Looks can be deceiving – A story on Bjarne Huth
“When he walks onto the pitch with a big smile on his face you would think that he is a member of the Boy Scouts, but the things he does on the field are just insane.” This is a quote from Nicolo Renzi, a former Morningside Soccer player, who tried to describe Bjarne Huth, in one sentence.
In general, most of Huth’s teammates describe him as a very calm person off the field, but as already mentioned in the quote, Huth’s personality transforms as soon as he sets his foot on the pitch.
Huth was born on February 11th, 2000, in Frankfurt, Germany. The son of Ulrike and Axel Huth graduated from high school in 2018 and then went on to take a so-called “gap year” before committing to Morningside. In that year, he mainly focused on finishing his youth soccer season and the recruiting process for the U.S.
Since he arrived at Morningside, Huth has managed to create a pretty successful resume. The shot-stopper from Frankfurt has been a starter ever since he came to Morningside, and he was awarded the title of “Defensive Player of the Year” in his sophomore season.
It is very important to mention the one thing that really makes him stand out among all the other goalkeepers in the GPAC and the entire nation.
Huth is not just a normal soccer goalkeeper; he is the perfect example of a new type of modern goalkeeper. His height is surely not optimal for a goalkeeper, as Huth is 5’10” tall. This is unusual given the fact that a pro goalkeeper is usually around 6’2” tall. However, his excellent abilities in goal make up for every inch that he is missing.
Asked about his size, Huth himself had this to say: “I feel like my size allows me to be quicker and more agile than a lot of taller goalkeepers. When I look back on the past three seasons, the number of times that my speed and agility allowed me to make crucial saves easily outnumbers the amount of times that my size led to us conceding a goal.”
Huth mentioned that he put a lot of time and effort into the development of his speed and agility. In addition to that, he is also an excellent player with the ball at his feet, which is something that is starting to become more and more important for goalkeepers nowadays. A couple of years ago goalkeepers weren’t really known for their good passing and distribution, but this has changed. Ever since the rise of Manuel Neuer, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, goalkeepers became more and more important in building up the game from the back.
According to Kai Schwägerl, a soccer player at Morningside and one of Huth’s center backs, “Bjarne has a better technique than most of the guys on our team and I can’t exclude myself from that.”
Over his three years at Morningside, Huth has always played a key role in Coach Tom Maxon’s squad and helped lead them to two back-to-back GPAC titles. In his first year, he had problems with his eligibility at the beginning of the season, but he still ended up playing almost all of the games that year. The Mustang men went on to secure the GPAC title against their city rival, Briar Cliff University, and therefore also the first title in the program’s history.
In Huth’s second year, the Mustangs were fired up and made it their mission to win another conference title. Covid-19 definitely impacted the soccer season with a lot of games being postponed, especially at the beginning of the season, but that didn’t stop the Mustang Men.
Huth and his team had a breathtaking regular season and yet again won the championship in a rematch of the previous year’s final match. The Mustangs tied Briar Cliff University and managed to secure their second championship in a row.
Huth is well known for always joking around and bringing a good mood to every practice. His ability to never take things too seriously can sometimes be seen as him being indifferent, however, it is just his way of living life. An appropriate word for this would be the German word “Freigeist”, which translates to free spirit.
Off the field, Huth is a very caring and passionate person. Amou Mumm, the student assistant coach on the soccer team, said “Bjarne is not really someone that likes to be in the spotlight. He is very knowledgeable, but he doesn’t really like to show off.”
Despite Huth’s laid-back personality, he is still an integral part of the team. Even though he is not a leader in the sense that he is the team captain, Huth is respected by everyone on the team. Mumm described him as “a silent leader”. When the team needs him, Huth steps up to motivate them, or to remind them of what they all can do.
There were multiple games where it was obvious to see Huth’s ‘transformation’ from off the field to on the field, but one time that really stood out was in the Mustangs’ game against St. Cloud State University. It is important to know that St. Cloud is an NCAA Division 2 University and therefore no Morningside player really expected them to win the game, except for Huth. Before the game, he got the team together and specifically mentioned how the team has everything it takes to win the game. Huth’s pre-game speech led to the Mustangs winning the game with an impressive score of 5-1.
Huth’s partner, Paytn Harmon, summed all of this up in two sentences, “His passiveness and indifference can make a normal person glance and never think twice. For those that sit and talk to him though, they have a different outlook once they leave.”
Aside from Huth’s brilliance on the field and his intriguing personality, he is also an excellent student. The Junior is a double major in Business Administration and General Psychology. In addition to that, Huth is a regular Dean’s List student.
He doesn’t really know what he wants to do with his talents after graduating from Morningside, but he sure has a lot of great things ahead of him.
