Prairie's Reutzel goes from defending to attacking opponents

CEDAR RAPIDS - In club soccer, he plays in back. In college, he'll be there, too.But Austin Reutzel is Cedar Rapids Prairie's best player, and the Hawks need him up top to be on top."You want your best players to be active," Prairie Coach Curt Lewis said.Reutzel moved from defender-midfield to a forward position part way through this season, and the results have been stunning. Prairie has won four games in a row, including an upset of Class 2A top-ranked Dubuque Wahlert on Thursday night.The Hawks (9-7) actually haven't lost with Reutzel "up top," a perfect six for six. He was suspended for two games recently, both Prairie losses."When we moved him to forward was when our season kind of started to turn around," Lewis said."As a team and individually, we kind of started off slow," Reutzel said. "But ... things have really kind of started to click."Reutzel, a senior, has a substantial soccer pedrigree.His father, Larry, coached both the girls' and boys' programs at Prairie. His older brother, Adam, also played soccer.Austin spent time in the Olympic Development Program and was a member of an Iowa ODP team that won a national championship a couple of years ago. He has signed to play collegiately at Drake, where he'll be a defender and join good friend Alex Troester of Iowa City West."Soccer is one of those games where any second it can go either way," Reutzel said. "You always have to be ready."Reutzel was ready for his position switch. He has five goals and five assists in 14 games, including three assists in Prairie's two most recent games: the Wahlert win and an upset of Class 3A ranked Waterloo West.Lewis said he told Reutzel at the beginning of the season he could be a 20-goal scorer. That hasn't quite happened, but he is making an impact.Reutzel had all of one goal and one assist in 15 games last season for Prairie."He's big and strong and can out-muscle opponents," Lewis said. "He's a very good finisher. We just thought those skills would be wasted at defender.""Center forward is hard to learn," Reutzel said. "I'm still learning. It's a different role ... But I think playing defender has helped me out with it. I understand how the forward positions work."