As the men’s soccer team finished practice, all of the players migrated toward the water bottles and waited on the coach’s post practice instructions.

All except Mick Galeski.

Galeski is busy on the field working on perfecting a kick. Time after time the senior bounces the ball into the air then sends it 30 feet down the field, trying to hit a spot on the field. The players watch from the sidelines as Galeski works on the skill long after practice is over.

“(Mick) certainly leads by example,” Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said. “Pretty much every player on this team has a huge amount of respect for him. Your captain is the one who’s staying after practice working out.scoring goals. And that’s how it should be.”

“He has a huge amount of passion for the game. He lives for the game. He really is a leader in that respect. He wants to win so badly. He wants the team to do really well. He’s the first guy that would put the team ahead of everybody. (Even) if he doesn’t play well, as long as the team wins, he’s happy.”

Last week Galeski was huge for the Panthers. The senior scored two goals against Alabama-Birmingham Wednesday before notching two assists and another goal of his own Sunday against Valparaiso.

Galeski was named to Topdrawersoccer.com’s team of the week and was also named the Missouri Valley Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week, his second such award this season. Only three other players in school history received that recognition twice in one season.

“Especially after the Western loss, we needed to come out and show people we could play,” Galeski said, “I think we’ve done that. And especially with the goals we’ve been scoring, I think we showed people that (the Western match) was just a bad game for us.”

The Blackburn, England, native talked about scores from the past week.

“We’ve been working a lot on shooting lately and I could tell coach wanted me to shoot so I just hit it and lucky for me it went flying in the top corner. My second one it was probably one of the best crosses I’ve ever seen from (junior defender) Adam Gartner. All I really had to do was put my head on it and it was in the goal. Against Valparaiso, we were already up 3-0. I just rolled it in the far corner.”

“He had a great week,” Howarth said. “He scored (three) fantastic goals. He’s certainly taken the leadership role to a new level this year. He’s not a hugely vocal guy but he’ll certainly scream and shout when he needs to and get guys pumped up. He knows now that the most important games are to come and he needs to really step up even more. And I have no hesitation that he’s not going to do that. He just needs to keep doing what he’s doing.”

Fellow senior Brad Earl was also impressed by Galeski’s performance.

“The UAB game was nice, he had two nice goals,” Earl said. “The Valparaiso game he worked hard. He wasn’t feeling very well, but he worked hard and made a difference.”

Howarth has been very impressed with Galeski’s improvement since his freshman year. “It’s been amazing,” Howarth said. “The only bad thing about that freshman year was he got injured. He played in 12 games and still had a big impact and he didn’t get the recognition that he probably should have deserved, but even as a freshman he was a vital part of the team. But each year he’s just gotten better and better, he’s gotten fitter and fitter, and now obviously he’s the nucleus of the team. He’s the one that brings everybody together.”

“He’s a fighter,” Earl said, “He’s really scrappy, you know, he works really hard to win the ball. And if you give him time, which is what happened (last week) he’ll hit a shot from 20 (feet) out he can put it in, that’s what happened basically.”

“I just know I’m going to give 110 percent every time,” Galeski said, “If I’m not having a good game, I know at least I’m going to run around and tackle people if I need to. As long as you work hard, I don’t think anyone can have any worries. If everyone goes out and works hard, you’re gonna be really tough to beat.”

Galeski has played a huge role for Eastern so far and hopes to keep playing at the top of his game.

“I just go out and work hard every game whether we’re playing the worst team of the season or the best,” Galeski said. “All of the guys need someone to look up to. Even if I’m playing well, they’ll see me running around trying my hardest and I’ll influence them to do the same thing.”