West Anchorage senior Luca Driscoll will be key for the defending champs at this week’s state tournament. Photo by Durrell Vaaia
The 6-foot-1 West Anchorage forward calls last year’s state semifinal victory “probably the best game of my life.”
It’s not hard to see why.
Luca Driscoll, then a junior, buried a SportsCenter Top 10-like goal, a perfectly placed strike from over 30 yards away. After turning over the opposition, Driscoll dribbled once, pattered up to the rolling soccer ball and unloaded a perfectly placed shot into the top of the net.
“I’ve never dribbled too much,” said Driscoll, the reigning state champion Eagles midfielder turned striker. “I’m always just trying to get the ball, one-two touch, pass it, play a good through ball, get the ball off my foot. Not lose possession of the ball, not do flashy stuff.”
Midfield, where Driscoll has played most of his career, just fits the Anchorage native, who will take the pitch with West one final time at the state tournament in Wasilla and Palmer. For Driscoll – like the West program itself – supporting one’s teammates is what everything boils down to.
“Never once have I seen him call somebody out, or be negative,” fifth-year West head coach Kaleb Kuehn said. “He’s always positive on the field, he’s always positive off the field, and, like I said, he’s just generally engaged in whatever his teammates or friends are doing, and you know, when it’s smooth off the field, it’s hopefully smooth on the field.”
Driscoll, who was born and raised in Anchorage, began competitive soccer around age 7, he said.
At the time, the Alaska Rush squad was “maybe fourth out of six teams in Anchorage,” according to longtime coach Chris MacKay.
“We just had a very difficult time finding talented players,” MacKay said in a recent interview, “until one day, in walks Luca to our open tryout, and I remember the other coach Mike Naylor and I looked at each other and thought, ‘Wow, here’s a kid that we can actually build a team around.’
“He had height, he had incredible shooting ability, he could dribble, he had a vision. He just seemed to understand the game far better than most of the players at his age.”
Driscoll increased his scoring each season, going from two goals as a freshman to six as a sophomore to eight as a junior to 15 this year. Photo by Alex Menendez
It proved to be an accurate assessment.
With Driscoll, the Rush 2008 boys team steadily improved. By the time they grew into high schoolers, Driscoll’s team became the best in the state, winning multiple Alaska State Cups.
“He’s always been one of our leaders, not always the most vocal but certainly by how he carries himself, and more of, you know, follow what I do rather than what I say,” MacKay said. “He’s always been just an excellent example of how to work hard, how to play with dignity and grace.”
Just like on Rush, Driscoll’s knack for forging connections with teammates has proved instrumental for West.
“My four years of being with the team, I think the diversity and culture on our team is so special,” Driscoll said.
Senior teammates Adoum Abakarabdou, born in Chad, and Musa Marrah, born and raised in Sierra Leone, say Driscoll has welcomed them with open arms.
“He leads the team and I’m going to say he’s just like a brother to me, yeah, he’s like a brother to me now,” Marrah said. “Because since I moved here, he was hella friendly, hanging out with me, going out, getting food, and doing all that type of stuff. Yeah, it’s been fun. It’s been fun knowing Luca.”
From left: West seniors Adoum Abakarabdou, Driscoll and Musa Marrah. Photo by Nolin Ainsworth/Alaska Sports Report
Initially apprehensive, Marrah has found a second family with the Eagles.
“I thought they were going to be mean because when I first moved here, I didn’t know any English, no nothing,” Marrah said. “Well, they were hella friendly. I was surprised they were hella friendly, and especially Luca, he was teaching me some words in English because I didn’t know anything.”
Abakarabdou has also hit it off with Driscoll.
He said the two clicked after teaming up on an Olympic Development Program (ODP) trip in the fourth or fifth grade.
“At first, I thought we weren’t gonna get along because we had been playing against each other in club (soccer),” Abakarabdou said. “But after that trip, I feel like him and a couple other kids, we really bonded well together. And then I moved to his club team recently and we were practicing every day. I see him at school every day.”
Driscoll (15 goals) and Abakarabdou (6 goals) are first and third, respectively, on West’s goal leaders this season.
Over the last four seasons, Driscoll has notched 31 career goals, a stretch in which the Eagles have won a combined 50 games.
Should the Eagles win state again, they would become just the sixth Alaska team to win back-to-back state championships, joining Chugiak (1984-85), West (1987-88), South Anchorage (2005-07), Juneau-Douglas (2010-11) and South (2016-17).
“We have these underclassmen and juniors that are ready to keep playing,” Driscoll said. “If we were able to win (state again), it would be amazing and it inspires me to win because what we could do for the program and for the school.”
