BERLIN, Md.- It all started with a ball in a net and like many athletes, it begins with a kid and a coach.
Steve Fell played soccer at Stephen Decatur High School in Berlin. He graduated in 2001 and his Coach Steve Berquist saw something special in him.
Coach Berquist coached at Stephen Decatur from 1998 to 2008 spoke highly of his former player, "Steve was a very exceptional young man. He was not only a great soccer player but he was a leader of people and that's what really separated him from everybody else."
Steve Fell's leadership and work ethic have led him to the biggest stage in soccer, he is now the assistant performance coach and sports scientist for Team USA at the World Cup in Qatar.
Fell played for the Baltimore Blast after graduating from Towson University Berquist said Fell's success is a great example to current players with World Cup ambitions, "And you just have to have that drive and that goal, and it can be it can be done as Steve Fells shown us."
Through this journey, where soccer has led him across the world, those who have watched along the way knew this was possible.
Coach Berquist being one of them who always knew, he said "Amazing, because all those student athletes that I've been lucky enough to coach have been special, but nobody's been amazing to Steve. And it's sort of funny, I think he's probably more surprised about being part of the World team than people that knew him growing up because it's not that surprising for people that knew Steve, that he's part of the World Cup team now".