Some players pass through. Others become the place.

Jake Lysik has been Steel City since the beginning - captain from day one, all-time leader in goals, assists, and appearances.  What makes Lysik different isn’t talent alone - it’s the discipline behind it.

Winter means the John Terry treadmill sessions – treadmill to 18 km/h, a brutal 13% incline, 20 seconds at full tilt, over and over again (20 reps).

Because form is built when no one’s watching. 

 Beyond the pitch, Jake keeps giving it back - coaching at Plainfield East and helping shape the next generation at his boyhood club, Legacy SC, in New Lenox.

Primarily an outside back, his accolades speak for themselves.
🏆 14 goals, 23 assists all-time
🔥 5 goals in National & Illinois State Cups
🥉 3rd in league’s Golden Boot race in ’22 

 Lysik. Back again. 

 An elite two-way outside back, Justin Darlage suited up for Steel City last year as availability allowed - and every time he stepped on the pitch, the level rose.

The results tell the story: Steel City did not lose a Midwest Premier League match with Darlage in the lineup.

This is an ironman in every sense:
• 100 matches. 100 starts. 9,000+ minutes at Lewis University
• NCAA Final Four run
• Dragged Lincoln-WayWest to its best finish ever
• Built for big games 

 Preparation matters to him.
Same meals on every matchday - breakfast through kickoff.
Same playlist. Every time.
Ritual. Routine. Edge.

Darlage. Lysik. Baumgartner.
Different roles. Same New Lenox DNA.

He's homegrown and he’s here to win trophies. 

 From the back line to the touchline, no one has lived more Steel City matches than Nigel Dillard.

As a player, he held the line with authority.
As a coach, he’s shaped this team in his image - organized, hard to break, prepared.

Dillard lives in the details. Film. Tendencies. Training. The work starts long before kickoff. 

And he keeps leveling up.

He’s just wrapped his second season as head coach at University of St. Francis, right here in Joliet, while continuing to give back to the game as a youth coach at Legacy SC. Few people have their fingertips on soccer in this area the way he does.

He carries himself with humility, but he’s never settled - always learning, always pushing, always looking for the next edge.

That mindset hasn’t gone unnoticed. Around the pre-professional game, Dillard is widely respected - and we’re realistic enough to know we won’t get to keep him forever.  

 Six seasons in.

And if last year is any indication, the level keeps rising.

Steel City’s #10 lives in the engine room.

Off the field, he’s an engineer. On it, he builds games with precision and discipline.

When Steel City is flowing, it usually starts at his feet. 

 A product of Chebanse, he continues to give back and a wave of hometown kids make the trek to our stands.

Before kickoff, it’s simple: workday over, music up.
Marca MP. Vagos de HP. Banda Corona del Rey.
Mixed with Eladio Carrión and Mora.
Mexican roots from Jerez, Zacatecas.

Not loud.
Not flashy.
Just indispensable. 

 He didn’t edge out the League’s Golden Boot.
He ripped it away.

Four goals on the final night.
At Slammers Stadium - his stage all season.
No one in red-n-black has buried more there. Ever.

He’s back for one more summer of noise before Columbus and The Ohio State University.

How does the former MLS Next Champ stay fit in the offseason?

Hoops and lifts with Coach @sean_fahey11
Landscapes with @stoogeslandscaping under the sun.

Golden Boot.
Hometown badge.
New Lenox rails.

You can hear it coming before you see it. All aboard. 🚂 

 Some men arrive quietly.
Some arrive like a factory whistle cutting through the night.

Introducing 6’4” forward Shady Omar, a scoring machine and fan favorite everywhere he goes.

Eighty goals in high school.
2x Golden Boot winner - Midwest Premier League.
Professional experience in Egypt.

From the streets of East Lansing to the Egyptian Premier League… now to Joliet.

Omar. Train. Slusarczyk.
Slammers Stadium is about to get loud.

Two league Golden Boot winners – Omar and Train - in the same XI. It’s never happened before. How others deal with that for 90 minutes is anyone’s guess.

He keeps it simple on gameday – relax, pray and speaking with family to stay grounded and locked in. His proudest moment was making his professional debut – the reflection, in that moment, of everything he worked for.

