“Explosive, electric, and entertaining“
When I asked several of Herbert‘s teammates to describe him as a soccer player in three words or less they arrived at the consensus of: "explosive, electric, and entertaining." While his teammates might describe him as those adjectives, an outsider looking in might describe him as Mr. Soccer, Mr. Minnesota, or even Mr. Clutch.
From the very instant that his cleat hit the field this past year, Herbert Endeley has been the living embodiment of clutch. This past fall, Herbert established his place as an essential member of the then #2 ranked Indiana Hoosiers. In his debut game as a Hoosier, Herbert lived up to his many titles as he scored a walk-off game winner versus the University of Pittsburgh. Even among a team composed of talented athletes, Herbert managed to stand out from the get go. Furthermore, despite his repertoire, he is as humble and relaxed as they come. He’s surely an exceptional talent that soccer fans around the nation should keep a keen eye on!
Herbert's Most Recent Accomplishments
BIG 10 Champion
All-BIG 10 Freshman Team
United Soccer Coaches All-American
Mr. Soccer in Minnesota
Minnesota Star Tribune Player of the Year
Minnesota State Champion
First Team All-State
3-Star Recruit in HS
Introducing Herbert Endeley
Richmond: To get started just tell me a little bit about yourself and your background. Give me an overview of who you are, where you're from, your family, or even how you got into soccer.
Herbert: My name is Herbert Endeley, I was born in Minnesota in a suburb about 20 minutes outside of Minneapolis. I'm the oldest of three children— I have two younger sisters. In terms of my parents, both of them were born and raised in Cameroon, and then they came over to the U.S. for college which is how they met. My dad is actually a lawyer for the United Nations, and that eventually led me to get involved with soccer!
When I was around five years old, we moved to Tanzania on the east coast of Africa for his job, and we lived there for the next five years. While I was there, I attended an international school with kids from all over the world, and at some point, I ended up playing soccer there since it's kind of a universal sport. At the end of those five years, we moved back to the U.S., and I kept on playing with different groups. I initially played with my friends and then my first club team, my first high school team, and now I'm playing in college. That's pretty much how I've gotten to this point.
Training Through Covid
Richmond: What was it like for you training throughout this extended summer? Were you able to continue training at all?
Herbert: During the break, I'd go play small pickup soccer games with my friends. It was a lot of fun, but we had to try to keep the size of the group small because everyone wanted to stay healthy. Outside of the pickup games I did a lot of running by myself to stay in shape alongside supplemental workouts at home and things like that. It was a bit hard sometimes because in order to play soccer you need other people. It's not really something you can do by yourself. So that was the challenging part. In terms of fitness and working out, I really made sure that I stayed on top of that stuff. At this point, it's just good to be back with my teammates because I can actually play with other people on a more consistent basis now.
The Meaning of Soccer
Richmond: As you've progressed and grown throughout the years, how has the meaning of soccer changed for you?
Herbert: When I was younger— when I first started playing soccer I just thought of it as something I did for fun. I mean, I was always an athletic kid, but I didn't really think much about where soccer could take me in the future. So, I just started playing for the fun of it and once I started playing in high school around my sophomore or junior year, I realized that I had the potential to either go pro, or play for one of the best colleges. So around that time— that's when I started training even harder.
Nowadays, when I think about soccer, I think of it as my job— as my entire life. Whereas when I was younger, I used to think of it as a hobby. For me, I know that I can make a living out of soccer once I'm done with college. So, I kind of think of it as a job right now because it's all I do and all I think of.
Herbert's Advice
"Nothing's easy. Nothing's ever given to you. As an athlete, you have to make things happen for yourself. You've got to push yourself to work harder than the people beside you. . . When you think about it— there's always gonna be people that want to support you. So, it's important to surround yourself with good people. And the main thing— it's a lot easier said than done— working hard, is gonna get you further than anything else. It's gonna get you as far as you want to go. You just have to put your mind to it, find things that motivate you and those things will push you, and you have to push yourself too.
Staying Motivated
Richmond: What motivates you as an athlete? How do you stay motivated in the midst of a pandemic, or even through weeks and weeks of grueling practice?
Herbert: Personally, I think I'm pretty good at being motivated. I'm not the type of person who can sit around and do nothing. I'm always going to be doing something active whether it be running or kicking a ball on the wall for 30 minutes.
Building onto that, I always want to win. That's the main thing. I think a lot of people could say that wanting to win motivates them and that's especially true for players at Indiana. The standards we set for ourselves are really high and as a result we hold each other accountable. We know exactly what's expected of us. As an athlete, there's always going to be that desire to win, to be the best. For instance, even in practice I want to be the one that makes the best plays, dribbles past the most defenders, or scores the most goals. I think that keeps my motivation level pretty high and that's really what always keeps me going.
Up Next
Richmond: What are you looking forward to?
Herbert: I'm looking forward to all of our games! We don't even know our schedule yet, but I know that whenever we play we're going to be playing some big teams. We probably would have had a really hard schedule this fall, which would have been fun, but at this point I'm just trying to be optimistic that we'll have a season in the spring. If we do, then I really just want to win the BIG 10 tournament again and then the national championship. Titles are one of the most important things to us!
Did you enjoy Herbert's interview? Do you want to hear more? Tell us in the comments below! Feel free to share our interviews and content by hitting the share button and leaving a like!
Follow us on Instagram @theaccoladeblog for more content! Thanks for reading!