KU's Scholar Athlete

Thomas Takes Another Big Step: This One to Notre Dame

Scholar-athlete-Thomas-UelandThomas Ueland

• School: Henry Clay High
• Grade: 12
• Sports: Soccer
• Academics: Thomas has a 4.88 weighted GPA, has taken 10 A.P. classes and scored 33 on the ACT.
• Parents: Micka & Fred

When Henry Clay High’s Thomas Ueland took his first steps, he already was dribbling a soccer ball.

“When his first dozen steps were to dribble a ball, I said to myself, ‘That’s unusual,’” said Fred Ueland, Thomas’s dad.

Thomas is taking another big step after high school – he has accepted a scholarship to play at Notre Dame in the fall. The Irish won the national title in 2013 and boast one of the nation’s top academic programs.

Thomas will study pre-med, majoring in biology. Pre-med and Division I soccer?

That’s a challenging schedule, but Thomas embraces challenges and has the goods to rise to the occasion.

A straight-A student, he has a 4.88 weighted GPA, has taken 10 A.P. classes and scored 33 on the ACT.

He is a National Honor Society member, volunteers at the Catholic Action Center and is working on a mentoring project with Dr. Rob Hosey, a sports medicine physician at UK.

“He is very focused as a student, a good time manager and is completely independent,” said his mother Micka, who is a Stanford graduate. “He’s also a smart, intuitive soccer player.”

Soccer is seemingly imbedded in the Ueland DNA. Fred and his brother both played at Stanford, and Thomas is one of five soccer-playing siblings.

Walker, 21, played at Sewanee; Emma, 19, plays at DePauw; and twins Sara and Elizabeth, 14, are on the Henry Clay team.

Thomas is the most accomplished of them all. A four-year starter as a midfielder and forward at Henry Clay, the 5-11, 160-pound senior was an All-American and

Kentucky Player of the Year in 2014, a two-time All-State player and team MVP, and scored 35 career goals and had 39 assists.

For his club team, he has captained the Lexington FC Premier since he was 8. Twice, he led the Premier to the Midwest Regional Final, the only team in Lexington to advance that far in the US Youth Soccer playoffs.

In the off-season, Thomas plays indoor soccer in an advanced league of Hispanic and college players and also plays street soccer against all comers.

“Thomas has quick feet and excellent ball skills,” his father said. “And he is fearless. If he sees three defenders in front of him, he’ll go right at them. And he has the skill to make it work.”

Thomas expects to get plenty of work at Notre Dame, which he chose for the school’s academic excellence.

Said Thomas: “After soccer, I want to go to medical school and a degree from Notre Dame means a lot.”

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