At 6'1\ and 175 pounds, Dominic DaPra appears quite typical in the student population at UW-Madison.
However, it's doubtful that anyone on this campus could compete with DaPra on the soccer field.
During the Badgers' 2000 season, the senior forward scored 36 points, recording 15 goals and 6 assists.
That impressive production by DaPra accounted for nearly 45 percent of the Badgers' offensive output.
To put it in perspective, in the 10 games in which DaPra scored a goal last year, the Badgers were 8-2.
When DaPra didn't score a goal, Wisconsin had a 2-7-1 record.
After earning first-team All-Big Ten and first-team All-Great Lakes Region honors in the 2000-'01 season, DaPra has not had the luxury of anonymity on the field that he had the past few years.
Also, with the loss of first-team All-Big Ten teammate Narciso Fernandes, DaPra is now the marked man for UW.
However, that has not stopped his productivity so far this year.
In two games during the Rocky Rococo Classic, Aug. 31 and Sept. 2, DaPra scored five times, getting two goals against St. Francis and a hat trick against Alabama A&M. So far this season, DaPra has scored eight goals and recorded two assists.
He leads the Big Ten in goals, shots, goals per game, shots per game and points per game.
'This year, he's working extra hard to get his shots in,' UW Head Coach Kalekeni Banda said. 'He's also a little more concentrated on making sure he gets himself open, and our guys are making sure that he gets the ball in an area where he can make stuff happen.'
After being named the 1997 Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year, the Racine, Wis., native spent his first two years at St. Louis University, a perennial powerhouse in the NCAA.
After leading the Billikens in scoring his first year, DaPra was sidelined during his sophomore year due to an irregular heartbeat.
Then, the pressures of school at St. Louis made DaPra look elsewhere for a good program, both academically and athletically.
'I could count on soccer being good, being in the Big Ten and an established program,' DaPra said. 'But I knew that if soccer didn't go well, then I'd still have school to fall back on and I didn't feel like that was the case at St. Louis.'
Since transferring to UW, DaPra has been a potent offensive weapon for the Badgers. DaPra's heightened play might have to do with his summer league team, the Milwaukee Bavarian Soccer Club. The team won the U.S. Amateur Cup, one of the most prestigious amateur tournaments in the country.
Despite being one of only two college players on the team of former professionals, DaPra made an impact on the team, scoring one goal and assisting on the other two in the championship game.
'[The league] was pretty much a professional environment, but it was still considered amateur,' DaPra said. 'That's pretty much the best situation you can ask for.'
After graduation, DaPra, an agricultural and applied economics major, hopes to play for a pro team.
Otherwise, he'll have to do something that we all dread.
'Get a real job,' he said.
