Senior Spotlight: Garrett Powell

Saucon Valley senior Garrett Powell began playing soccer when he was in kindergarten. He played intramural soccer throughout his elementary years and during middle school he played club soccer in the Lehigh Valley Premier League. As a sophomore and a junior Garrett played various mid-field positions on the Panther varsity team. This year he played the left outside midfield position.

Varsity head coach Mel Moyer had high praise for Powell's work ethic.

"Garrett is a senior captain and starting outside mid for us. He has scored pretty meaningful goals for us this year and he is one of the hardest working players on the the team," Moyer said.

"This year he has scored six goals and earned one assist, which places him third on the team scoring chart," he added.

For Garrett, one of the most outstanding moments of his soccer career was in 2010, just after the team lost captain Jake Schuyler, who was sidelined by a broken leg. Saucon went on to defeat archrival Southern Lehigh in a game whose outcome was characterized by the players' determination to "win this one for Jake."

A second memorable moment occurred on Sept. 3, in a 1-0 win over Blue Mountain. Garrett scored the lone goal in the first period on a designed play the team had worked on in preparation for that game. "It is not very often a set play works under game conditions, but this one did," he added.

This year the Panthers were disappointed to miss their league playoff round, however the team did qualify for the PIAA State Tournament for the first time in its history, as District XI AA Runner-Up.

A multi-sport athlete, next spring Garrett will again be running in the 4x8, the 800m and the 3200m events as a member of Coach Ed Kolosky's track team. So far his track career highlight has been placing 1st as a member of the 4x8 relay team at the 2009 Colonial League Championships, he said.

Garrett is also a musician who plays saxophone in the pit orchestra and in the jazz band. At Assumption B.V.M. Church in Colesville Garrett is active in the Guardians, a social justice group. He is also a member of the Shopkeepers, a musical ensemble.

At Saucon Valley High School he is Vice President of the Class of 2012 and a member of the National Honor Society. His favorite subjects are math and science, and he expects to enroll at a four-year college, where he wants to major in a engineering-related course of study.

Garrett likes lasagna and plays piano in his free time. He said he most admires "Tank Man," the unknown Chinese man who stood in front of a moving tank during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, because he was fearless and not afraid to stand up for what he believed in.

Garrett has an older sister, Jessica, and is the son of Terry and Andrea Powell.