When Nathan Aune has his head down on the basketball floor, it’s not because he’s feeling bad.
The Arlington senior, who also competes in one of the most prestigious youth soccer leagues in the country, is used to looking at the ground.
“He’s kind of a player who just has his head down. He gets (the ball) and he just goes,” Arlington basketball coach Nick Brown said. “He sees the floor fine. You can tell he’s been trained to look at the ground, watch the ball and go find it. He just looks down and finds the path to get through guys.”
When he’s not driving the lane for the Eagles, Aune is driving to Redmond for soccer practice with the Crossfire Premier U17-18 team. Aune and his Crossfire teammates compete in the United States Soccer Development Academy’s Northwest Division against squads from several Major League Soccer teams, including the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps and San Jose Earthquakes.
“As far as youth club soccer goes, there’s (recreational leagues), select, academy and then you have, basically, professional soccer and national team stuff,” Aune said. “It’s very competitive. It’s a high level of soccer.”
When he joined the Crossfire team — as a sophomore — one of Aune’s conditions was that he be allowed to play basketball for his high school team.
Brown is glad he did.
“We love him. I was worried that he wouldn’t be able to play (basketball) when I heard he was going to play for Crossfire,” Brown said. “I was going to support it, of course, but I was definitely worried. When I found out he could play, it made me a lot happier.”
Playing two sports at the same time makes Aune’s schedule hectic. He has soccer practice Tuesday through Thursday and games on most weekends. He’ll miss a soccer practice for a basketball game on a Tuesday night, but he can’t miss a soccer game for basketball. As a result, he missed four basketball games as a junior and two this year.
“That was just the way the season worked out,” Aune said. “I have to leave early from practices. I try not to miss complete practices for both. It’s actually soccer that suffers sometimes because I’m not going to miss a (basketball) game to go to (soccer) practice. Neither of the programs … have to let me do the other one, but they do and I really appreciate that.”
When pressed, Aune concedes soccer is his first love. He is scheduled to sign an NCAA letter of intent this week to play soccer at Seattle University.
“I’m a little better at soccer and my soccer is a higher level,” said Aune, who averages about 13 points per game for the Arlington basketball team. “The soccer team shells out a lot more money for costs in traveling. When it comes down to it, I enjoy playing soccer more, but I love playing basketball.”
That love of basketball is what motivated Aune to strike a deal with Crossfire coach Ralph Black. The academy teams don’t permit their players to play high school soccer because the schedules conflict, and they generally don’t encourage playing multiple sports. But Crossfire made an exception for Aune, a center defender, and one of his teammates.
“I’ve never been against cross training,” Black said. “I always thought basketball was a great sport. He’s always incredibly athletic and competitive. I think sometimes, for Nathan, he needs both.”
Playing for his high school, Aune said, has a much different feel than an academy soccer team.
“Soccer is great. I have a passion for soccer but it’s not the same feel as you (get) for high school sports,” Aune said. “Even high school soccer, I wish I could play that. … I love playing for my school. It’s just something I really missed throughout high school. Growing up, I thought my glory was going to be soccer. I thought that’s what my thing was going to be. To be able to play in high school and be able to have the success our team is having and the success I’m having, it’s been great.”
His teammates like having the 6-foot-3 senior captain around as much as possible.
“Everyone in this school and on the team loves Nathan,” said Connor Bovard, a senior guard. “… He’s an energy bunny.”
Aune, who is a captain on his soccer team, said it’s strange that he competes at such a high level yet “50 percent of the kids in the school don’t know I play soccer.”
Soccer runs in the Aune family. Nathan’s father, Brent, played at the University of Washington. His younger brother, Evan, plays on the Snohomish United club team — the same team Nathan played for before joining Crossfire — and an Arlington AAU basketball team.
Black said Aune is one of Crossfire’s leaders.
“On the field he’s been tremendous,” Black said. “He’s always been a good leader. … He’s a good locker-room guy. He laughs, he has fun, but he can be serious. You say stuff to him and he absorbs it. I’ve enjoyed having him.”
If Aune had played basketball full time, he could be signing with a school for that sport instead of soccer, Brown said.
“I like to think that I’ve coached some really good players in the last couple years,” said Brown, who’s never seen Aune play soccer but plans to change that in the near future. “In my 20 years of coaching, I’ve seen some really good athletes — some Division I athletes and some NFL guys — and I can honestly say if he’s not the best athlete I’ve ever coached, he’s got to be one of them. His athleticism is unreal. If he was to focus completely on basketball, it’s scary to think of how good he could be.”
Like his Crossfire team, which is in fourth place in the league standings and occupying a wild-card spot for the playoffs that begin in June, Aune has helped Arlington compete for a postseason spot. The Eagles are 12-5 this season with aspirations of reaching the state tournament for the second time in three years.
“Honestly, we’re lucky to have him out here,” junior guard Donavan Sellgren said. “He could just be playing one sport — soccer — but we’re lucky to have him come out and play basketball and compete with us.”
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