In the summer before her sophomore year, Morgan Salzwedel was content just playing soccer and watching football from the stands.
That was where she was during a football camp at Santa Teresa when she was called down to come on the field to show what kind of a kicker she was.
The Live Oak junior varsity team needed a kicker and she was asked to try out. She kicked a 30-yard field goal through the uprights and landed a spot on the team.
Salzwedel kicked her way on to the varsity team her junior year and continued her senior year where she earned first team All Mt. Hamilton Division honors.
It wasn’t an easy start. Salzwedel said the players were guarded in the beginning because a girl was breaking into their world.
“They were super timid at first. They never really encountered a girl being around their guy stuff,” Salzwedel said. “They were shy and so was I. I was really nervous, but after a couple of weeks showing them that I could do the running, I could do the kicking. I am a strong female, they really did accept me. I because good friends with the coaches and the players. It was awesome.”
Tyler Souza wasn’t as dramatic when he joined wrestling, but a suggestion from his football coaches paid off with wrestling.
Souza joined the wrestling team his junior season and immediately took to the sport.
He earned a spot in CCS his two years of wrestling coming off full seasons of football and getting geared up for baseball, which he also played his four seasons.
Looking back, Souza said his proudest moment was suiting up for Live Oak in those three sports and challenging himself in new ways.
“Getting to play all these sports and getting to hang out with my friends every single day,” Souza said. “If you don’t play sports you maybe see your friends every other day or so. After school you go your separate ways. In sports, you’re forced to come out here and spend time with your teammates. Eventually, you become really good friends. I’ll have these friends for the rest of my life.”
Their versatility on the field and prowess in the classroom earned them Athletes of the Year honors from the coaches at Live Oak.
Both reflected on the friendships they made, particularly in football where going to war with the person next to you on the line helped forge friendships and kindle a sense of family.
“Family is everything in football. You have to trust the person next to you,” Souza said.
This marks the first time in school history that two football players were named the Athlete of the Year honors.
Salzwedel is among a burgeoning trend of girls who are breaking down the walls that have kept football an all-boys sport.
“That changed my life forever because now I have set friends for life,” Salzwedel said. “Being able to push myself and prove myself wrong and everyone else wrong, and to be a role model for females, that is something that will probably never, ever happen to me again in my life. That is something really important to have and to have experienced.”
But her first love is and will always be soccer.
Salzwedel got the news that she was named Athlete of the Year (which was supposed to be a surprise for the athlete barbecue at Live Oak) from her long-time coach Tony Vasquez.
“I was really happy to hear it from him first since he’s been my coach for so many years. He’s really been a big part of my soccer career,” Salzwedel said. “He’s taught me a lot on and off the field, so getting the call from him was special to me.”
Salzwedel had played soccer for as long as she could remember. Her father played for the Earthquakes, so she was playing with a soccer ball from the moment she could walk.
And she stuck with it, joined the Live Oak soccer team and is now moving on to Cal Lutheran to play soccer in the fall.
For Souza, that special person was his dad. Souza’s father was always around helping to coach and to teach and volunteer on his sports teams whenever needed.
Souza said he is not sure if he would be at the level he achieved or the accolades he received were it not for his dad being there with a deft hand to guide him.
“My dad has always been coaching me all my life, from when I was little to now,” Souza said. “I know he knows how to push me to my limits where I know other people don’t. He knows exactly where to push me and what it takes to get me going to that sense of intensity and gave me that level to make myself better.”
All the while, Souza and Salzwedel had to juggle the realities of keeping up with the rigger of school and practice.
“It takes hard work. Knowing how to juggle school work, athletics and staying in conditioning for all three sports while getting back into conditioning for all the other ones too,” Souza said.
