s potential in the fall, when he played for the Congaree Rapids club team.

“Eduardo, or DuDu we call him, is a striker, and on this team, that’s what we’ve been lacking the past couple of years,” Heise said. “It was a shot in the arm to have him.”

As frequently as Adam scores, it is not his favorite part of the game.

“The best part is when the referee blows the whistle, the game is over and we won,” Adam said with a laugh. “Then I get to go celebrate with these teammates.”

That is important to him, because his teammates are the reason behind every one of Adam’s goals.

“I don’t score because I want people to notice me. I score so they can win, because I know they need me to score,” Adam said. “This is my only year here, but this is the last year for the seniors, so I want to help win a championship for them.”

“At home, high school soccer is not a big thing, but all year I’ve been here, everybody has been looking forward to our soccer season,” said Adam, who plays school and club soccer in his home of Parana, Brazil. “It’s really important, so I want to do well for them.”

Though Adam always had planned to study abroad, he wasn’t sure he would land at a school with a soccer program. Now he is contemplating a return to the U.S. to play college soccer.

“At first, I wasn’t sure how it would be, to be far away from my family for so long, but my host family has been very good to me. And B-C soccer, this family has been good, too,” Adam said.

Heise said if Adam wants to return to the U.S., Brookland-Cayce’s staff would try to help make it possible. Adam, he said, is a deserving young man.

“That’s one of the things with these exchange programs — they tend to get kids that are highly motivated,” said Heise, who has three other exchange students on his team. “DuDu, like the other guys, he’s a coach’s dream.”