She leads the team with assists and is second in scoring for the Viera Hawks in Brevard County. But it’s her drive and work ethic that puts her above the rest. Carolina Santos is this Week’s Athlete of the Week:
- Carolina Santos was elected team captain
- She scored 2 goals and had 4 assists last week
- Plans to play club soccer in college
Carolina Santos has been playing soccer since she was seven years old, she use to follow her older sisters to the park.
“It’s just a game that I learned to love and I have a lot of passion about,” Santos explained.
Now as a senior at Viera High School, she relishes in setting up her team mates for goals and always finds a way to be around the ball.
“I’ve been doing a lot of assists for everyone on the team and that’s something I really enjoy doing,” Santos said of her play this year.
“Just helping the girls all get involved into the game and score their own goals.”
And she is doing so at a rapid rate, the attacking midfielder, scoring two of her own goals while dishing out four assists last week as she led Viera to three straight wins.
“She comes every practice –every day, she comes to games with intensity and effort and work rate and she’s been doing that all year,” her varsity head coach Calvin Dixon said.
Santos’ work ethic grabbed everyone’s attention on the team, as she was chosen to be a captain this year, a title she is proud to carry.
It’s like a great honor and privilege playing for this team for the last four years. I’ve enjoyed it all, through the losses and the wins. I’ve just had so much joy playing for this team.”
And the run is not over. The Hawks have only lost one match this season and have their eye on a big playoff push.
The difference maker this year though is how well Santos and the girls get along.
“I think they get a long on the field, off the field and it shows in the way they are playing. They are together,” Dixon said of his team.
Together-- with Santos as the glue in the middle.
Santos will graduate this spring and plans to attend a state university to study Computer Science. She says she will continue to play soccer, but at the club level in college.