Soccer has always been a huge part of Luke Brown’s life.
His father, Stuart Brown, was a professional soccer player for Luton Town F.C. of England’s League Two, and early on instilled in Luke a love for the game.
Now, Brown aims to take center stage for his family as a starting forward at Hofstra University.
Brown has always been destined to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“Since I could walk, he pretty much gave me a ball and I’ve been playing since,” Brown said.
“I probably wouldn’t be playing if it weren’t for him. My whole family plays, everyone loves it, we’ve basically all bonded over it.”
Brown is the oldest of four siblings and you can bet his siblings will be making some noise in the soccer world sometime fairly soon.
Hailing from Cambridgeshire, England, Brown played soccer for five years at Ely College, where he earned the Best Male Sportsman Leavers Award in 2013.
He also played for Histon F.C., where his dynamic offensive repertoire helped him lead the team in scoring as they won back-to-back Thurlow Nunn Cup championships.
Brown is already making his mark on the team so far this year; he is tied for second on the team in goals scored with four through ten games.
Brown has assimilated seamlessly into the Pride attack, a particularly impressive feat as a freshman on a veteran-laden squad.
While some freshmen may buckle under the pressure of helping carry a reigning conference champion squad, Brown embraces the spotlight.
“It’s a lot of pressure, but it gives you a lot of confidence as well because obviously coach [Richard Nuttall] trusts you to do well enough for the team to start and help win,” Brown said.
“It’s more of a boost than a pressure thing.”
Last season, the Pride went 14-8 en route to a Colonial Athletic Association championship, and a run to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
This year, the squad is looking to avenge their loss and continue even further into the national tournament.
On the subject of the team’s goals for this season, Brown said, “We want to win CAA’s and get as far in the NCAA’s as possible. We had a team meeting and everyone got together and decided on team goals but we’ll see if we end up hitting our targets by the end. What we set is definitely achievable.”
Though he couldn’t get into much detail about exactly what these team goals were, Brown’s sense of confidence in his team’s ability was evident.
“I don’t really like setting [personal] goals, because if you hit them, I don’t think you should feel satisfied. You should always want more and try to do as well as you possibly can as one big target. If you don’t play your very best every single game you won’t feel like you’ve achieved your best.”
While most people are focused on achieving their goals, Brown is focused simply on making himself and his team better.
Coming stateside from England, Brown says that while there are differences, they aren’t as staggering as he was expecting.
He said people’s lifestyles are nearly the same and the biggest difference has been the weather, preferring the weather in the U.S. Brown said American soccer is “more about technique than just athletic ability, which is a big difference.
Games are a lot faster because in England you can only use three substitutions, whereas here it’s roll on, roll off. So it’s always high tempo in America.”
As Brown’s Hofstra soccer career continues, he strives to complete and earn his degree and eventually become a professional soccer player.
He said, “My dream job is becoming a pro and hopefully I can achieve that, but it’s a long way off. If I don’t, I’m taking sports advertising, things like that to stay on that sports route because that’s what I love.”