GRANT BRUST-HILLDALE

Junior Grant Brust grew up playing baseball and soccer and admits that he really liked playing both and did so until he got into high school when he decided to drop baseball and concentrate on “futbol”. Perhaps the fact that his dad, who he cites as being the main role model in his life, was a soccer player in his youth had something to do with the eventual swing to soccer.
“I just really like playing soccer and I like the camaraderie of our team. We all get along really well,” said Grant who is also in the National Honor Society and Teens for Christ at Hilldale.
The Hornet soccer team has had deep playoff runs in his two years so far including playing in the Class 4A championship game last year.
“Going to state the last two years has been great especially last year with all of the upperclassmen that were great leaders,” said Brust who also plays club soccer.
While going to state has certainly been a highlight of his career so far, Grant also considers going to out-of-state tournaments special as well as the annual rivalry game against Fort Gibson.
“It’s always fun to play them. This year we won in overtime despite being down a player for most of the game. We had to work really hard for that win especially in the second half,” said the Hornet center mid-fielder.
Grant is the team captain this year thanks in part to the way that Hornet coach Conner Schwab is grooming the underclassmen to take on leadership roles.
“I’ve been trying the last couple of years to get promising underclassmen more involved in leadership by involving them in some of the leadership meetings with the upper classmen. Grant was part of that program last year and he’s really developed into a leader this year that the kids have a lot of confidence in,” said Schwab.
This year Grant would like to win the district title and take the gold ball at state this time while maybe scoring 10 goals along the way.