Lake VanderPloeg is Holland Sentinel Boys Soccer Player of the Year
HOLLAND - Holland Christian's Lake VanderPloeg knew he was going to have to be a different player this year.
Maybe not on the field itself, but as one of the only returning starters from a state championship team, it was natural for teammates to look to him.
VanderPloeg rose to the occasion and led the Maroons all the way back to the state semifinals with a new group of starters. He earned first-team all-state honors along the way and was selected as The Holland Sentinel Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
"I think the biggest step I took this year was in my leadership role. I was captain my junior year, but I was never a huge presence of guidance on the field or off the field until this year," VanderPloeg said. "And I definitely progressed through this year. My coach challenged me to be a more prominent leader, and I think I was much more effective in that this year. My natural inclination was to focus on myself a bit more when things went sideways before, but this year I learned that someone needs to say a few words of encouragement and communicate all the more when things aren't going as planned."
VanderPloeg also was able to key the Holland Christian offense. He had 14 goals and nine assists and had his foot on just about everything.
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"Lake is a three-year varsity player and one of our co-captains," Holland Christian coach Dave DeBoer said. "He is a skilled soccer player as he helps maintains possession, skillfully navigates pressure, and brings a wealth of creativity to our team's offensive attack. He is a person who just loves the game and brings passion every time he steps onto the field."
That passion helped the Maroons get all the way to the Division 2 state semifinals, something that was both a thrill and a disappointment.
"I felt very disappointed about how the season ended up. I thought we were the team that would take the state championship 9 times out of 10 but a few unfortunate things came together in one night and we lost it," VanderPloeg said. "It showed us how 90 minutes is such an unpredictable and short amount of time. However, as time has gone by, I think I've started to come to terms with the fact that it was never about a state medal, it was about the ride with all of my best friends and classmates and I feel blessed to have such an amazing high school soccer experience with so much success. I'm just so glad that we got as far as we did because it meant we got to keep playing for as long as we did into November."
Part of that was becauase of team chemistry. Sure, there were only a couple of starters returning, but at the same time, there were 15 seniors on this team.
"Over my four years at Holland Christian, I've never had so much fun playing games as this year because of how much chemistry our 11 starting seniors had," he said. "We passed around every team we played and had the best brand of soccer out of all of my years. It was great to go into every game with all the other players on the field being my best friends."
Holland Sentinel All-Area Boys Soccer
FIRST TEAM
Lake VanderPloeg, Holland Christian (POY)
Adam Bergman, Holland Christian
Owen Ceithaml, Holland
Elliott Cook, Holland Christian
Trigve Elkins, Zeeland West
Odis Fickel, Holland
Lukas Hegg, Holland Christian
JP Hogsten, Holland Christian
Noah Kelly, Holland
Dylan Killilea, Zeeland East
Nick Krupka, West Ottawa
Luis Parra, Holland
Caden Petroelje, Holland Christian
Dominic Pietri, Black River
Juan Porrez, Fennville
Ali Sakhi Zada, Holland
Chris Solis-Salazar, Fennville
Miguel Solis-Salazar, Fennville
Ryan Vos, Holland Christian
SECOND TEAM
Cayden Brummels, West Ottawa
Gael Garcia, Zeeland West
Michel Gonzalez, West Ottawa
Micah Henry, Zeeland West
Andrew Kraft, Zeeland West
Talan Nahal, Black River
Trent Prince, Hamilton
Tyler Ragan, Zeeland East
Gavin Sabala, Hamilton
Jesus Salinas, Fennville
Jose Sanchez, Fennville
Lucas Smith, Zeeland West
Andrew Spliotro, West Ottawa
Justin Stark, Hamilton
Seth Vigil, Hamilton
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Lake VanderPloeg is Holland Sentinel Boys Soccer Player of the Year
