Bowling Green senior Sydney Maas was an all-league soccer player, a major contributor to the basketball team, and used her speed as a sprinter for the track team. She was also a place kicker for the BG football team the last three years.
Bowling Green soccer player Sydney Maas at Springfield High School in a girls varsity soccer match Sept. 14.
Bowling Green senior Sydney Maas will earn four athletic letters during her final year of high school, but her accolades extend beyond the athletic fields.
She was an all-league soccer player, a major contributor to the basketball team, and used her speed as a sprinter for the track team. She was also a place kicker for the BG football team the last three years.
In DECA, Maas and her partner Jamie Sayen placed fourth during state competition with their Business Service Operations Research project and traveled to Orlando for national competition in late April.
After graduating from BGHS, Maas plans to combine her athletic endeavors and business savvy to major in sports management and minor in marketing at Bowling Green State University.
They are competitive fields, but Maas knows what she is getting into. Where it leads her after college is yet to be determined, but sports management graduates often end up in college sports information departments, working in professional sports organizations, and the opportunities have few limits.
“I don’t know about my career path yet, but I want to go into something with sports,” said Maas, who will leave BGHS with a 3.89 GPA.
“I am so passionate about it because I’ve done sports all my life. I think I could help a lot of people in that field, but I don’t know in what way yet. I’m excited about it, but it will take a lot of motivation.”
First, look at her award-winning business accomplishments through her DECA project under the tutelage of marketing education instructor and DECA advisor Cara Maxey.
Maas and Sayen, an all-league BG basketball player, got their fourth place award at Ohio DECA‘s Career Development Conference in Columbus, moving on to compete at DECA‘s International Career Development Conference held April 22-25.
“The Business Services Operations research event requires the preparation of a detailed, written, strategic plan and presentation based on the results of a research study for a company providing services,” Maxey said.
To prepare for their event, Maas and Sayen met several times with Kathy Wilhelm, co-owner at Hagemeyer Fine Photography, to learn about the business and their services.
“With the guidance of Ms. Wilhelm, Sydney and her partners designed, conducted, and analyzed research surveys to learn about high school students’, and their parents’, perceptions and expectations when planning for senior portrait experiences,” Maxey said.
“Sydney and her partners used their findings to prepare a strategic plan and make recommendations to business owners at Hagemeyer Fine Photography on how to stay relevant in the marketplace.”
This summer Maas plans to work for the City of Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Department through a sports program they offer, which will get her the hands-on experience she needs.
However, she is going to continue playing soccer for the BGSU club team. Her BGHS soccer coach, Erika Kimple, says that will challenge her athletically.
“I think it will be fun,” Kimple said. “It will obviously be at a much higher competitive level, similar to a community environment. You get to play and get to have a great time, and keep doing the sport that you love.”
For BGHS, Maas was a four-year varsity starter and 2022 team captain, even while playing double duty as kicker for the football team.
She played mostly wide forward her senior year, earning third team All-Northern Lakes League as a senior and second team All-NLL as a junior center forward.
She finished her career with 34 goals and 15 assists, including eight goals and an assist her senior year. She scored against Napoleon and Maumee in NLL games.
Her junior year she led BG with 10 goals (four in NLL play) and seven assists, and she ranks second all-time among BG’s leading career scorers.
“She is not afraid to be physical and often causes the back line to make mistakes with the pressure she applies,” Kimple said.
Of the four sports she plays, soccer is her favorite.
“It’s just fun to play honestly. I’ve played it since I was about 7,” Maas said. “I’ve always had great coaches and mentors and I think I love the team aspect. Track is more individual, but soccer is more fun for me, too.”
On the track team, she runs the 400 and competes regularly with the 4×400 relay team and occasionally with the 4×200 relay.
Maas began place kicking for the BG junior varsity football team her sophomore year, and her junior year she kicked a field goal to help the Bobcats defeat Sylvania Northview.
Last fall in the varsity season opener at Bobcat Stadium, BG defeated Lake, 35-0, so Maas got five opportunities for point after touchdown conversion kicks, and she converted on all five.
Second-year coach Josh Wade awarded her one of the two game balls. She continued as BG’s varsity place-kicker the entire season, successfully converting on nearly every opportunity with a field goal range close to 35 yards.
Wade had no problem putting her on the team as kicker after hearing about what she had done the year before he arrived, but he continued with instructions that Scott Wongrowski and Shawn Ginnan had already started.
“I knew she was doing that before I even got here, so it’s not like anything that I did or anything like that. Her ethic alone speaks for itself. She is serious about doing it,” Wade said.
