On Sep 21, 2017, Wheaton Athletics Website posted news on former men’s soccer player, Luke Finkelstein ’15, announcing that he has signed a professional soccer contract. He will play for DJK-TuS Hordel, a sports club from the Bochum district of Hordel, with a history of more than a hundred years.
Finkelstein previously played for the Hakoah Amida Ramat Gan FC of Israel and became the sixth Wheaton student-athlete in program history to play professionally, joining an illustrious list including Oscar Medina ’97, Jim Manganello ’99, Jeremy Long ’99, Dan Antoniuk ’03 and James Greenslit ’06. Citing from the Wheaton Athletics Website (WAW), the former Lyon head coach Matt Cushing commented on Luke’s achievement in 2016 saying, “ It is a great accomplishment for him, he has worked so hard to become professional players and it is a credit to all that hard work he is reaching his goals.”
During Finkelstein’s time at Wheaton, he led the program to a 52-25-8 record, four postseasons’ berths, two NCAA Tournament appearances on New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament championship title and one NEWMAC Regular Season crown.
According to his Bio on the WAW, Finkelstein interned with the Aztec Soccer Club and played for the Real Boston Rams of the USL PDL in the summer of 2013 & 2014. It is not hard to see how these previous experiences show Finkelstein’s tremendous passion on soccer. “In Senior Seminar we had meetings to discuss his career plans. He talked passionately about playing soccer in Europe.” Professor Berg confirmed Luke’s enthusiasm on soccer from his memory.
Academically, Finkelstein majored in psychology and minored in dance while holding a place as merit scholar. “Luke was a student in two of my classes, Health Psychology and Senior Seminar,” Professor Michael Berg from the psychology department said, “He was very friendly and outgoing and an active participant in class. [He] was naturally curious and therefore was a highly motivated student.” Professor Berg also mentioned that Finkelstein worked just as hard in his studies as he did toward becoming a professional soccer player.
By knowing the news that Finkelstein has signed another professional soccer contract, Professor Berg reflected, “I was thrilled for him. I remember thinking how unlikely it would be for him to be able to play soccer professionally and [I] was so happy when I found out that he had beat the odds and made it onto a professional team.”