BOYS TEAM
The Lakewood Soccer program has always had a huge support group. The boys team works hard every summer to host camps for the elementary and middle school students of Lakewood on top of practices every day. The hard work streams from their coach, Coach Toth, who senior Farhad Ali Shah says, “helped us this season by showing us to not be scared of making mistakes and learning from them. He has pushed us by playing to our full potential.” This mentality drives the team throughout the season, as the boys team wakes up early in the mornings before school starts to get practice in. This extra added effort goes a long way and really reflects how they play on the field.
The boys soccer team had their senior night on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Their six senior players have fought hard for this team to be successful and this was evident on their senior night with a win of 6-0 over Holy Name. With a good student section and much support from the community of Lakewood, you could tell the boys had a lot of fun. As senior Adam Benhadou, who scored a goal, described it, “The goal felt amazing, it took me a second to process the goal in my head but when I did, I saw my team running toward me cheering and the stands jumping up and down.” This boys team has loads of excitement to play soccer and to just be around each other.
GIRLS TEAM
The girls team also works hard in the summertime by waking up early for morning practices every weekday. Waking up early and working hard every day of summer has really helped this team to gel together and made this synergy that mirrors how they play. Captain Helen Fraunfelder says “From fighting through fractured bones and torn muscles in the middle of a grueling season, we show our commitment to each other and the sport which we love. We all work for the team we have created rather than ourselves, the bond this sport has created between us is remarkable.”
The girls senior night is October 7 and they are very excited to get out on their home field for one of the last times. They will be playing Normandy High School that night, which is going to be a perfect match-up for an exhilarating game. The girls will need to have a gutsy performance to pull out the win in what Lily Winters, captain of the girls soccer team says, “is going to be a good game to watch. Both teams are similar in skill and we will have to play good, mess-free soccer.”
BOTH
If you would like to support your soccer teams, you have the perfect opportunity this upcoming week of September 25 as the boys team will take on both St. Edward High School in the battle of Lakewood, as well as Westlake High School. The girls team takes on St. Joseph High School, which has always been a good match-up, and then the girls will travel to Medina to play Buckeye High School for their last away game and a great GLC matchup. These next weeks of soccer will be thrilling and the support of the Lakewood community is much needed to pull out the wins that both these teams have been working hard for.
