BY DAN STICKRADT
WEB AND CONTENT EDITOR
Twitter: @MiSoccerNetwork
BERKLEY – Seth Davidson relishes every moment of playing in a big soccer game.
Throughout his high school career, Davidson, now a senior at Berkley, has played in more than his fair share of them.
“I love it. I love playing against tough competition,” said the talented Davidson. “At Berkley each year we play a lot of very good teams in our league and outside of our league and our district is so tough every year.”
Last year in his first season as a starter, the fourth-year varsity veteran spent over 80 percent of the time between the pipes, surrendered six of his team’s 10 goals allowed, registered a paltry 0.34 goals-against-average and was part of a single-season school record 17 shutouts. His save percentage was also in the neighborhood of around .900.
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Davidson earned plenty of postseason honors in 2022, including All-OAA Red Division, All-District, All-Region and Division 1 All-State Third Team for his efforts. He helped the Bears finish 20-3-1 overall, including in third place in the OAA-Red at 4-2-1 – the Bears were one of five teams from the OAA-Red ranked last season – helped Berkley to a 59-10 scoring differential and a spot in the district finals before falling to Troy (2-1) in a shootout.
Davidson served as the understudy to former standout Ryan Serwa (All-State Second Team in 2021) for two seasons. The Bears spent all of those two seasons in the top 15 in Division 1 and actually captured a district title in 2020 during Davidson’s freshman year. The past two seasons Berkley has not fallen out of the top 10 of the rankings and even spent a stint this fall at No. 1 in the Division 1 polls.
This year the Bears’ goalkeepers have yielded only six goals this season while playing another highly-competitive schedule. Davidson’s goals-against-average is a miniscule 0.23, the Bears have recorded 15 more shutouts and his save percentage is again hovering around .900.
Davidson was listed in the Michigan Soccer Network Top 5 Goalkeepers To Watch around the state of Michigan and has earned the right to be considered on that short list. He should be a candidate for Division 1 All-State First Team and All-State Dream Team in a state with a deep list of numerous quality goalkeepers.
Berkley coach Steve Wloszek has let Davidson’s performances out on the pitch and his sterling numbers in the scorebook do the talking.
“He’s had an amazing year, actually two years for us,” praised Wloszek of Davidson. “He’s not only been very consistent, but he’s had a couple of incredible games for us. The (Troy) Athens game (on September 7) he made a few great saves and we ended up winning that game 2-0.
“We have always been a good defensive team since I got here and we have been blessed with some really good goalkeepers, too,” continued Wloszek. “We had Ryan Serwa a couple of years ago who was All-State and Seth Davidson stepped in last season and has done a great job. We even lost a couple of players from our backline from last year and Seth has worked with the new (starters) on defense and has really helped us pick up where we were last season. Seth makes the saves he’s supposed to and sometimes he makes a save and people are like ‘wow, how did he stop that?’
“If he were three inches taller I’d have Indiana calling to recruit him,” added Wloszek. “(Five-foot-11) just isn’t desirable height for (some) colleges.”
Davidson, who really does stand just 5-foot-11 and checks in at around 165 pounds, more than makes up for his lack of size with his athleticism, mobility, field vision and anticipation skills. Davidson has received plenty of letters from various college coaches and has received serious interest from NCAA Division I schools Niagara University, Bellarmine University and Elon University along with NCAA Division II schools University of Indianapolis and Lynn University.
“I may not be 6-3 or 6-4 like some of those other college goalkeepers, but I think I make up for it with my athleticism,” beamed Davidson.
Davison used to play baseball growing up and gave up that sport after ninth grade to concentrate on being a college-level goalkeeper.
“I really do believe that playing baseball for a several years helped me get to where I am today. Just the hand-eye coordination you need to play baseball has helped me be a better goalkeeper,” added Davidson.
Berkley carries a fine 18-1-2 record into this week’s district semifinals at Hurley Field against fellow state-ranked Troy Athens in one of the more competitive and deep districts in the entire state. Davidson and the Bears will have to be at the top of their games if Berkley is to advance to the district finals for the seventh time in 10 years. Athens is one of the hottest teams in the state during the last three weeks, jettisoning from honorable mention in the rankings to into the top five in D-1 in the last three weeks.
Berkley has only 1228 students in grades 9-12 and is one of the smaller schools in the three-division Oakland Activities Association and doesn’t have as massive of a talent pool to choose from each year. Berkley and Huntington Woods are smaller landlocked communities, but Davidson wouldn’t play anywhere else.
“I love playing for Berkley. I know these guys so well. Most of us grew up together and played on the same club teams growing up,” beamed Davidson, whose Berkley squad is 67-11-9 with 56 shutouts and a 230-45 scoring edge during his four years on varsity. “I wouldn’t play anywhere else. I love these guys. I just hope we can win our district, which is very tough, and make a run.”
Berkley by the numbers in recent years:
2023: 18-1-2, 4-1-2 OAA-Red (second), 15 shutouts, 60-6 scoring differential, TBD
2022: 20-3-1, 4-2-1 OAA-Red (third), 17 shutouts, 59-10 scoring differential, district finalists
2021: 18-3-2, 4-1-2 OAA-Red (second), 13 shutouts, 67-15 scoring differential, district finalists
2020: 11-4-4, 2-2-3, OAA-Red (third), 11 shutouts, 44-14 scoring differential, district champions
Totals 2020-2023: 67-11-9, 14-7-7 OAA-Red, 56 shutouts, 230-45 scoring differential
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