Panther Profile: Nathan Rauenbuehler

Nathan Rauenbuehler is a senior at Mt. Pleasant High School and a member of the Panther boys' soccer team.

Rauenbuehler was previously the starting goalkeeper for Mt. Pleasant, guarding the net for three years, before moving to forward this season where he led the squad with 21 goals and 10 assists.

Rauenbuehler met with The News on Tuesday. The questions are in bold with his answers following.

Did you grow up in Mt. Pleasant? Yes, my whole life.

How long have you been playing soccer? I've been playing soccer since first or second grade. I've been playing pretty much my entire life.

All the club leagues and stuff like that? Yeah, I started the rec league soccer at East Lake, and then I played for travel team with Sean Warner, and then pretty much grew from there. I played for Oskaloosa, played for Burlington, played for a lot of teams.

Have you made plans for after high school? Yeah. I'll be going to college at the University of Dubuque, and I'll study flight operations, and hopefully become a pilot.

What got you into being a pilot? I looked into career choices, because I was just looking around, I guess. There is a huge shortage for pilots because a bunch of them are retiring, Vietnam veterans. I thought, 'Wow, a pilot sounds really fun.” So I looked more into it and just took interest from there.

What is the transition like from being the full time keeper to playing up front? Well, I had never played striker, but I've always been good at shooting and passing, and stuff like that. My only issue is I missed playing goalkeeper. Over the years, I really liked playing goalkeeper. It's a very individual position, and when a goalkeeper would make a mistake, it was easy for me to say, 'Oh, I could have made that.” But scoring goals was definitely fun. I've never gotten to do it before.

Does it give you an advantage being a goalkeeper in the past? Yeah, Depending on the goalkeeper. If I know he's a good goalkeeper, you can tell his strategy. It's probably similar to what I've been doing, so you can kind of predict his movements and stuff like that.

Do you have any superstitions? I had a pair of cleats that I got my eighth-grade year, but they still fit me. I had a new pair of cleats that I bought this year that I didn't wear all season, because my eighth grade cleats were the ones I scored in my first game, and I scored a hat trick. So I wore them for the rest of the season.

What is the conversation like on the field? Is it friendly or are people chirping you? I had a couple. The first game of the season was against Ft. Madison, and a defender and I got into a big argument at the beginning of the game. It was just a slow chirping fest where he started off saying, 'Hey, you're offsides. You can't do that.” I said, 'Thanks, man.” And then later, I scored a goal and said, 'Hey I scored a goal, you can't let me do that.”

Do you prefer it being a little more tense like, or do you prefer it being more relaxed and quiet? I prefer it being relaxed, but when it is tense like that, it feels a lot better to score goals.

If you were running for president and had to pick someone on your team to be your running mate, who would you choose? That's a good question, none of my teammates are very presidential, I guess. I guess Cade Warner maybe, he's a good leader … but he gets a bit angry sometimes. Maybe Logan White. He's probably the most coolheaded, and if he had to be a leader, he could be.

If Coach Schmitz had a mute button and could quiet down any of you at practice, who would he use it on the most? He'd use it on Cade Warner. Not at practice, but in the game. Sometimes Cade loses his head.

What is your ideal vacation spot? Probably somewhere warm, like Costa Rica. I really don't like the cold.

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Buffalo wings.

If you could hang out with one celebrity for a day, who would it be? Probably Charlie Puth. He's a pretty cool guy. He's a really good singer, and he knows music really well. He's really musically talented. He's got perfect pitch.

What if he asked you to get on a track, could you do that? No! Probably not. I'm not a great singer. My mom thinks I am, but that's my mom.

What if you could pick a superpower to have? Probably invisibility. I couldn't tell you why.

Favorite cellphone app? Probably Snapchat. That's probably the one I use the most, but I don't know that it's my favorite.

Are you a morning person or a night person? Night person for sure. I'll wake up in the morning if I have to, but I like to stay up late.

How late do you stay up now that you don't have school in the morning? Some days I'll stay up till like, 1 in the morning. Other days, if I have to get up early, I'll go to bed at a reasonable time, like 10.

Favorite teacher? Mrs. Anderson, my math teacher. She was really good at relating to the students, so I really liked her.

Any shout outs? Shout out to Ovidio Reyes, my best friend on the soccer team.

Panther Profile is a series of interviews with Mt. Pleasant athletes currently in season. This season will focus on the Panther golf, soccer, tennis, and track and field teams.