Senior Gavyn Prsha is one of 40 battling for a spot on the St. Louis Lions semi-pro soccer team.

Lions is a semi-pro team that is U-23, meaning that anyone 23 or younger is eligible to tryout. This league allows college players to maintain college eligibility while playing in a semi-professional environment.

Prsha was a top player on the West soccer team in the fall and was recommended by his coaches and fans to the Lions head coach. He began tryouts in March along with a pool of 70 other players.

“Being the youngest player going into tryouts, I really wasn’t expecting to have a spot on the team,” Prsha said.

As tryouts progressed, 30 cuts were made that narrowed the team down to 40 players. This weeks tryouts determined who would be on the first team and who would be on the back up ‘reserve’ team.

“We played in preseason games against other college teams including Truman, Lindenwood and Bellvue for our ‘evaluation’,” Prsha said.

Tryouts were every Monday from 9-11pm and every Wednesday from 10:30-12:30 pm. Along with the late tryouts, Prsha works a daily shift at Coopers Hawk as a server.

“They had to make the tryouts so late because this is a U-23 and a lot of the players have full-time jobs,” Prsha said.

April 27 is the final tryout to determine the first team.

“Even if I don’t end up making the first team, it was an awesome experience to play soccer with semi-professionals and make it this far,” Prsha said.†