SEATTLE — Now a professional soccer player, DeAndre Yedlin returned to his alma mater, O’Dea High School, Dec. 7 to be honored with other alumni athletes and impart some advice to current students.

“Community is incredibly important. Find your community,” Yedlin said to a collection of nearly 460 boys gathered on the bleachers along O’Dea’s basketball court.

Yedlin, a 2011 graduate of O’Dea, was being celebrated as one of the new inductees to the school’s Wall of Honor that showcases athletic achievement among the school’s alumni. 

A professional soccer player for Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF and a two-time member of the United States national team, Yedlin is considered “the greatest player to ever come out of the Pacific Northwest,” according to O’Dea Athletic Director Monte Kohler, who introduced Yedlin to the students.

Monte Kohler, O’Dea High School’s athletic director, is seen with alum DeAndre Yedlin Dec. 7 during Yedlin’s visit to his alma mater. Introducing Yedlin to a school assembly, Kohler called him “the greatest player to ever come out of the Pacific Northwest.” Yedlin’s wife and one of his two children are seen at left. (Courtesy O’Dea High School)

Speaking under some 200 red and gold banners celebrating O’Dea’s athletic achievements over the past 45 years, Yedlin pleaded with the students not to take their Catholic school community for granted. 

“You guys have a great community here. It’s a family. It’s a brotherhood,” Yedlin said. “At this school, with this community, you know you have a great group of people who have the best of intentions for all of you.”

At O’Dea, Yedlin played football, ran track, wrestled and, of course, played soccer. While in high school, he was scouted by the Seattle Sounders soccer team, joining its youth academy during his senior year. 

O’Dea Principal James Walker, an assistant principal at the time, remembers Yedlin walking into his office and asserting that he would be missing a significant amount of school to travel with the soccer club. 

“No you’re not,” Walker told him — but they worked out an arrangement for Yedlin to maintain his commitment to the O’Dea soccer team. 

“I remember once, he came straight from the airport to (an O’Dea) game, got in at halftime — to honor his commitment,” Walker said Thursday. 

“In 2013, after two seasons at the University of Akron, where he made the College Soccer News Freshman All-American team, he signed with the Seattle Sounders FC as the club’s first homegrown player,” O’Dea said in a biography of Yedlin.

DeAndre Yedlin poses with his Wall of Honor photo at O’Dea High School. As an O’Dea student, Yedlin played football and soccer, ran track and wrestled. He graduated in 2011 and now plays professional soccer for Inter Miami FC. (Courtesy O’Dea High School)

Yedlin joins more than 60 athletes, coaches and teams O’Dea has inducted to its Wall of Honor since inaugurating it in 1998. 

On Dec. 7, the school also inducted: Jim Skurski ’97, who went on to play with the University of Washington Huskies in the 2001 Rose Bowl championship; Mark Green ’95, who played for the Seattle Mariners from 2000-2002; the entire 2004 state champion basketball team; and Erasto Jackson ’92, who helped lead O’Dea to a state football title in 1991, later coached football at O’Dea and is now a celebrated restaurateur in Seattle known nationally for his Jamaican barbecue.

Jackson also spoke to the assembled students.

“You guys are in the right school,” he said. “It’s a wonderful place to grow and learn how to be a young man — with your wonderful Christian brothers looking out for you.”

Erasto Jackson, who helped lead O’Dea High School to a state football title in 1991 and later coached football at the school, speaks to O’Dea students Dec. 7 on the occasion of being inducted to the school’s athletic Wall of Honor. Jackson is now a celebrated restaurateur in Seattle, known nationally for his Jamaican barbecue. (Courtesy O’Dea High School)

Jackson told them that “O’Dea saved my life. If I’d have gone to another school I’d probably be dead or in prison right now.”

The other inductees told students about lessons learned from their O’Dea coaches and how those lessons apply to life outside the school and off the field or court.

DeAndre Yedlin, third from right, is seen with O’Dea students Gregory Wheeler, second from left, Julius Suber, Carter Gribble and Lucas Tamalunas during a visit to his alma mater Dec. 7. (Courtesy O’Dea High School)

Yedlin, with his wife and two young children in the audience behind him, advised the O’Dea students to “always give gratitude” and to “be OK with being vulnerable.”

Yedlin said he’s “playing with the greatest player that ever played the game,” referring to Lionel Messi, forward and captain for both the Inter Miami soccer club and the World Cup champion Argentinian national team. 

“That’s my teammate now,” Yedlin said. “So every day in training I have to get out of my comfort zone. Every day in training, he pushes everyone to get out of their comfort zone. That’s the only way that you grow.”

“Be vulnerable,” Yedlin told the students. “Especially among men, it’s not talked about enough. You have to be vulnerable to grow.”