Of course, he’s backing Egypt this summer.

Welcome to Steel City, Shady. 

 Another heavy piece lands in Steel City.

The captain and minutes leader at Division I University of Illinois-Chicago joins the club.

Brauckmann brings the kind of profile that travels: College Soccer News National Team of the Week, earned MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team honors, and won a Sunshine State Conference Tournament championship with D2 national powerhouse Lynn University (where he was also captain).

From Welver, Germany, via Börde-Berufskolleg Soest, its no surprise who he’s backing this summer — with the reasonable expectation Germany gets out of its group this time. 

Johnny Roussakis does the work that wins matches.

At Ohio Northern University, he’s become the heartbeat of a young side. This past fall he started every match, logging nearly 1,600 minutes at the #6, helping lead the Polar Bears to the first undefeated regular season in program history.

The mentality was forged early under Coach Dave Brown at Lincoln-Way Central, where grinding for your teammates was the expectation.

Local roots.
Relentless engine.

Exactly the kind of player Steel City is built on. 

 The Blue Demon defender joins the strongest incoming group in club history.

Booker T. Washington HS (OK).
All-Stater.
Tulsa Area Preseason Player of the Year.
Outstanding Player of the Year.
IMG Top 150 — Class of 2022.
U.S. Open Cup appearance with @tulsaathletic

The résumé is heavy.

But he’s not.

Low-key.
Team-first.
Leads by example.

Steel City conceded six goals in its final seven matches last season.

That back line just got significantly better.

Three-time Big East All-Academic selection — the country’s top financial institutions are as interested in him as soccer clubs.

Foundation. 

Some defenders destroy.
Some defenders build.

Pavel Valchev does both.

A crunching tackler, Valchev was a big part of last season’s defensive clampdown — the kind of presence that makes strikers think twice about lingering.

But the other side of his game is just as sharp.

Impeccable soft feet. Calm on the ball. Distribution that turns defense into attack.

Developed at the Spartak Varna academy in his native Bulgaria before bringing that edge Governors State and Kentucky Wesleyan.

Game day starts simply: a morning walk and music in the headphones

As for the World Cup? Bulgaria didn’t make it, so Pavel’s backing Germany.
His girlfriend is half-German. We suspect that played a role.

Valchev is back in red-n-black.  

 He didn’t come up the usual way.

He worked through the Chicago park districts and didn’t even play 11v11 until his freshman year at Lane Tech.

Since then, every stop has ended with him lifting something big:

City championship with Lane Tech.
State Cup champion with Raiders.
NPL National champion with Sockers FC.
NCAA Final Four with Lewis.
GLVC regular season and conference tournament champion.

And now in his first season with Steel City, he’s already shown his level - stepping up in the friendly against Chicago House and again in National Amateur Cup play.

Cold shower. Prayer. Visualize the W.
That’s the routine.

He’s rooting hard for the US this summer.

Jeremiah Higgins. Steel City goalkeeper. 

 We’ve written a lot about Vincent Mkhwanazi over the years.

And somehow, it still hasn’t been enough.

This is his sixth season with Steel City.
Before there was a culture, there was Vince.

He didn’t inherit something ready-made. He helped define it. The expectations. The accountability. The belief that if you do things the right way - every day - results follow.

From Soweto, South Africa to Olivet Nazarene.

From building Kankakee HS into a winner to shaping Steel City from day one.

His résumé speaks for itself.
But it’s the people that tell the real story.

Players who found another level.
Coaches who found their voice.
Young men and women who found direction.

He’s coached teams to wins.
He’s coached people to become more than they thought they could be.

And his fingerprints?
They’re everywhere - on this club, in Kankakee, on careers still unfolding.
Six years in.

Still setting the standard as Director of Coaching. 

 Some players arrive looking for a role.
Tre Adams filled one.

Originally a forward, Adams took on the hardest job on the pitch - learning center back - because the club needed it.

Whatever the match demands, the Lake Central all-stater and Indiana University Northwest standout has become one of Steel City’s most reliable pieces.

He has scored big goals for the club.

More importantly, he’s helped build the culture.

Northwest Indiana players followed him here, and you’ll often find him in the stands supporting the women and NXT.

