WILSON — Wilson is playing for a cause bigger than itself.
Recently, Lakemen head coach Paul Hermann’s wife, Sara, was involved in a major car accident that has hospitalized her for the past three weeks. Despite devoting most of his attention to Sara, Hermann is working to keep the spotlight on his team as he deals with his wife’s injuries.
This season, the Lakemen are 14-0 overall, 9-0 in league play and are going for the third consecutive undefeated season in Niagara-Orleans League play.
“My boys have been extremely helpful. They definitely understand this is a life-changing event here,” Hermann said. “They’ve been there for me in terms of they always ask questions, they always want to be helpful. The families have been bringing me meals every night. … They’re all considered family. I have them over to my house, we do spaghetti dinners before every sectional game.”
Hermann’s son, Cole, is a junior midfielder for his father. After the accident, the Hermanns have been using the team and the sport as a distraction for a few hours as they navigate life off the field. That is something that has been echoed by senior defender Chase Martin, whose mother, Nicole, is currently battling blood cancer.
Soccer is a way for Martin to forget his problems off the field and have fun with his friends. Since the beginning of the season, the Lakemen have all been spending time playing the EAFC video game together as a way to bond, playing an online career mode and communicating with each other via headset.
“It’s awesome because you score a goal, we all celebrate and it’s just nice to get to go home and we all spend time together online,” Martin said. “It’s cool.”
They hope to turn that into the same level of success the 2015 team had, as they also played with a heavy heart. In 2015, the Wilson girls’ soccer team made it all the way to the state title game as they honored former teammate Sarah Johnson, who was killed in a house explosion in 2012.
“When my sister went to states just to watch her go through the whole process, Kayla, it was just a great feeling, you know, just going through all the steps, how they got there,” Lakemen senior Aidan Neumann said. “Just to be in that moment, see how hard they worked as a team, as a family, to get there. One of their teammates died in a fire explosion. They put a lot of credit on her to push them through the sectionals and go to states eventually, just to see that happen. It’s motivating for me just to try my best.”
One of the people who has been a part of both runs is Neumann’s mother, Kippy. She recalls when Kayla’s team made its run and said she’s seen a similar bond with Aidan’s team.
Like his sister, Aidan is Wilson’s leading scorer. Neumann has a Section VI-best 45 goals and 13 assists in 14 games. He has also scored in all 14 of his team’s games this season, with 11 multi-goal games.
After they fell short in the sectional tournament last year, Neumann and his teammates are all motivated to go further this year.
“Based on losing last year, their drive this year is just simply their desire to win now or in this case, the desire to play hard and show effort,” Hermann said. “So I’ve been telling my boys it’s not about their skill, not about their talent. It’s about whether they can match the intensity of the other team. So that’s what I need him to work on the most is his intensity, which this year he’s shown every game.”
Ahead of the end of the regular season and the postseason, Hermann and the team have come together with a purpose to play for “each other and the right reasons.”