Throwback Thursday: A Conversation With Alumnus Anibal Soler, Jr. '00

10/1/2020 12:00:00 PM

Throughout the Fall 2020 semester, daemenwildcats.com will put student-athlete alumni in the spotlight with a "Where Are They Now?" series. These features aim to highlight each person's experience as a Daemen student-athlete as well as learning more about their personal and professional lives since graduation. The week's featured alumnus is former men's basketball player Anibal Soler, Jr., a member of the of the graduating class of 2000, and soon-to-be recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award. To watch Anibal's full interview, click the play button on the image above or visit youtube.com/daemensportsinfo.

Any former student-athletes who wish to be featured in this series should email Mike Miranto, senior associate athletics director for operations and communications, at mmiranto@daemen.edu.

ANIBAL SOLER, JR. QUICK FACTS

Rochester, N.Y. native and graduate of Greece Olympia High School
Member of the Daemen College graduating class of 2000
Played on the Daemen men's basketball team from 1997-00
Led the team to 57 wins in his career as well as the program's first-ever berth in the NAIA National Tournament (1999-00)
Became the third player in the modern era of the men's basketball program to reach 300 assists in a career; his 304 career assists currently rank eighth in program history
One of five players in program history to record 300+ assists and 150+ steals
Has gone on to a career in educational administration; served as the associate superintendent of strategic alignment and innovation for Buffalo Public Schools before moving on to his current position, superintendent of schools for the Batavia City School District
Recognized as a 2019 Champion of Education by Mayor Byron Brown of the City of Buffalo, and was also recognized as a 2014 Latino Educator Champion of Change by President Barack Obama
Will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award at a virtual ceremony this Friday, Oct. 2; it is the highest honor given by the Daemen Alumni Office

ANIBAL SOLER, JR. QUOTABLE...

On receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award...
"It's been 20 years since I was on campus. And so, two decades later to be recognized for nothing that I really intended to do other than to just kind of live out my purpose and my mission, and what we often say in this work is 'our why', it's pretty cool. And so, [it was a] total surprise, total shock when I got contacted that I would be getting this award. When President [Olson] called me from college, he was the one that called me, and I'm like, well, what's the president of Daemen College want to talk to me? What did I do? Did I not pay an old tuition bill, or something came up like did I get overpaid on work study or something? But no, it was cool. So when I got the call and I spoke to him, he said they wanted to honor me. And it's just humbling, you take these moments you don't often, you're so focused on the grind at your job, that you don't really think about these things. And then to be recognized, it's truly humbling. I'm just excited to reflect back on my journey at Daemen. Daemen was a special place for me and to see that two decades later, they still remember me as a as a student, and my contributions, not only obviously athletics was important as a part of my journey there, but also the fact that they just recognized my willingness to give back to my profession."

On his teammates...
"We almost had like a hodgepodge of guys that kind of came together. We had Eder Joseph who's a great colleague and teammate of mine from New Jersey. He also came in the same year I came in. Chris Moore was on the team already. Monty Montgomery, was on the team already, two guys from Western New York. They were first team All-Western New York guys. We had Brian Pettit, who was I'm sure you know Brian very well, just an amazing individual, but also, 6'10" [or] 6'9". I remember he was a big guy and he was good. He was skilled. He was coming off an ankle injury. We had Danny McCabe, another guy who was a slasher, cutter. We had the Lange brothers legacy, Marty Lange, Kevin Lange, [they're] older brother Rob Lange played. And so, we just had a lot of components. And we worked, we believed in each other, and we were all there with a purpose and it worked out."

On the team that qualified for the NAIA tournament in 2000...
"I think we just kind of focused in on the goals of the team and and really had each other's back. I'll just tell you, it wasn't easy. There's times we would get blown out. And we'd come back and we'd have a team meeting and try to figure it out. Looking over those three years together, and I only played three years at Daemen, so looking at that trajectory, I think that final year it just started to gel. I think people started to trust each other. I think the system started to work through. There's a level of comfort when you get to that time, and you play with people for three years, and the systems just started to click and work and everybody knew their role, everybody understood their role."

On transferring his point guard mentality and skills to the professional world...
"I tend to believe that sports is probably the best reflection of life and society. So I'd say being a point guard is just, I guess, inherent of my character in terms of, you know, wanting to take the lead in a situation. Obviously, working with different personalities, characteristics, needs on a basketball court definitely translates into the school setting when you have teachers with certain needs and wants, principals have certain needs and wants. You've got the needs of supports of kids. And so, having to navigate relationships, and a lot of point guard work is relational, right? So, making sure your big man feels like you're feeding him enough in the post, making sure that the shooting guards get enough shots up, being able to control the tempo and the theme. I also think oftentimes what doesn't get said is that the point guard is the extension of the coach. You've got to keep the guys inspired. You've got to keep them fired up. You've got to keep your coach honest, right? You've got to go back to coach and say, 'This isn't working' and it's the same thing here in education. When things don't work, I gotta be honest enough to go back to my board of education to say, 'We may have made a mistake here.' I own it. It's going to start and end with me and then we're going to adjust, we're going to make some adjustments."

Daemen College features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.

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