The Brezee era rolls on. 

 His video game numbers back at Iroquois West in Gilman were legendary:

155 goals.
55 assists.

He tallied 13 assists las season at Governors State.

At Steel City he’s won - a U23 league title and two State Cup finals with Steel City NXT.

Diego Camarena has been part of this club for years.

Not passing through - building with it.

He sees the game a step ahead and creates more than he takes.

Camarena is back. 

Fifth year.
Still climbing.

Bourbonnais built.
Former Daily Journal Player of the Year.
Back-to-back trips to Nationals at Governors State.

He’s captained teams everywhere he’s gone.

Indoor runs in the winter. Lifting. Touches. Always adding something.

Sorich is back in red-n-black. 

9w 

 Some guys show up for games.
Jake Bosco shows up for the club.

Women’s matches. NXT. First team.
If Steel City’s playing, he’s around - that’s who he is.

A Tinley Park Bobcats product - one of the longest-running community clubs in the area and a Steel City partner. Jake’s family built it and he still gives his time back.

Offseason:
Lakefront runs in any weather. Pickup games wherever he can find them, and upper body time in the gym.

Game Day routine:
Sugar free energy drink and a fun size pack of any gummy candy.
Right boot. Left boot. Prayer.

And after matches, amongst the longest autograph lines are for him – people connect with Jake.

One of our partners even put his name on the menu — Bosco Sticks — which tells you everything you need to know about the kind of presence he has around here.

Bosco is back. Representing the club the right way, every time he shows up. 

11w 

Josh Cruz climbed into the first team picture late last season and left his mark with an assist.

From Bolingbrook to Joliet Junior College to the semi-pro game, the attacker has kept climbing. A 14-goal, 8-assist senior year at Bolingbrook and a 15-goal, 6-assist season at JJC shows the type of production he’s capable of.

Cruz’s gameday for Steel City tomorrow - a do-or-die National Amatuer Cup match in South Bend, Indiana – will start like all his other gamedays – a cold shower and his playlist.

Cruz thinks Spain wins the World Cup but is backing Ecuador.

 Jalen Williams announced himself with Steel City NXT last season.

The Marian Catholic graduate competes at one of the top Division II programs in the country, suiting up as a sophomore for Palm Beach Atlantic, with the Sailfish having sat at No. 2 in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 last season.

Williams listens to the same playlist during his pre-game walks and thinks France will take the World Cup.

He turned heads last year.
The next layer is coming. 

 Liam Treacy looks like a player ready to push forward.

The center back appeared in 12 matches as a true freshman for a strong Wisconsin-Whitewater team that finished 14-3-3.

At Lincoln-Way East, he was an All-Stater and captain of the most successful team in school history under Steel City Legend @m.ribbens .

Two years in our Academy.
The next layer is coming. 

 Declan Nugent continues to exceed high bars.

Academy.
NXT.
Then First Team.

The Naperville man is a fierce competitor.

At Illinois Wesleyan, he was part of the first team in school history to qualify for the NCAA Tournament and earned All-District Academic honors — proof the discipline runs deeper than the pitch.

His “off-season training”?

Weekly marathons before work. Two-hour gym sessions.
Favorite exercise: a casual 20-minute plank… with a weighted vest.
Sounds about right.

Pregame routine?
Handle complex business matters. Hydrate. Focus on the task.

This summer, he’s supporting Portugal and France.

Steel City built a pathway.

Declan Nugent followed it to the first team. 

 Sebastian Doppelhofer anchored Steel City’s late-season surge, dropping just one match in the final seven.

The Austrian shot-stopper slammed the door shut:
• 276 consecutive scoreless minutes
• 6 goals conceded in the final 7
• Multiple point-blank, game-saving stops

At Lewis University, he was a pillar:
• 82 career starts
• .77 goals-against average
• NCAA Division II Final Four appearance

This summer means more than club soccer.

Sebastian will be supporting close friends representing Austria at the World Cup — the nation’s first qualification in 28 years.

He cleans his gloves and cleats before every match.
And a kiss to his shin guards – donning family and the Austrian flag - before stepping on the pitch.

Doppelhofer continues in a line of Steel City keepers who set the standard when it matters.