The jump from high school to college can make or break an athletic career. For Madison-native Nick Van Sicklen, the transition to college has been a continuation of success, proving he was ready for the next challenge.

Van Sicklen, UW’s central attacking midfielder, was tempted to play soccer elsewhere in the nation, but when the decision had to be made he chose the competition of the Big Ten.

“I looked at the University of Richmond, Virginia, BU, New Hampshire and Duke,” Van Sicklen said. “I knew I wanted to play at a top level program … I looked at a bunch of conferences out east, and I really felt like this would be one of the best conferences in the country to play in at a high level.”

Van Sicklen came to UW after setting a Wisconsin state scoring record his senior year of high school, with 39 goals and 20 assists in 25 games. He continued his scoring ways after joining the Badgers. His freshman year he had three goals and five assists. The next season he had seven goals and five assists. Now, in his junior campaign, he has already posted five goals and one assist. His biggest assist came on the game-winning goal against Milwaukee earlier this month. While he has continued to make an impact, however, the transition to college wasn’t an easy one.

“I think the two hardest things that I had to adjust to were the speed of play — it’s a lot quicker; you hold on to the ball and you’re going to get cracked,” Van Sicklen said. “The other thing is commitment. You’re out here everyday for a couple hours … team meetings, it makes for a job almost. That was hard to get used to as a freshman; living alone, doing your own things.”

Van Sicklen is the first to admit that his teammates and coaches deserve a lot of the credit for his success.

“Being an attacking central midfielder, a lot of the credit goes to me, but Noah [Goerlitz] is a workhorse behind me,” he said. “He wins the balls, and I kind of get the glory for finishing the ball and making things look nice.”

“I definitely think they’re probably the top coaches in the country. My improvement here has definitely shown through them. In my first year I had three goals and five assists. The next year I came out and was first-team All Big Ten and second-team All Region. Credit goes to a lot of my teammates, and to [the coaches].”

UW’s head coach Jeff Rohrman appreciates what Van Sicklen brings to the team.

“Nick is an exciting, dynamic player who’s very good at running on people and creating things off the dribble,” Rohrman said. “I can’t say enough about him in terms of personality; he has a great personality. When he’s on, he’s certainly one of the best players in the Big Ten.”

Not only is UW a highly recognized athletic institution, its student athlete academic reputation is nationally recognized. Finding a balance between team obligations and classroom obligations is the biggest challenge, according to Van Sicklen.

“Academically, I think the toughest thing is time management; being able to [study], do soccer and travel. Earlier this year we were gone for three straight weekends. We were gone longer than we were home, so that’s kind of hard. But we have great staff like Mary Weaver-Klees, our academic advisor, who takes care of a lot of those personal issues … and coaches understanding about those types of issues.”

Van Sicklen’s athletic abilities extend beyond the soccer field. In high school he was a multi-sport athlete.

“I went to state for … three sports — for tennis, hockey and soccer. I played hockey for a couple years in high school. It’s definitely exciting and a little more aggressive at times than soccer, and a little more physical, which sometimes we try to carry over.”

Van Sicklen has both academic and athletic aspirations for what he will do after graduating from the UW. This summer, though, he had a chance to hone his skills against some of the best around.

“I have a passion to go to law school, but I also think that taking a few years off and trying to play professional soccer would be quite an experience. I actually played this summer with the Chicago Fire PDL [Player Development League] team for quite some time down there, so I got a taste of playing with some of the top guys in MLS … every couple weeks we’d scrimmage the reserves from the top team, and that’s what they do for a living, so it’s pretty interesting to battle those guys.”