Athlete Of The Week: Alex Connell

HARWICH – Monomoy junior Alex Connell is brand new this year to the boys soccer team. It’s impossible to tell.

Connell has attended Monomoy for two years but only started playing for the soccer team this season. Not playing soccer in general, though — that he did for eight years previously living in Norway with his Norwegian mother and American father. He speaks Norwegian.

On Wednesday, Oct. 15, Connell sent in the Sharks’ first score of the night to get a lead they would not give back against Sandwich for a 4-1 win on senior night. At the front of Monomoy’s attack, Connell provided consistent pressure.

“I’ve just always had a knack for the ball, like I just want to storm at them and just give it my all and just try to get the ball, so that just happens naturally for me,” he said.

Giving it his all is a lesson Connell has learned from the team’s seniors, he said.

“All four of our seniors, they just want to give it their all, and specifically from Sunder [Elisme], just learning how to play wide and get those crossers in,” Connell said. “So mostly just that, just giving your all, just wanting to win, having that competitive spirit for sure.”

Connell, on an individual level, encapsulates the emerging theme this season that Monomoy, after graduating so many players, took some time to come together as a group. He mentioned Derek Laramee, an eighth grader, as another player new to the team like him. And both players specified a September win against Martha’s Vineyard as the turning point.

“We can beat people,” Connell said was the realization after that match. “Like we're good, We're coming. We can get good passes. Because we have a great team. We just weren't clicking in the start, like the chemistry was just off, but we got that.”