Senior captain Charlie Frink and his Mercer Island High School (MIHS) boys soccer squad are tearing up the pitch in the early stages of this season.

With new head coach Meelod Shaterian on board, the Islanders kicked off to a 4-0 start at press time against their 4A/3A KingCo Crown-Crest Division opponents.

Frink, an attacking midfielder, recently concluded the season with his longtime club team Eastside FC and now has his boots firmly wedged into the MIHS soccer scene.

Looking back on his four years with the MIHS squad, Frink said the sense of brotherhood stands out the most and is something that he’ll take with him after graduation. Next season, he’ll be headed to Division I Davidson College in North Carolina to play ball.

He dug into his captain’s role as the Islanders roll through the season.

“I think whenever I go out there, let’s say it’s a tough game, hard game, we’re down one goal, it’s kind of like, the past is behind us. You got to focus on one goal at a time, one minute at a time, one second at a time, one play at a time,” said Frink, who was a member of the 2022 Islander state championship squad. “It’s like, how can I, as a leader, as a captain, kind of build and make sure that everybody — no matter what they’re doing, no matter how they’re playing — plays to their full potential and can become a championship squad.”

Joining Frink in the captain realm is junior center back Kyle Cupic, who is playing strong with other standouts like senior left winger Ben Park (a Division III commit to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), junior center midfielder Tyler Shelton (four goals at press time), junior winger Mathias Perrenoud, senior winger Joseph Galvin (two goals) and freshman goalkeeper Adam Kiviat.

Frink — who had netted two goals at press time — noted a major plus that MIHS has on its side: “Just because we have two named captains, it’s like everybody on the team are leaders. Everybody respects and looks up to each other.”

When Frink plays his final minutes for the Islanders this spring, he’ll soon be following in the footsteps of his mom, Katie, and uncle, Andy Schwab (who also played soccer), to Davidson on a partial athletic scholarship.

Davidson head coach Mike Bapst and the squad made an immense impression on Frink during his recruiting trip.

“When you go to colleges a lot, every college is very different. You kind of know it’s the right fit, and I just knew instantly like this is where I want to be,” said Frink, who is looking into majoring in either political science or psychology.

“Ever since I’ve grown up, I’ve always heard about how they had such a great time there. It’s a small-knit community, but it’s like family for life,” he said of Davidson.

The Reporter asked Frink a series of questions to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his life:

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

My biggest pet peeve in soccer would be when a striker fouls a center back when they have them locked in a corner.

What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?

I think it would probably have to be by my Eastside coach a couple years ago. I always called him Coach Randall. There was a time where I wasn’t as good, and I’d always be kind of stuck on the B team throughout Eastside. And there was one year where I was super down on myself about it, and he kind of just comes over to me, and he’s like, ‘I don’t care about what anybody else says. I don’t care about whatever you’re told from anybody in your life. The only thing that you need is to believe in yourself, believe in your dreams, and believe in your aspirations.’ And that kind of stuck with me. It just kind of pushed me to work a little bit harder, work a little bit longer trying to achieve my dreams of what I wanted to be.

What’s a special skill that you’d like to learn?

I would like to say golf. I think that would be really cool. I’m OK at it. I’m not great, but I think once I retire from soccer, I think I will be golfing a lot, and I want to be a little bit better at it.

What’s your favorite restaurant on Mercer Island?

I think my favorite restaurant would probably be Toshi’s Teriyaki on the south end. That’s kind of my go-to when I come home and I need a little late snack and I don’t want to go too far.

What’s your favorite movie of all time?

Probably “The Italian Job.”

If you could go to dinner with one person, who would that be?

I’d probably do Shane Gillis. I love that guy. I think it’d be a funny dinner, for sure.