VILLANOVA, Pa. – With the clock ticking firmly towards Thursday's regular season opener against Rider at 4 p.m. at the Higgins Soccer Complex, first-year Wildcat Fynn Lahrsen is fired up. When his number is called by head coach Mark Fetrow, the 6-4 forward will resume a remarkable journey that has delivered him from Frankfurt, Germany to the Main Line.
 
"The excitement level," says the sophomore, "is high. I'm hyped and I can't stop thinking about it."
 
Lahrsen is one of 11 newcomers on a roster that will have an opportunity to make a significant impact after a difficult 2024 campaign, when injuries helped derail the Wildcats' aspirations in their first season under Fetrow (1-10-6 overall). Team co-captain Luke Martelli, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason, topped a lengthy list of absences that also included veteran goal scorer Balthi Saunders.
 
Of course, climbing up the BIG EAST standings page is no small task, especially for a side with so many fresh faces – nine of whom are freshmen – in the lineup. Yet there is tantalizing promise in the group and perhaps no one embodies it more visibly than Lahrsen.
 
At 6-4, the native of Germany has a history of converting scoring chances into this sport's most precious commodity – goals. As a high school import at Cathedral High School (Indiana), Lahrsen netted 24 goals and 10 assists.
 
Lahrsen hails from a soccer family and came of age in a nation where the game is a national passion. His father, Olaf Lahrsen, played the game at a high level and as a child Fynn tagged along with Olaf and his older brother Mats.
 
"I would be running around the sideline and at halftime, I would get the ball and go on the field," he recalls.
 
By the time he reached age 11, Lahrsen had carved himself a niche on the club circuit near Frankfurt. Three years later he found himself playing against 17-year-olds in the academy system. But it was a random family visit to Frankfurt in the summer of his 16^th year in which his soccer path took a unique turn.
 
Lahrsen's aunt Nicole and uncle Bill, Indianapolis residents, were in Germany for an extended stay. Near the end of the visit, they tossed out the possibility of having Fynn come to their home in the United States for the remainder of his prep years.
 
"Why wouldn't you come to the U.S. for an exchange year?", they asked.
 
At first glance, it seemed nothing more than a lighthearted aside. While the opportunity to broaden one's horizons certainly appealed, there was the matter of Lahrsen's nascent soccer career. There wasn't a straight line from the Frankfurt academy circuit to Indiana. Yet after a few inquiries were made, the roadblocks seemed less daunting.
 
"Three weeks after that conversation," Lahrsen states, "I was on a flight to America."
 
Lahrsen enrolled in a local high school (Cathedral) and quickly became fast friends with the high school age children of his aunt and uncle's neighbors. Without a driver's license – in Germany, one must be 18 to drive – he leaned on his new network for transportation and did his best to navigate the gap between the English he learned in Germany and the practical spoken word in the States.
 
"Some people," he says with a wry smile, "just talk fast. The slang wasn't always easy to pick up."
 
Yet Lahrsen wasn't shy. If he didn't understand something in class, he raised his hand to ask its meaning. Two months into the semester, he felt quite comfortable with his new language. It also helped that he had an impressive support system across the Atlantic, anchored by his family including mom Andrea and two younger brothers and close friends. Even if the hour was late – and with a six-hour time difference it often was – there was always a friendly ear to listen.
 
Perhaps the largest obstacle to the transition was a FIFA restriction that closed off the academy path until Lahrsen turned 18.  While Lahrsen was affiliated with Indy 11, he played a notch below the academy level on its club side. The goals he scored were plentiful but there was a lingering question if that would translate at a higher level.
 
Ahead of his senior year at Cathedral, Lahrsen, not yet 18, elected to play varsity soccer. What once had been the most direct route to an American college soccer scholarship, has become a stop many aspiring collegians have skipped in recent years. The club circuit route typically offers more games and a training structure that high schools aren't always equipped to match.
 
"High school soccer was fun," he says now. "It's probably one of the best experiences I've had. It's a lot like college – games every three or four days, big rivalries. Many of my friends were on the team. It was a brotherhood. I'm big on family and that's what high school felt like to me."
 
Cathedral advanced to the Indiana state final.
 
"I enjoyed it and I'm happy with that decision," he states. "All the people you see every day, the people you have meals with and go to class with, are right there with you."
 
The two years in America set the stage for Lahrsen to fulfill the dream that he brought with him from Germany. His quest was to play college soccer in the U.S. The season at Cathedral attracted more notice, as did his work with Indy 11.
 
"You look at Villanova and it's an elite University," he states. "You can also play (Big East) soccer. Both things are going on. My girlfriend (Alexis) always reminds me that your education is one thing that can never be taken away."
 
That dual track approach will receive Lahrsen's full attention as the season and semester kick into gear.
 
"I'm an eager guy," he notes, "and I like to use my speed on the (field)."
 
An economics major who often pays attention when his father and brother debate stocks, Lahrsen is comfortable talking numbers. His pedigree is that of a finisher and the Wildcats have ample opportunity up front. Their top four goal scorers a season ago - second team All-BIG EAST pick Jason Bouregy, Jordan Canica, Jorge Garcia and Vincent Petrera - have all graduated.
 
Fynn Lahrsen has only just begun his college soccer career. But there's reason to hope that his unique set of tools can have an outsize impact on the Wildcats as they pursue a rebound in 2025.
 
That would add one more chapter to what is already shaping up as a unique international story.