The Power of Playing More

Gretna East Soccer and Basketball Teams Among Many Showcases of Multi-Sport Athletes

Gretna East’s Karli Williams (left, bottom) and Norris’ Evan Greenfield (right, top) playing soccer and basketball.

As soon as the final buzzer sounded on the long, challenging high school basketball season, Evan Greenfield, Karli Williams, and many others across the state had a just five-day wait for their next challenge – soccer season.

In recent years, the prep soccer landscape has shifted so many student-athletes play soccer year-round and specialize in the sport. However, some high school soccer players opt for a different kind of challenge – playing a completely different sport.

“Other sports force you to be athletic in different ways,” Gretna East soccer coach Chace Hutchinson said. “Different movements, different strategies. The mental IQ of being a competitor is different, and I think everyone, no matter how much you love something, you always need a break every once in a while from it. By going to a different sport, by doing a different activity, it allows you to kind of recharge your batteries for soccer.”

A recent example of this is East’s girls soccer and basketball teams. After winning the Class B soccer championship in their first year as a school, the basketball team made it all the way to the state championship the following year. Three of the teams’ starters are D1 soccer commits.

“We’re super blessed, like the type of people that we have in our program,” Hutchinson said. “Because they’re healthy, but real competitors, where they do compete in the classroom, they compete in the hallways, and they like to compete in different sports. They’re just always looking for something to get better at, and I think it’s really good for them, but it’s really good for the school too,”

Gretna East’s Karli Williams (Photos/Fisher Madsen)

One of East’s basketball and soccer starters, Karli Williams, has been playing both sports her whole life and is committed to play soccer at UNL.

Last season, Williams had six goals and five assists while holding down the midfield. This year in basketball, she led the Griffins with 11.9 points per game and 5.9 rebounds per game en route to a state runner-up finish.

“Most people are lucky if they get to (play at a high level) in one sport,” Williams said. “And I get to do it in both, and I’m very grateful for that.”

For Williams, basketball is a change of scenery and a time of preparation during soccer’s offseason.

“Club soccer season kind of takes a little break in the winter,” Williams said. “We practice once a week, but if I wasn’t doing basketball, I think I would be really out of shape with only club soccer.”

Norris’ Evan Greenfield (Photos/Fisher Madsen)

For other student-athletes, like Norris’ Evan Greenfield, soccer is a change of pace from their other sports. After the long football and basketball seasons, Greenfield says soccer is a kind of “escape” from the challenges of his other sports.

“All the other sports I take so seriously so they’re pretty stressful. I just go out and have fun with (soccer), because it’s just just for fun with my buddies and just going out and playing.”

Growing up playing multiple sports, Greenfield says soccer is a great physical change of pace as well.

“Soccer shape is definitely the best shape out of both of the other ones,” Greenfield said. “That’s probably one of the biggest differences, is just how much more running it is than the other two. basketball has a lot of running too, but I feel like you have a lot more breaks than in soccer.” 

In football, Greenfield led the team in points as a kicker and receiver and is on track to be the Titans’ starting quarterback. In basketball, Greenfield averaged nearly ten points and five rebounds. In soccer, Greenfield led the team in goals. 

“I feel like it’s really good for your body  just to get away from the other things and to do something different, so you’re not repping the same muscles and the same everything on your body all the time,” Greenfield said.

Bennington’s Austin Kaiser (Photos/Fisher Madsen)

Williams and Greenfield aren’t the only examples of multi-sporters. Standout soccer players like Bennington’s Austin Kaiser, East’s Sonora De Fini, Blair’s Cadence Field, and Bellevue West’s Vanna Retisma, some of the premiere scorers of their individual classes, all play multiple sports.

In 2021, the NSAA started the Multi-Activity Student Award, which recognized students who participate in three or more NSAA sports and activities over the year. Since the award’s inception, the total recipients have hovered near 16,000 per year. Class A’s top three recipients last year – Kearney, Norfolk, and South Sioux City – all boast solid soccer programs.

Blair’s Cadence Field (Photos/Fisher Madsen)

While the culture of prep sports shifts more and more towards specialization, Hutchinson for one is a big fan of athletes playing other sports, and said he always encourages players to branch out when they come to him for advice.

“I 100% always tell them, ‘you can do the other sport,’” Hutchinson said. “’I want you to do the other sport,’ and I love that they’re so dedicated to soccer, but what I want for them is to have a great experience in high school overall, and to build friendships and build relationships and to hear from different coaches… I want them going to as many big stages and facing as many challenging circumstances, as many great circumstances as possible, because that’s ultimately going to help them as people more as they get into adult life.”