Luke Palmer has played soccer since he was just five years old in 2006, starting in the Windsor Locks Rec League. Palmer eventually took his young talents to a local club team, known as the Dutch Football Academy. He played there for three years and decided that he wanted to take his skills to the collegiate level. Luke found himself looking at Dean College to call his home for soccer and education, saying “Coach Campbell found me on one of our recruiting platforms, and after a tour it solidified that Dean was for me athletically and academically.” Luke says he enjoys being with the friends he has made on the team and wants to see this program grow long after he graduates. In fact, Luke has decided to take his fifth year at Dean just to try and help improve the program even further. “I knew once covid hit, and especially after my season ending injury last year, that I needed another year of playing. Every year we’ve taken a step further, and I am not done contributing to that process.” In the 2021 season, Palmer suffered a season ending injury that forced him to miss the second half of the season as a captain. He could not let his career of collegiate soccer end with so much missed time, so he decided to take an extra season to fulfill his personal goals, as well as help Dean’s team succeed into the future.
This season, Luke put up four goals and two assists as a midfielder, matching his goal that he set entering the season. “This season was a good personal milestone, I wanted to reach ten points on the season, and I was able to meet that goal.” Once Luke graduates next fall, he would like to coach a college team within this area. He found a passion for coaching in his senior year of high school.
Luke found this passion when he was playing in a sudden death playoff game in high school. Luke committed a pair of yellow card violations, giving him a red card, suspending him from the next game. “We ended up losing our quarter final game that I was forced to miss. I was devasted that I could not be there playing but I saw the pitch from a different perspective, and I have loved it ever since.”. What was a seemingly negative end to his high school soccer career, Palmer was able to put a positive twist on things and turn the time spent on the sideline into an opportunity.
Luke Palmer, a lifetime soccer player and aspiring coach, has more than proved that his passion for the sport is unmatched, and he hopes to continue pouring his heart and soul into improving himself and others on the pitch for as long as he can.