Athlete of the Week: 10 questions with Evan Kanellos, New Trier soccer

Evan Kanellos is a senior midfielder for the Trevians who was All-League in 2021. Kanellos as is a guard on New Trier’s basketball team.

1. Do you have any prematch rituals or superstitions?

Most of the time when I come home from school I take a nap. … And then one thing I always do before a game is I listen to “Butterfly Effect” by Travis Scott. That’s my favorite pregame song. I always listen to it.

2. What do you hope to do after New Trier?

Right now, I’m looking to play college soccer. I’m looking at a few school, but college soccer is definitely my next step. I’m in the deciding phase.

3. What are your goals this year for New Trier soccer?

Win the conference, get the (No. 1) seed in our sectional and hopefully make it out of sectional and get down state.

4. What is it going to take to get there?

There are a lot of quality in our group. A lot of guys are returning, a lot of guys play club (soccer) together. It is a super talented team but have to put the pieces together. … We certainly have a lot of talent. It’s just fine tuning some things. This team has a lot of potential so hopefully we keep driving to reach that potential

5. What is your favorite thing to do off the field?

I love to hang out with my friends. We play a lot of “(NBA) 2K” and “Madden.” It’s gotten super competitive a few times. During quarantine a few years back, that’s all we did.

6. What is your dream job?

Honestly, I’m not sure what dream job would be, but definitely something in sports — coaching at college level or high school level. I’ll more likely go into something more normal like business.

7. If you could play another sport, what would it be?

Honestly, it would be golf. This summer I did a lot of Top Golf and mini golf with my friends. Golfing is really fun. Driving the ball is fun.

8. If you are in Walgreens with a couple bucks, what are you buying?

For a drink, I’m definitely buying a root beer. I used to drink it every day. I kind of took it out of my diet, but if I’m getting a drink, it’s root beer. And then my favorite candies are definitely Reese’s (cups) or LifeSavers or Sour Patch Kids.

9. What is something people don’t know about you?

One really weird thing happened to me. There was a fire in my house a couple years ago. We were in a hotel for a couple months and eventually found a rental house. I was living on hotel breakfast and chilling in the hotel pool for two months.

10. What is your top sports highlight so far?

Last year, the Loyola game, I scored on a free kick. That was definitely my highlight of last season. This season, I scored a goal against Grayslake Central, we were down one with like five minutes left. And my favorite basketball moment, I didn’t play that much, but just being on the bench in some of those games, like against (Glenbrook South) and Simeon. That was some of the most fun I’ve had in sports.

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