Senior Olivia Platt’s lifelong love for soccer has culminated into an offer to play at the highest competitive level at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. 

“I’m really proud of her honestly,”  friend and teammate Bella Carter said. “She’s worked hard for it. She deserves it.”

A member of the LHS girls varsity soccer team, Platt is known for her athletic skill, her dependability and the encouragement she gives to her fellow teammates on the field.

“Well, anytime you can have a player of her caliber, it’s going to have a big effect on your team and your productivity,”  head coach Joe Comporato said. “The best thing about her is she’s able to use that to help bring other players along and it’s not just a big benefit to have her on the field from a production standpoint but it’s a big benefit to the rest of the players that were trying to develop on the team too because they learn more from her and she’s really good about supporting that.”

Platt particularly enjoys the casual atmosphere that this soccer team provides.

“The competition, it’s just a lot more fun and relaxed and the past two years has been really fun being with my friends playing soccer,” Platt said.

Platt’s involvement in soccer isn’t just limited to LHS. She has mainly devoted her time towards club soccer, supplying her skill for Blue Moose, FCKC, and KC Athletics. This devotion led to her involvement in the Elite Clubs National League, or the ENCL, as a freshman, which she credits with inspiring her to want to play college soccer. However, in order to achieve this aspiration, Platt had to make her way through a long and strenuous recruitment process.

“It’s definitely a little bit difficult with COVID because it restricted going on visits and it restricted camps and stuff like that because obviously colleges can’t host people to come on campus because of COVID so it definitely delayed my recruitment,” Platt said.

After working nonstop for this opportunity, Platt is looking forward to taking her athletic career to the next level. 

“I mean, if I continue to get even better while I’m in college, the idea of playing professional, I’d consider it,”  Platt said.

According to Comporato, this determination is the main reason why she will be continuing her career in athletics. 

“She has a great work ethic so she always works hard,”  he said. “She works harder than anyone on the field, which a lot of the times that’s really the sign of a good player because no matter how good they are, they still come out and work the hardest.”