Soccer Senior Portraits William

When you are trying to catch a flight from Germany to Baltimore for your JDP senior portrait session, customs agents can be a real drag! William has just completed his junior year at an all German school after being recruited to join a soccer program in Germany while he was playing in a showcase in California. This crossing continents has marked a dramatic shift in the trajectory of William as a devoted and skilled soccer player.

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Transplanting his life to Germany has meant William is living more like a college student studying abroad, years earlier than what is typical for kids growing up in the US. However, he is part of a military family that has lived all over the world in the context of their 10 moves in his lifetime. So the idea of transplanting his life to Germany wasn't as startling of a construct as it would be for most American teenagers. He lived in Germany as a child and it took only 2 months for him to fully integrate his language skills! He even began dreaming in German when he was a child!

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Years had passed since William had lived in Germany though, so taking on the German language meant starting all over. Today he says his conversational German is decent, while school German is harder.

William lives in a dorm in the middle of nowhere in a town of just 400 residents, surrounded by lavender fields that complete the picturesque sense of old world charm. There's even an old cat that comes to visit the boys in the dorm. This helps William tremendously with missing his sweet Merida and Fergus back home. If he could get them across the borders and the dorm allowed it, Merida and Fergus would definitely be in his carry on luggage back to Germany soon!

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This experience has been thrilling and scary all at the same time. William has the sense that this is a pivotal step in his journey towards something much bigger coming down the pike. It was on his German team that he got his first start and that opportunity opened something up in William as a player. He has played every minute of every game since. Whistle to whistle--no rest! This includes playing through a rolled ankle, making tackles at full speed! This tracks for a young man who begins to feel unsettled if a few days have gone by and he hasn't played any soccer. His body craves the game.

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William's coach sees something special in him and is calling it out. He has trained pros who are making millions, so his decision to start William and develop him has been huge. It has helped to shift William's mindset from frustrated to that of infinite possibilities lie ahead! William credits his mom with helping him to achieve this. He fully recognizes what it's meant to her to miss out on his last two years of high school and was happy to come create senior portraits so she'd get a taste of some of those special 'lasts' for her oldest boy who she misses but is cheering on from across the world!

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William has two trials coming up from two professional academies. This is fueling his intense training schedule. He brings the work ethic of a machine to his development as a soccer player.

William's coach loves that he's a utility player who is extremely smart and adapts quickly on the field. His coach recognizes that William gives 100%, 100% of the time so he is vested in developing him as a player.

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I got to see a display of his incredible athleticism on the fields in Reisterstown on a recent 100 degree day! William never complained about the intense heat. He noted how much hotter turf fields are in the US than in Europe, likely the difference in our UV. After we wrapped up shooting, did William sit down to take a break--nope, he just kept going through drills, pouring sweat. The stuff champions are made of!

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This super cool session was envisioned by his mom Rachel who managed a lot of details to coordinate his cross continent travel to bring the dream to life! She's missed a lot of the high school milestones, but this one we ensured would help to fill that aching spot she was feeling! Kudos to William for giving no indication of the jet lag, being detained by border agents, the intense heat or the whirl wind schedule that ensued when his team progressed further than expected= no sleep the night before he left! He came into this session with almost no sleep but was an absolute delight! I can't wait to cheer you on one day, hopefully for Bayer Leverkusen 04!

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1 Comments

Jul 25, 2026, 4:44:07 PM

Paula Church - I have enjoyed watching you grow up on FB. Your mom and I worked together. I know your parents are so proud of you! Good luck and best wishes for your future!

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