Jaworski’s 20 goals lead best Broncos bunch ever
By Tim Wester
Sports Correspondent
Union Grove multi-sport athlete Nick Jaworski began his high school athletic career with a goal of changing the perception of soccer at his high school.
Jaworski has not only changed the perception of soccer, but also changed the perception of a student-athlete at Union Grove high school.
Jaworski, a senior, not only is leading the Broncos boys’ soccer team to its best season in school history, he also takes care of the placekicking duties for the football team. Jaworski does all this while maintaining a 3.9 grade-point average.
“I think his success on both ends speaks for itself,” Union Grove football coach Jordan Hein said. “He’s a mature kid and a great leader that balances all this while being a great student as well.”
The genesis of Jaworski’s two-sport fall athlete career came during his junior year where after a soccer practice on the football field, he was asked by a football player to kick a field goal on a whim.
Jaworski calmly booted a 40-yard field goal, and caught the attention of the football team and gave himself the confidence that he could play football.
From there, the next step was to convince the high school administration that Jaworski could handle playing two varsity sports while maintaining his academics.
With the help of soccer coach Sean Jung and Hein, Jaworski asked the Union Grove administration for permission to play two soccer and football this fall.
“A kicker obviously helps make a football team better, so we were asked to write up a contract and put together an outline for expectations of this two-sport fall athlete,” Jung said. “It was not approved last year, but again since Jordan and I worked together and were persistent, we were able to get administration to approve it.”
Jung added: “There are several criteria for any soccer player planning on also kicking for football, maintaining C or better grades in all classes and being a varsity athlete being two of them.”
Other stipulations for Jaworski were that soccer must take priority in the event both sports had a game on the same night. Additionally, Jaworski is permitted to practice for 30 minutes with the football team and then finish his day practicing with the soccer team.
The good news for Jaworski is that soccer and football games have not been on the same night at any point this season, making it ideal to play two sports.
“Nick has a tremendous heart and cares about both sports,” Hein said. “He never leans more towards one sport or another.”
Hein added: “And this past summer, Nick worked hard on the mechanics of kicking a football and building leg strength and even participated in kicking camps.”
Jaworski hasn’t missed a beat this season with the football team, enjoying his time along the way.
“’I’ve enjoyed the experience of being a kicker on the football team,” Jaworski said. “It’s a lot of fun being on the field for Friday night football.”
Jaworski has had his share of fun on the soccer field as well.
As a four-year starter on the soccer varsity team, Jaworski has helped build a program that has not had much success.
“I was hoping by my senior year we could change the program around,” Jaworski said. “My freshman year I went out for the team with six other club soccer players, and we all thought we could change the program around.”
Jaworski and eight other senior teammates have done just that, winning a school-record eight games this season and finishing in the top four of the Southern Lakes Conference for the first time with a 3-3-1 record.
Jaworski leads the up-and-coming team in goals this season including tallying his third hat trick in his last four games in a 3-2 victory against Wilmot last Thursday.”
“We’ve grown together for four years now and helped changed the attitude toward soccer,” Jaworski said. “When we first started, soccer was seen as something you do to have fun, but now soccer is something we play to win and not just have fun.”
And the victory-hungry Broncos certainly have their sights on adding more to their record-breaking total. With the talents and experience of Jaworksi, the Broncos are in great position to keep winning.
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