by Ben Quach ’27
Snickers. They’re a candy bar we see everywhere – nougat, caramel, and peanuts, wrapped in milk chocolate – when it comes down to it, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about them. And yet, it might just be that they’ve helped Bell’s varsity soccer team improve dramatically this season.
Second-year varsity soccer player Leo Martin ’26 says Snickers are his favorite pre-game snack, and considering how much the team has improved this year, they could be the secret to success.
Last year, the varsity soccer team’s record was 5-9-6 – a rather unfortunate set of numbers. Yet, this season’s record was a dramatically different 18-4-3. As Leo puts it, “When you look at last season, we had a historically bad season. Our first ten games, we didn’t have a single win. And I think the biggest reason for that is we had no team chemistry, no team morale, no leaders on the team. But this year, that completely changed – the captains, the chemistry, the team morale – everyone’s a team, so obviously that helps a lot in practice and in games.”
And proof of that is earlier in the season, when the team played in the rain against Riordan, and won – quite the achievement. However, Leo says it was mostly just luck:
“Going into the game, we thought it was going to be a pretty easy game because Riordan isn’t the best…But it was kind of weird because that game, we just played really bad, and should have won by a lot more. You could argue the rain affected us, but we also had this photographer come – FIREBALLMADEIT – so that added to the pressure. But, as a defender, we were able to not let them score, so I guess we did our job.”
The way he sees it, the biggest challenge for the team this year was their mentality. A lot people blame their attack this season because they fall into the pressure of scoring, unable to handle the big crowds. “As a team, scoring and putting it away have been the most challenging.”
But obviously, looking back at the season’s record, they did something right. They were making good progress at WCAL, the first time since 2016. “That definitely meant a lot,” said Leo, “I would also say that about the Servite game too, our last game in our showcase in LA. They were supposed to be a really good team, and I remember I got injured halfway through the game, and we were down 2-0. But they ended up getting a red card, and we ended up winning 3-2. That was a good game.”
And now, as the season comes to its close, Leo hopes to be captain next season. Because the team was senior-heavy this year, similar to what happened last year, “we’ll have a lor of new players that don’t really know each other as well, aren’t as connected.” He hopes to bring the leadership skills he learned this season into the future to strengthen and support his team.
“The first thing would be to just bring the team together, make sure everyone isn’t worried, everything to be sure the team is ready.”