Muir-Sanity took over the Whitney High School Boys Soccer team last year.

As a junior, Alex Muir averaged 7.1 saves in 1,140 minutes playing goalie in 2014 while receiving 1^st-Team All League Honors, All-Section Honorable Mention and led the Capital Valley Conference in Saves (128) and tied for first in Goals Against Average (1.8).

“I felt like all in all we had a pretty good year making the play offs our first year in a very hard league was an awesome accomplishment for us,” said Muir. “I felt as though I had a pretty good year but still felt like I can improve.”

On top of that, Muir also had kicking honors on the Wildcat Football team, going 2-for-3 and 14 of 17 on extra points.

“I started playing football my freshman year and it sometimes is really hard to focus on both,” started Muir.  “Especially if say I have a soccer game earlier before the football game on a Friday because I have to go from focusing on soccer to football.

“If I don’t feel as if I played a good soccer game it sort of sticks in the back of my head but all in all I enjoy playing both and I wouldn’t want it any other way for high school sports.”

With the summer coming to a close and his senior year on the rise, Muir has focused on prepping himself for his last prep season with the same plan as last the eight years.

With hard training.

“I’m preparing myself for my senior season the same as I have before,” said Muir.  “I train all year with my club team Sacramento United, which is one of the top club teams in all of California and a top 20 ranked team in the country.

“I also train privately with my goalkeeper trainer Luigi Nardoni who is a former pro soccer player in England.”

The goal for the soon-to-be senior is to expect the same as last year:  a high playoff seed, a section title, to be a leader on and off the field and Muir is expecting another strong season on the pitch and to be named to the 1^st-Team All League again and to make the 1^st-Team All-Section Team.
Entering his senior year, Muir reflects on memories on his playing days with the 2014 Quarry Cup coming to mind.

“One thing I’ll always remember was probably beating Rocklin this last year 4-1 because we didn’t just beat them, we shredded them and showed who the best school for soccer in Rocklin was,” he said.

In that game, Muir had six saves as Whitney pulled away with two goals in the closing minutes of the game.

To add to his busy student-athlete schedule, Muir is currently being recruited by Point Loma Nazarene University (San Diego, Calif.), Notre Dame de Namur University (Belmont, Calif.), Academy of Arts (San Francisco, Calif.), Corban University (Salem, Ore.) and Whittier College (Whittier, Calif.).

Being blessed to have visited so many colleges like the one’s mentioned above, Muir is blessed to have a strong support system behind him.

“I have been blessed with so many amazing friends who have helped me shape up to be the person I am today,” said Muir.  “At one point (I) almost quit soccer and I was blessed by one of my coaches who picked me up on his team gave me some confidence and made sure I knew that I could do it.

“But probably my biggest help for college recruiting was Greg Allen of elite scouting network because he showed me the ropes on how to do everything make phone calls, write emails and most of all make contacts.”

Muir shares some advice for those who are either currently recruited or want to be recruited.

“Some advice (I have) for future hopeful college athletes is work hard in the class room, work hard with sending emails out and making phone calls to colleges and never be discouraged by anything,” said Muir.  “If you don’t get a response from the college you would like to attend also make sure the school you like has your major because that’s a very awkward conversation if they don’t.”

Muir also said that as awesome as it would be to play at the NCAA Division-I level, the NCAA Division-II, NCAA Division-III and the NAIA level can offer just as much as those Division-I schools can.

At the end of the day though, Muir is proud to be a student-athlete at Whitney High School.

“Being a student athlete at Whitney is something different from any other school in the section,” said Muir.  “This school has some of the best people you’ll ever meet and I honestly can’t thank all my coaches and everyone I’ve played with enough along with our athletic director Jason Feuerbach who is trying as he would say “become a steam train for athletics”.

“I can’t thank all of them enough because although they’re may have been ups and downs along the road I am so glad I went to Whitney and was a Wildcat.”

As the Wildcats take to the field this season, Optimism is high.  Using the momentum from last year and bringing it to this season, Muir believes his team has what it takes to win it all in 2015.

“We will use the momentum from last year’s success and try to bring it into this year since we made the play offs we got a little taste of what it is like but now we’re going for a section title,” said Muir.  “I think it’s a new year of course but we have a lot of last year’s varsity players coming back so I think it will be a good year.”