Leon Tannenbaum ‘16 had his fair share of reckless teenage fun during his summer vacation.

He traveled to University of Texas at Dallas for a soccer camp with a few teammates from both the school team and his club team. There, Tannenbaum and his friends had a memorable run-in with the UTD men’s soccer team.

“My roommates and I were on the first floor playing pool together at 10:55 p.m.,” Tannenbaum said. “Six of the UTD men’s team walked past us to the elevator to go the dorms and yelled at us to go to bed because it was near curfew.”

One of Tannenbaum’s friends was not happy with this order. Consequently, he plotted a small prank against the six college players.

“We waited 20 minutes,” Tannenbaum said. “Then my friend went to [the six players’] room. He banged on their door super hard and loud while I held our dorm room open so he could run back.”

The prank elicited an appropriate response from the six UTD players. They stormed out of their rooms in retaliation, but Tannenbaum and his friends were safely inside their locked dorm.

“The six of them all came out super super angry, like bulls in a ring,” Tannenbaum said. “One of them had a huge long stick and started pounding on our door, telling us to get out. We refused, obviously.”

The animosity continued onto the next day, when the six UTD players caught Tannenbaum’s friend alone.

“The UTD guys found him and start spanking him with the large stick from before,” Tannenbaum said. “His butt was red by the end of it.”

The tension between the UTD players and Tannenbaum’s teammate was ultimately settled on in the soccer field.

“You could tell the following day that they had a grudge match on the field during the all star game,” Tannenbaum said.

Tannenbaum’s summer expands beyond the unfortunate encounter with the UTD men’s soccer team, although soccer did play a major role. Tannenbaum trained at Santa Clara University in San Jose and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Tannenbaum enjoyed his opportunities to train at many different facilities, but he had a few mishaps along the way.

“Unfortunately, while at Santa Clara I got a bone bruise, strep throat, and a high ankle sprain,” Tannenbaum said. “I played terribly at Georgetown.”

As a rising senior, Tannenbaum also began focusing on applying to colleges. In addition being scouted for soccer by a few colleges, Tannenbaum visited two universities himself for educational purposes.

“My dad and I visited American University and George Washington,” Tannenbaum said. “I want to study political science or international relations. Learning in DC would be perfect for those two things.”

Tannenbaum hopes that he can continue playing soccer throughout college. Playing soccer has been a constant throughout Tannenbaum’s life, and he doesn’t play to give it up any time soon.

“Soccer helps me not go crazy at home when I’m doing homework,” Tannenbaum said. “I can always go outside and train.  It’s like freedom.”