Stepping onto the grass of the soccer field, junior Kaden Manigault can feel the spring air as he hears his biggest supporters yelling from the stands. Hearing this support coming from his mom in the crowd has helped him work even harder on the field.

“I play defensive mid and it’s basically like defense, I play mostly in midfield and like holding defense from the opposing team,” Manigault said.

Playing soccer since he was 5, Manigault has made many memories to look back on. Not only are his memories made with just soccer important to him, but also those made with his friends and teammates on and off the field.

“Back in sixth grade or seventh grade when me and my team won the Jefferson Cup, It’s a really big tournament in Virginia, and we ended up winning it,” Manigault said.

Many athletes hope to transfer their sport career from high school to college and possibly even to the pro’s league. Similarly with Manigault, he is hoping to be able to continue his soccer career throughout college.

“I do hopefully get to continue it but we’ll just see about that. [What] I want to hopefully gain from soccer is money, obviously. The part I like is just you’re making money from doing something you love,” Manigault said.

Soccer coach Shilo brags about how much of a great player Manigault is and what a great person he is to coach.

“Kaden plays defensive wall so he does the ugly stuff that the players doesn’t want to do. He pretty much understand his job on the thing has a great personality really wants to learn. If he doesn’t understand something he’ll ask. He knows when it’s time to train, he’ll takes it very serious and out of training he’s very light hearted and fun to mess around with,” Shilo said.