Kristen Mickeletto
At Monday’s game, the freshman boys soccer team was becoming discouraged. The boys were up against Hazelwood West, a brutal team who used speed and size to psych the Holt boys out. When halftime came around, Holt was down 0-3. However, Coach Sydney Swanson was not going to let her boys go without a fight. Delivering a rousing halftime pep talk, Swanson shook them out of their slump. 

Before the game, Swanson had each of the boys write a word on their arm describing how they performed on the field. During her speech she screamed at the players to, “Show them your arms, you aren’t showing them your arms!” One of the freshman players especially took Swanson’s enthralling speech to heart.

“I really felt that I was being yelled at, like she was singling me out, like you can be doing better but you aren’t,” said Andrew Wania (’21).  Wania chose the the word on his arm to be ‘hustle’. “It’s what I’ve been told I’ve always done best in the field,” said Wania.

During the second half of the game, Wania scored two goals out of the three that tied the score against Hazelwood West. “When I scored my first goal, I was really surprised that I made it. I was pumped that I made it,” said Wania.

Jackson Mathison (’21) scored the first goal with an impressive meg between the goalkeepers’ legs.

Wania came through again and tied up the game. “When I scored my second goal, I was screaming and I even tackled my players, just screaming that we tied it up. I was super hyped,” said Wania.

Wania also had some words for his beloved coach. “Thank you for yelling at me and thank you for making me mad at myself and realize what was going on. Thank you for bringing me down to earth because I was kind of on my own cloud,” said Wania. 

The story of Monday’s freshman game was one of triumph, teamwork and talent under the passionate coaching of Sydney Swanson.

Good job, boys!