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    After a difficult football career, Howell-Kicker enjoyed success in football
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    After a difficult football career, Howell-Kicker enjoyed success in football

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    HOWELL – Soccer is Luis Maldonado's first love, but the love wasn't always returned.

    In four years on Howell's varsity football team, Maldonado only won eight times in 78 games. In KLAA West play, the Highlanders had a record of 0-54-2. This year's team was 1-19 overall.

    Maldonado has found a second chance at athletic success on the football team and, boy, is he making the most of it.

    Maldonado's extra point with three seconds left gave Howell a 30-29 victory over No. 1 Belleville in the KLAA championship game on Friday night. It was the undefeated Highlanders' ninth win of the season, surpassing the number of wins Maldonado has had in four years of football could.

    “Soccer didn't go the way I planned, but then you come here to soccer,” said Maldonado, who scored two goals and six assists on the soccer field this season. “I just plug in, do my job and get better every day. It feels great.”

    When Maldonado entered high school, he never planned on pulling double duty in the fall. He was content to focus on football, but that changed about two years ago.

    “I was actually kicking during gym class and coach (Brian) Lewis saw me kicking a soccer ball,” Maldonado said. “He invited me to football training. I went and I liked the atmosphere of my teammates. They convinced me to go play. It’s been great ever since.”

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    Maldonado made 4 of 4 extra points against Belleville and is 26 of 27 this season. Howell's offense doesn't often have to settle for field goals, so he only had one chance, from 35 yards.

    The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Maldonado doesn't mind getting his nose dirty and made six tackles on kick returns.

    “He’s so competitive,” said Lewis, whose team hosts Kalamazoo Central in a first-round playoff game on Friday at 7 p.m. “He just wants it for the boys. Luis' moment that he always thought would happen in football. Our football program has struggled over the years. Luis came to football and could not have imagined that this moment would be in football.

    “I’m so proud of him for persevering, working a double schedule, working hard, always communicating and making sure everyone was on the same page with where he was at. Obviously it was thanks to his hard work that he got him kicked out in the end.”

    Before Maldonado scored the game-winning extra point, Belleville went offside, negating a successful free kick. The stoppage and restart was akin to a coach calling a timeout to put the kicker on ice, but no one wanted to put Maldonado on ice.

    He shook his head when asked if that put extra pressure on his next kick.

    “No pressure, no pressure,” he said. “I put everything on God. I want to thank God. I just let it fly and God carries the ball when I kick. That's all.

    “Breathe in, let it out, do the same. I do that. Same thing. It felt great. I do this for my teammates. My teammates work hard every day. I just do it for her.”

    Juggling two sports required some time management skills.

    “Sometimes because of soccer I would go to practice for an hour or two, go home, eat and then go straight to soccer practice,” he said. “Sometimes I couldn’t go to training during away games. At the moment football is over so I'm going to train every day, just relax with the boys, do my thing, work every day. It’s great.”

    Although Maldonado has been an athlete his entire life, being part of a football team is different.

    “You learn a lot, not just about football, but about life,” he said. “I want to thank coach Lewis and all the coaches. They helped me not only in football but also in life. It gives you life things to learn.”

    Football remains Maldonado's greatest passion, but after high school he is open to anything.

    “I plan to play football afterward,” he said. “I’m not sure about football, but whatever God thinks, God has a plan.”

    Contact Bill Khan at [email protected]. Follow him on X @BillKhan

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