By Marissa Goncalves

No sport is an easy endeavor. However, with cleats and shin guards on, Guiliana Celotto—the junior girls’ soccer captain—manages to consistently crush the competition and excel in the leadership role into which she has been placed.

Celotto has been a remarkable player since the beginning, starting young due to her family’s deep love for the sport. This early preparation trained her into such a star player, pushing her until her high school career. She managed to join varsity for soccer in her freshman year, a feat not accomplished by many. Since then, she has made a plethora of other accomplishments, such as winning the NVL finals in her sophomore year. Playing for so long, Celotto also grew mentally and emotionally, not just physically. To her, she has learned not only how to be a good leader, but also a good person: kind, thoughtful, and motivational. 

Celotto has been the perfect candidate for this role since the beginning of her high school career, but since captains are only chosen junior or senior year, it makes perfect sense that she became the sole junior captain. Captain is not a role to take lightly, and Celotto takes this into account every single day. Being a junior captain is especially hard because she has to be a role model and be responsible for all her teammates, despite having less experience than her senior counterparts.

“You have many responsibilities. Some are leading the team through adversities and staying positive when things get hard, like when you’re losing,” Celotto recalled. “You have to be a good leader who speaks to their teammates in a kind and motivating way. You have to

be a good teammate on and off the field and make everyone on the team feel like they

could talk to you if they need to.”

In Celotto’s eyes, soccer has pushed her to reach for stars as a player and a team. Soccer is more than getting exercise; it is making friends and consistently having fun in good moments and bad.

Individually, Celotto plans to continue her soccer career into college after she graduates in 2027. However, for the 2025 to 2026 school year, as a team, she is hopeful they will win the NVL finals and go to states, thanks to her belief in herself and her team.

“We set high goals for our team to go undefeated in the season while still playing together as a team.”