In team sports, most of the credit or the publicity goes to the coach or the star players.

There isn’t anything wrong with that, but if you look at really good teams, there are solid, underrated players who make up the rest of the group. Senior Pat Sloan is one of the underrated players of NIU men’s soccer.

Sloan, a left back, is part of the NIU back four that has started every game together this year. Sloan, goalkeeper Jordan Godsey, center backs Rocco Taglia and Dusty Page have played every minute in every game this season, with right back Charlie Oliver falling just six minutes short.

Sloan said the rhythm that back four have with each other comes from their work in preseason.

“Coming into preseason with two of the back line gone, it was a lot of reps,” Sloan said. “Getting used to who you’re playing with, and getting used to them more and more, was important,”

It hasn’t been a great start for the Huskies’s defense, but the burden doesn’t fully fall on the back four. The offense has yet to score a goal in the first half of a game, giving opposing teams the ability to stay in games and finish the small amount of chances they create.

Last season, Sloan had four goals and two assists on the offensive side of the ball. This season, the team has struggled to find their goal scoring boots, though that doesn’t stop Sloan from getting into the attack.

“As an outside back, I like to get forward and try to help out the offense in a play, and try to score some goals even though I’m on defense,” Sloan said.

Sloan’s biggest strength as a player is his consistency. He is a guy that coach Eric Luzzi can always count on.

“He might be the steadiest player I’ve ever coached,” Luzzi said. “He doesn’t really have off-days. We know what we are going to get from him every day and that’s refreshing.”

The left back spot isn’t the most glamorous of positions. It’s not the star striker or the creative attacking mid-fielder, but Sloan’s attitude and work ethic is the reason why he is so consistent.

Thought a bigger guy, Slaon has good feet, he plays into Luzzi’s system well and he isn’t a defensive liability on the field.

“That’s really hard for any player, even pros, let alone a college player, to find that level of consistency, but that’s Pat,” Luzzi said. “We know every single day what we are going to get out of him.”

With the Huskies (1-5-2) opening MAC play on Saturday against Florida Atlantic, the team will need consistent players like Sloan if there is going to be a turnaround in the second part of the season.