At 7:45 a.m. on a Saturday, junior Will Lentz woke up to the sound of his alarm buzzing raucously. While most of his fellow students were still lying asleep in their beds, Lentz crept downstairs, fixed himself a bowl of cereal, brewed a cup of coffee and, after finding the TV remote, flipped to an English Premier League soccer match between Newcastle United and his beloved Tottenham Hotspur.

“I’m not going to miss a minute of Spurs play if I can help it,” Lentz said.

Thirteen minutes into the match, Newcastle forward Loïc Rémy controlled a sizzling pass upfield, touched the ball around the outstretched fingertips of Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel and fired it into the back of the net with his left foot. One-nil. Unable to answer, Tottenham ended up suffering a 1-0 defeat.

Still, this wasn’t a cue for Lentz to slump back into his bed.

“I was really disappointed, but I was really happy that there was still (English) Premier League on until 3 in the afternoon,” he said. Later, after the matches were finished, Lentz took out his copy of the popular soccer video game “FIFA 14” and continued to play well into the night.

Recently, Lentz’s story has begun to match those of more of his peers than ever before. Over the last few years, professional soccer has soared in popularity in the United States, as well as at CHS. According to the “ESPN Sports Poll” released in December 2011, professional soccer is now the second-favorite sport of Americans aged 12 to 24, following only the NFL. In August of 2013, NBC shelled out $250 million to show English Premier League matches for three years, a number over three times higher than the $80 million FOX had spent for the league’s rights the three previous years.

That growth has been reflected in Indiana through the success of the state’s new professional soccer team, Indy Eleven, which began play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) on April 12. Created in January 2013, Indy Eleven has already sold out of its 7,000 $25 season ticket deposits and has started a waiting list for prospective season ticket holders.

Inside team president Peter Wilt’s office, one might feel as if they’ve found the engine room of the revolution. The back wall is lined with jerseys and scarves from teams for whom Wilt has previously worked, most notably Major League Soccer (MLS) outfit Chicago Fire, which he started in 1997. The Fire jerseys on the wall stand out among the crowd, with names like those of former U.S. National Team captains Carlos Bocanegra and DaMarcus Beasley as well as ex-Barcelona forward Hristo Stoichkov adorning their backs. On Wilt’s desk lies a business card from Chelsea F.C., a biography of legendary baseball executive Bill Veeck, a jet-black laptop with a worn Indy Eleven sticker affixed to its corner, and countless papers.

In the middle of this mess sits Wilt, his wispy gray hair rippling off his head like a net after a goal has been scored, his rounded face perennially lit up like floodlights over a stadium. 

Wilt, who has made a name for himself as a soccer executive over the last two decades, said the sport has undergone a transformation in America since he started the Fire.

“Soccer in this country has really changed in the last 16 years,” he said. “It’s more mainstream, more people get it, there’s less antagonism toward the sport, fewer obstacles.”

Specifically, Wilt cited the last few years as the turning point for soccer.

“There’s been this critical mass of kids playing soccer for 30 years plus, but it wasn’t until the last five years that that’s translated into spectator interest,” he said.

Moreover, Wilt cited a younger generation as the force pushing soccer onto center stage, amplifying the conclusion reached by the “ESPN Sports Poll.”

“It’s becoming cool for the young adults to follow (soccer),” he said. “If it’s cool with the Millenials, the 18 to 34-year-olds, it’ll be (inspirational for) the kids, especially the high school kids.”

This holds especially true for junior Parker Stewart, who said he started watching professional soccer in 2006.

“My brother started watching (English side) Liverpool in 2005, so I just carried on with him watching them for these past couple years,” Stewart said. “Any way I can see them, I’m there.”

Since that time, Stewart said he’s noticed more and more students hopping on what he calls the “soccer bandwagon” and joining him.

“It’s definitely a growing sport here in Carmel and in Indiana,” he said. “I see a lot of people wearing the English Premier League jerseys now.”

Participation is growing, too. Carmel Dads Club president Jack Beery confirmed that the organization’s teen soccer numbers are up.

“Where we have noticed increases have been in our high school co-ed soccer leagues. I think the popularity of the leagues has just skyrocketed,” Beery said. “Using the spring (season) last year, our numbers went up 25 or 30 (players).”

Now that a new professional team is coming to town, Beery said he thinks things can only improve.

“With the Indy Eleven coming to Indianapolis it’s even going to maybe spark a bit more interest,” he said.

Wilt, meanwhile, said much of the job is done.

“We’re reflecting the growth that has already happened (in Indiana),” he said. “They’ve really embraced the fact that this is a team that’s going to represent Indianapolis and they want it to succeed and they are supporting it in a way I haven’t seen other teams that I have started.”

When Lentz finally retired to bed after his final FIFA 14 session, he’d had enough.

“It was a bummer,” he said. Fortunately, for his favored sport, it would seem as if its alarm is just now going off. And soccer has no intention of sleeping in.