A Record Breaking Season

by Raegan Jackson

Scoring goals and breaking records.

At the beginning of the 2022 boy’s soccer season, Colin Elder made history by scoring his 55th goal, breaking the all time scoring record of 54 previously held by Rob Daugherty. Throughout his life Elder has trained hard, played hard and fought hard to get to where he is today. He faced hard times his sophomore year when had a season-ending injury that kept him from playing an entire season. Through his hardship he never stopped training and he has no plans to stop working to continue his career.

Elder has played soccer since he was three years old and has been coached by Mike Brangers from his first season all the way up to his current senior year season. Brangers has watched Elder grow as an athlete and has been able to help him improve his game through the years. “He’s always been willing to challenge himself and work hard,” Brangers said. Elder has always challenged himself to continue to improve his game and over the past three years he has played with the Louisville City USL (United Soccer League) Academy team which has helped improve his game in many aspects.“He’s always been a hard worker, I coached him up until he was 14 then he moved to the Louisville City program which has better training and better coaches and better players so it’s challenged him more,” Brangers said.

The summer before his sophomore year Elder took full advantage of his opportunity to play with Louisville City. “I’ve been playing with the USL Academy team which they dropped down a couple of pros so I’ve been able to play with some of the pros and that has made me so much better on the ball and it’s made me smarter too, I know where to go when to go, it’s made me such a better all around player,” Elder said. Being able to play with professional soccer players helped Elder make great strides in improving his game which ultimately helped the team as a whole. “I haven’t coached a whole lot of true strikers and both of those guys (Rob Daugherty and Colin Elder) are true strikers, they know how to shoot, they know how to put the ball on frame, how to put it where the goalies not,” Brangers said. Elder has been able to build his skills as a striker which helped him break the scoring record.

During the beginning of Elder’s sophomore year he faced a devastating knee injury that took him out for the rest of the season. “I knew he would have a chance (of breaking the record) but sophomore year he broke his leg so he didn’t score a single goal his sophomore year so I worried a little about it,” Brangers said. Elder had talked about breaking the all time scoring record since his freshman year but when he got injured recovery became his main focus. “Me and my grandpa would talk about how I had the chance to do that but I got a little nervous when I didn’t play sophomore year, I wondered if it’s possible if I could do it but it was just a great feeling when I was able to,” Elder said.

Elder went through months of surgerys and physical therapy not knowing if he would be able to ever play soccer again. Sitting out an entire season is something that can destroy an athletes career, however, Elder never let that stop him from putting in work everyday to accomplish his goals. After all the months spent recovering, Elder finally got the okay from his doctors and came back junior year, ready to get back to work. Elder went right back to focusing on breaking Daugherty’s record after he recovered. “He scored 17 goals his freshman year so he’s off to a good start his freshman year, his junior year he had a pretty good year and then he’s really stepped up this year,” Brangers said. With 17 goals his freshman year and 26 goals his junior year Elder came into his senior season scoring 11 goals before breaking the record of 54 goals. “He’s in the sixties now, if he hadn’t of had to sit out his sophomore year I think he would of hit 100, I think he’ll probably get around 75 or 80,” Brangers said. It was no shock to anyone going into the Bullitt Cup that Elder would break the record. Each week Elder breaks the record again hoping to break 100 by the end of the season. “My goal is to get around 45 or 50 more goals this season,” Elder said.

With this season being the last of Elder’s high school career he has just two more goals he hopes to accomplish before finishing the season. “My expectations is to get Gatorade Player of the Year for Kentucky. My main goal is to get that and win a district championship for Branger’s,” Elder said. Not only does Elder have more to accomplish in his final season but he has high hopes for post-graduation life. “If I could go straight to playing with Louisville City’s reserved team that would be awesome but right now I’m hoping to just go to college and get my degree and see where it goes from there,” Elder said. With Elder’s skill and determination he has opened up many doors for his future and this community cannot wait to see what Elder continues to do in soccer and in life.