Football and Futbol are two of the biggest sports in the world. Football is the most popular sport in America, and Futbol is the most popular sport in the world. Obviously Futbol is called Soccer in America. Most people would choose to play under the “Friday Night Lights” or to play Soccer since they are played during the same season in the fall, but seniors Keith Layson and Camden Ward decided to play both for their final year of high school.
Layson started playing soccer at the age of 5 when he was growing up in Canada. When asked what made him want to start playing football this year Keith said “just wanting me to trying new things. With soccer being my only passion for my entire high school career, I felt like I also wanted to try something new as well.” Layson is the Striker and Center Midfielder for the soccer team, his favorite part of playing soccer is “scrimmage during the end of our practices. It’s definitely more a bonding experience as getting to know more about our teammates.” Being a multi-sport athlete is hard enough to juggle with school but doing two very time consuming sports with school during the same season is very hard. When asked about how they do it Keith answered, “It’s defiantly a bit challenging the times as I start to lose the adequate times of rest days between the two sports but it is definitely still worth it as I want to accomplish my goals for both seasons.”
Ward on the other hand said, “It’s pretty hard because you have to balance all the practices and it is straining on your body.” Ward is also a senior who plays football. Ward is the goalie for the boys soccer team, and the kicker for the football team. Layson and Ward are both the kickers for the football. They both do the kickoffs for the football team. Ward has also been playing soccer from a young age, he has been playing since kindergarten. But his journey through soccer has been more up and down than Layson’s, Ward had played soccer from kindergarten but quit in first grade but picked it back up his freshman year. Ward is the goalie for the soccer team but used to play fullback his sophomore year. When asked about his excitement for this upcoming Ward answered, “I am very excited because I get to take charge and be a role model to the under class man.”
Football and Soccer are two very physical sports and take a lot of training to do especially during the same time, but these two are willing to do it for their teams and school. To keep up with these two during this season and other Carterville high school sports updates follow us on Instagram and Twitter (X) @CartervilleAth.
