Papio South seniors get chance to close out high school soccer careers

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) - After the spring soccer season was completely lost, the coaches at Papillion-La Vista South had an idea: a tournament at the Cornhusker State Games.

Other teams from the metro like Creighton Prep, Papillion-La Vista, Omaha Skutt and several others joined in on the tournament that guaranteed each team at least four games.

It gave seniors like Matt Jones and Zane Boudreau a chance to play soccer with their teams one final time before they head off to college.

“Just getting anything this summer after not having a season is an opportunity to keep playing and get better before I go off to college,” Jones said.

The tournament was of high importance to the Titans.

They knew they couldn’t get full practices together with the coaches, so they organized practices on their own.

They fit eight practices into 16 days to get ready for the tournament.

The person who led those practices was the team’s equipment manager, Nick Lauver.

Lauver was cut from the team as a freshman but stuck around. He was set to be an assistant coach for the team in his final year of high school.

“I’m really proud of the trust that I’ve built up with these coaches and teammates,” Lauver said.

The coaching staff decided he should coach the games as well to make it all about the team.

”As soon as the ball got rolling and we knew we were going to get the team in, we decided we needed to let Nick coach,” said head coach Dave Lawrence.

“It’s just an honor to coach these guys, all my seniors, for their last games together,” Lauver said.

It wasn’t a full season, but to get any sort of consolation games meant a great deal to a team with 15 seniors on it and high aspirations for their final year after a successful season last year.

What could have been.

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