Josh Aranda started playing the world’s most popular sport in kindergarten, when a family friend and former coach, took him to games and got him hooked.

Fast forward 16 years, and Aranda is now one of the captains of Saint Louis University’s nationally ranked soccer team. What makes him unique is that he is a junior in a team history where seniors generally hold the position of captain.

Success hasn’t gone to his head, though. When asked what set him apart from the rest of the team, Aranda was speechless.

“I don’t know really,” he finally said. “I guess I’m just a positive person, and that’s really what’s important. But there are so many leaders on the team that it doesn’t matter really who wears the band.”

Aranda was recruited his freshman year to play for the Billikens. Even though he only played in three games during that year he shone by being one of four Billikens who started every game last season.

“Without question he is a leader,” head coach Dan Donigan said. “He’s got a great character and a great personality that he’s shown ever since the first day he stepped on the field.

“We’ve played him in the midfield and the back and he’s done great in both positions. He’s really good at filling voids.”

When it comes to judging his own talents, Aranda is more modest.

“I make plenty of mistakes on the field,” Aranda said. “The good thing is the other members of the team are always there, and they always have my back. Everyone does his own part, this isn’t a one man show.”

Because of that type of attitude, it is no surprise that his teammates are in full support of his appointment as captain.

“He’s a top guy,” said senior forward Kyle Patterson, recently named National Player of the Week. “They couldn’t have chosen a better person. It really makes no difference that he’s not a senior. He’s a really good leader, and he does so much on and off the field.”

Off the field, Aranda, a business administration major, is heavily involved in social causes. He is part of the Students United for Africa and has also traveled to Bolivia twice this year to volunteer in an orphanage.

“I had a lot of fun there,” he said. “I was working with boys 6 to 12 years old, so we really just ended up playing a lot of soccer.”

He enjoyed the experience so much that he plans to return within the next year and a half. It also helps that he speaks Spanish, or “enough to get by,” as he describes his proficiency in the language.

Despite his success on the field, Aranda said he thinks his future will probably lie in the business world, although he isn’t opposed to the idea of a full-time soccer career.

“It’ll be great if I get the option to play full time,” he said. “But I wouldn’t bet my retirement on it.”

If he could play for any team, he said it would be Manchester United, though, he idolizes its rival team’s captain, Chelsea’s John Terry.

Aranda and his team show no signs of slowing down. In a season where the Billikens have already shown great promise, he believes that his team has all the tools necessary for a winning season.