- April 24, 2024
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LAKE BUTLER At this time a year ago, the Olympia girls soccer team was limping to a sixth-place finish in its district. It was Deepak Shivraman’s first year as head coach, and the Titans struggled to play well consistently or string wins together.
What a difference a year makes.
Olympia is 11-3-3 ahead of the Class 5A, District 4 Tournament that will start next week.
There are any number of factors to point to for the Titans’ terrific turnaround — from an influx of young talent to the girls becoming more familiar with Shivraman’s system.
Then, of course, there’s the play and leadership of senior standout Sam Hilsee.
“When you have a player like Sam, who epitomizes leadership off the field and on the field, it just carries that momentum forward much, much more effectively than a coach yelling orders,” Shivraman said.
Hilsee has already scored 17 goals this season, along with four assists.
She is committed to play her college soccer at Atlanta’s Emory University, something that will become official when she signs a National Letter of Intent Feb. 1.
It is a Division III program, but make no mistake — Hilsee had plenty of options.
“I think Sam, in this area, is one of the most underrated players,” Shivraman said. “She would make the roster of 100-plus teams in the country — at a high level.”
For her part, Hilsee likes to attribute a lot of the credit for Olympia’s drastic turnaround to the influx of talented underclassmen the team had before the season.
“I think this year we’ve gotten a lot of good talent — young players have come in and really stepped up,” Hilsee said.
The standout senior’s soccer career goes back to age 5, playing in a rec league with her father coaching. The influence of her father, along with an uncle who played college soccer at Brown University, helped steer her toward the beautiful game at a time when tennis and basketball were also considerations.
Hilsee, who plays club soccer for Orlando City Youth Soccer, says it is the team element of the game — and bonding with teammates — that helped set the sport apart.
Her standout senior season has, in part, been fueled by her being healthy after an injury-riddled junior year.
Because of what she felt was a lost season, Hilsee worked extra hard to return to form for this final campaign.
“I wanted to make this a good year,” Hilsee said.
Her success on the field pairs well with a 4.96 GPA off of it and involvement as a volunteer with Give Kids the World. That Hilsee is a standout student managing six Advanced Placement courses is only a plus to her contributions on the field, as Shivraman sees it.
“Our game is much more mental at the varsity level — I would say it’s probably 70 percent mental,” Shivraman said. “All those split-second decisions, I think Sammie is fantastic at (them).”
Olympia enters next week’s district tournament as the No. 2 seed after defeating West Orange for the first time in several years. Despite the Titans’ regular season success and their 4-1-1 mark in district play, Shivraman knows he and his upperclassmen leaders will have to mentally prepare the girls for the challenge ahead in order to make the playoffs.
“The good thing about having such a young roster is you can shape them right before the playoffs and say ‘okay — this is a whole new season. Let’s go!’” Shivraman said.
Whatever may come of the Titans’ postseason, it is also safe to say that Hilsee — who ultimately chose Emory because its academic offerings are in line with her desire to become a doctor — is excited for the future, too.
“The campus is unlike any campus I’ve ever been to before,” Hilsee said, reflecting on a visit to the school’s Atlanta campus. “It’s a really nice just kind of southern campus — I really like the vibes there.”
And although Shivraman hopes there are a few games awaiting his team after the district tournament by way of a playoff berth, he doesn’t need to see anymore to help him sum up his experience coaching Hilsee — something he can do in two words.
“First class.”
Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].
