Leadership is not something that can be taught, and typically, effort isn’t either. Fortunately for the Wisconsin women’s soccer team, the offense has a potent offensive player by the name of Laurie Nosbusch who excels at both leading and scoring.

Nosbusch is a senior captain for the Badgers and easily one of the most tenacious offensive weapons on the team, as evidenced by her 36 total shots and 20 shots on goal through eight games this season. The second-highest totals on the team are 15 total shots and 11 shots on goal, respectively, by freshman forward Cara Walls.

Despite only converting all those chances into three goals thus far this season, last season’s 10 goals on 22.2 percent shooting indicates that with a few more rolls going her way, Nosbusch could still have a spectacular season ahead of her.

Walls, though a very talented freshman, credits Nosbusch with helping her develop in her first season.

“We play the same position, so it’s easy for me to look up to her,” Walls said. “She works incredibly hard and she never stops. She is always around the ball and creating opportunities, so I am just trying to learn from her and hopefully be as good as she is.”

Trying to instill the wisdom that she has gained over her four years at Wisconsin on teammates is something Nosbusch takes very seriously.

“I know that my teammates and my coaches are looking to me to lead,” Nosbusch said. “The way I have always gone about it is to lead by example, especially on the field, to give 100 percent effort and just to try to drive your teammates to do the same.”

Goalkeeper Michele Dalton, also a senior, has been able to see the impact Nosbusch has had on this year’s group of freshmen and the team as a whole.

“She makes the people that play around her better because of all the effort that she puts forth and everything that she does on the field to make the team better,” Dalton said. “The freshmen who have come in are definitely incredibly lucky to play with somebody like Laurie, being able to learn from both her on the field play and off the field leadership.”

A quick glance at the stat sheet might induce the thought that Nosbusch focuses all her energy on scoring, possibly missing opportunities to set up teammates, but she currently leads the team in assists.

And if someone were to assume she’s always looking to score on her own, Dalton would set the record straight.

“If she sees an opportunity to pass the ball off and give it to another teammate who has a better scoring opportunity than her, she wouldn’t even think twice to do it if the team is going to win and be successful,” Dalton said. “She is one of a kind, one in a million, and I am really happy that I can call her my teammate.”

“I have never played with a teammate who is more dedicated to a team, who is selfless in the way that she plays. Laurie is everything that you look for in a teammate, in a leader, in a captain,” she added.

The Badgers couldn’t be happier with all the opportunities that Nosbusch gives the team to score. Her teammates and coaches openly express the fact that they expect Nosbusch to score, especially in the clutch when they need it most.

The coaching staff knows that it’s because of Nosbusch’s preparation that allows her to get into position for her and the Badgers to score, and head coach Paula Wilkins couldn’t say enough good things about Nosbusch’s mental strength for the game.

“She is a very detail-oriented. She is a kid who is very focused and very driven, one of the most driven players that I have ever dealt with,” Wilkins said. “I think that right alone sets the tone for training and in games.”

Humbly, Nosbusch directs the attention and success to everybody who has helped her along the way to fulfilling her dream of playing for the school that she has cheered for her entire life.

“[My success] comes from having had really great teams coaches and teammates growing up,” Nosbusch says. “I was always in situations where you had to work your hardest to get on the field and to try to help your team win. It’s just been kind of instilled in me.”

Prior to the season, the goals Nosbusch set were not for herself, but rather for her team and even looking on this year as her last in a Badger uniform, her expectation of any legacy within the women’s soccer program is equally as modest.

“I want people to say that I played every game as hard as I could, and I represented the university well and that I left the program better than it was when I started,” Nosbusch said.