Sahil Khare was unknown to the Metea Valley boys soccer team when he emigrated from India the summer before he started high school.

Senior goalkeeper Ravi Shah recalls Khare caused heads to turn early on.

“I remember his freshman year, nobody knew his name,” Shah said. “We were running a fitness test, and Sahil was maybe 60 yards ahead of the next-fastest person.

“It was, ‘Wow, this kid is on everybody’s radar.’”

Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson was one of the people who took notice of Khare’s performance.

“It’s a pretty grueling fitness test,” Robinson said. “It’s a half-mile run, shuttle runs, quarter-mile runs. Usually, kids are exhausted. Sahil comes in here and completes it better than anyone else, even better than any of the seniors. People are like, ‘Who is this kid?’”

Two years later, Khare is one of the best players for the Mustangs (6-8). In his first varsity season, the junior midfielder has scored three goals, one behind senior midfielders Michael Senese and Graham Leman for the team lead, and was recently voted a co-captain.

“We didn’t name captains until about five weeks in,” Robinson said. “At the beginning of the year, he wouldn’t have been someone I would have named, but now I’m not surprised (he was chosen).

“He’s not going to yell and tell guys what to do, but it’s all about setting an example. He can run all day long, which helps too.”

Robinson said Khare was probably capable of playing varsity as a sophomore but was kept on the junior varsity team so he could get more playing time without having his slight frame be subjected to the more physical nature of varsity play.

“He is unfortunately a kid that gets overlooked,” Robinson said. “His stature makes you think, ‘Oh, what are we getting here?’

“But he’s phenomenal. His cognition of what he can and can’t do is phenomenal, so he went from a kid who probably we thought was going to be knocked off the ball to being a kid who is super important.”

Khare’s rise is even more impressive considering he didn’t begin playing soccer until he was 12, several years later than most of his teammates. He played badminton in Mumbai before taking up soccer, which he said is the second-most popular sport in India, behind cricket.

“We have quite a few good players, but it’s not like here,” Khare said. “It is way more physical here than it was over there. You’ve got to be much faster and more athletic. So it took me some time to get used to that. But I’m doing really well.”

Indeed, Khare rarely comes off the field. His role has grown even more vital since junior midfielder Anthony Hildreth suffered a sprained MCL.

That was evident on the opening day of the WarStang Invitational on Monday. Khare’s perfect entry pass led to junior forward Cole Hatfield’s second-half goal, and Shah made four saves to record the shutout as the host Mustangs beat Lemont 3-0 in Aurora.

“Sahil has been pretty much the bright spot of the newcomers on varsity,” Shah said. “That’s no disrespect to anyone, but Sahil has been having a fantastic season.

“He works his butt off every single game, never stops running. He has unbelievable energy.”

Khare’s adjustment to living in the United States was smoothed by the lack of a language barrier.

“He was fluent (in English) when he came here,” Robinson said.

Khare credits his fellow students with helping him.

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“It was a bit different, but I think I adjusted really well,” he said. “The people in the school helped me with that.

“The accent was at first really hard for me to understand. But since I was able to speak English properly, it wasn’t that hard.”

Khare said he is enjoying his high school experience.

“I like the choices we have here in terms of being able to choose what we study,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do after high school right now, but I want to go to college and hopefully play soccer.”

The Mustangs aren’t ready for him to graduate just yet.

“I’ve been able to build an awesome relationship with Sahil this year,” Shah said. “I love having him on the team.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.