He is the enforcer of the NIU defense.

When the ball goes up in the air opponents better watch out for No. 21 because he will definitely make his presence known. He talks trash, he grunts, he hits and he tackles. No, he’s not a linebacker on the football team, he’s Dusty Showers-the enforcer on the NIU soccer team’s defense.

NIU may be a finesse team, but finesse certainly does not fit the way Showers plays the game. His main job is to take the ball away from the opponents and gain control of the ball for the offense with help from defensive engineer Karsten Roy and team leader Tony Adolfs. He does that job with reckless abandon.

What Showers does for the defense is put the fear factor into opponents. “(During) one home game, a guy didn’t go up for a ball that was headed right for him, because he thought I was going to hit him, and I wasn’t. When that happens I now that he’s afraid of me, and that’s what I try to do,” Showers said.

Showers sets up the opposing forwards right from the start. He begins by talking to them. “For starters, I tell him that I’m going to break his legs or somthing like that. Then I might say somthing about his mother,” Showers said. “I like to hit him hard the first chance that I get. He’ll probaly look at me or say something. But, I like to send the message early. After a few more hits, I’ll ask him, ‘you’re afraid of me, aren’t you?’ There’s a lot of talking involved.”

The 6-0, 173-pound sophomore somtimes gest a little too agressive, like in the game aginst Southern Illinois Edwardsville when he was red-carded (tossed out of the game), although SIU-E was also being physical. “It (Showers’s aggressive play) doesn’t hurt the team, not at all. He’s a positive element on our team. He’s a big solid player. He just needs to conrol all that energy. Sometimes he thinks that he can go out and leave the guy he’s marking and take on somebody else. He has to learn that he can’t do everything,” head coach Willy Roy said.

And the red-cards? “Defenders will always get more cards than anybody else, it’s just the way things are. I mean you can’t be a ballerina back there,” Roy said.

Showers started playing soccer when he was 4. His parents got him started in the sport. He moved from position to position until he started playing goalie in junior high school. “I thought that I would always be a goalie, but in my sophomore year in high school my coach switched me to defender because our starting goalie was a senior, and he was better,” Showers said. “I didn’t start off playing aggressive, but I found out that it was a lot more fun to dish out (the pain) than to take.”

Off the field Showers shows a different side. “It’s just all an act. It’s part of the competition, I’m really not like that off the field,” Showers explained.

As the act improves, the NIU defense will improve. Lately, the Huskies defense has not shut out many people. Roy said that there are too many individual mental errors. “Dusty has a lot of potential. He’s physical, and he’s going to be an excellent player,” Roy said.

At Libertyville High School, Showers was an honorable mention All-America selection and also a first-team all-state defender. Some big soccer colleges contacted Showers but lost interest when they found out about his grades.

“Some of the bigger schools were looking at me, but then they found about my grades,” Showers said. But that turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Showers. Roy brought him to NIU. “The main reason I came to NIU is because of the coach. He’s a great coach and he was really successful with the Sting. I also played with Karsten and Markus on the same club team.”

“I’m always worried about (Showers) grades, but he’s learning how to be a good student-athlete. He’s come a long way, and he’ll continue to learn to be a successful student-athlete,” Roy said.