Patience pays off for Hilbert

What do you do when you know you’re good enough to start on almost any other soccer team in the state, but the guy starting in front of you is a proven all-leaguer?

If you’re Coeur d’Alene High senior Marc Hilbert, you patiently wait your turn. Patiently, that is, because he was sitting behind Tyler Olmsted, a consensus great guy whom Hilbert said took him under his wing.

“Normally, I wouldn’t have liked waiting,” said the 6-foot-2 Hilbert, who has played since he was the form of soccer life known as a “Micro.” “But Tyler was a good mentor, so I had a lot of fun with him. He still comes to practice once in a while to help me out.

“So it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”

Now that he’s the one standing between the pipes, it all seems like a blur.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Hilbert said. “But it seems like the season is just starting, and it’s already eight games through.

“It’s going by pretty fast, but it’s a lot of fun.”

For those keeping track, that’s eight games, eight victories, and four shutouts by Hilbert.

“We have a very talented team this year,” Hilbert said. “We play together really well, and if we keep going the way we are now, I think we have a pretty good chance at winning state.

“There’s no question about the talent – we just have to make sure we stay together and maintain good team chemistry and we’ll be fine.”

If things aren’t going the way they should, Hilbert said he isn’t about to watch passively from the mouth of the goal.

“I’m very aggressive,” he said. “When my teammates do well, I’ll let them know, and, when they don’t, I’ll let them know that, too.

“I have a lot of respect for my teammates, and hopefully they have a lot of respect for me.”

As for playing at the next level, Hilbert, who admits he throws himself maybe too far into activities he’s chosen, said he’s concerned that participating in sports could detract from his studies.

“I’ve been talking to a couple of colleges in California,” said Hilbert, who carries a GPA about 3.4. “But I’m not sure if I want to go to California to play.

“I’ll definitely go to college and maybe study government or history, and I definitely like all of the sports classes.”