“I had never heard of the place,” said Eric recalling the first time someone told him about Notre Dame College. “I caught wind of an open tryout from one of my soccer coaches and when I tried out, the college coach encouraged me to visit the campus.”

After his first visit, Eric was hooked. “Everything that I knew about the college was from looking on the website, so I just came in with an open mind. After my visit to Notre Dame, I stopped looking at other colleges. I liked the architecture and liked the feel of being at a small school. I also liked how it is tucked away in a neighborhood. You feel safe, but everything is still convenient.”

Beyond the facilities, Eric found the heart of Notre Dame is the community itself. “This place is more of a community than a campus. At other colleges I visited, it was just that, a campus. There are separate buildings everywhere. You don’t know half the people you see. At the beginning of this year, I could walk across this campus and tell you who just about everybody was.”

Now when Eric goes home, things are a little different. “When I would go home after my freshman season, people were like ‘Notre Dame? Where’s that?’ Now when I go home, they’re like ‘Oh, I heard your soccer team went to Nationals.’ It puts a little hop in your step knowing you were part of making that happen.”