During a noon soccer game on Sept. 9, Westminster senior Caden Collison scored a goal against Bishop DuBourg to give the Wildcats a two-goal lead with 15 minutes remaining.
“My coach said, ‘Ok, you can go,’” Collison recalled.
With football gear in the trunk, Collison drove to MICDS and lined up just in time for the kickoff of a 2 p.m. football game against the Rams.
Collison is set for another eventful weekend when the Westminster football team travels to Orchard Farm for the Class 3 District 3 championship game at 7 p.m. Friday, before the Wildcats’ soccer team visits Affton in a Class 3 quarterfinal at 4 p.m. Saturday.
His effectiveness playing two sports during the same season has been remarkable.
His 27 goals and 65 points for the Wildcats’ soccer team both rank 11th in the entire St. Louis metro area. His 46 receptions and 886 yards for the Westminster football team place him seventh in the region in both categories.
“This has been my favorite season so far and it’s my senior season, so why not make it the best. It’s an incredible way to end my high school career,” Collison said.
Collison has played soccer and football each of his four high school seasons. He originally planned to focus only on soccer, but his closest friends were playing football, and they persuaded him to attend summer workouts prior to their freshman year.
“They slipped that one past the AD,” joked Westminster Athletic Director Corey Snyder, who also serves as the Wildcats’ football coach.
Due to COVID-19 provisions in the fall of 2020, the Westminster school day ended at 1:30 p.m., and soccer and football practices occurred at separate times. Abbreviated game schedules helped Collison develop a workable routine of playing both sports without his academics suffering.
“I struggled with it my freshman year, and I had to decide if it was something I could manage,” Collison said. “The classroom takes precedence, and I’ve always worked hard at performing better in the classroom than on the field. I didn’t think it would be possible to do both sports, but somehow, I found a way to make it work.”
These days, the soccer and football teams practice simultaneously, so to play both sports, Collison has sacrificed the opportunity to play defense for the Wildcats’ football team.
He attends soccer practice during the heavy defensive portion of football practice, then scoots over to football practice for the extended offensive portion.
“Soccer is probably his first love, but at football practice, he’s dialed in. We can tell him something once and he’s going to remember it. He doesn’t need a lot of coaching. Sometimes, he sees it before you tell it to him,” Snyder said.
Collison feels that the training for one sport has helped him become a better player in the other.
“The hitting and contact in football helps me on the soccer field to not get knocked off the ball when I’m dribbling,” he said. “The endurance and speed that I get from soccer translates to football so I can run longer routes and not have to come off (the field) because I’m tired.”
Collison played baseball as a freshman, was a member of a state champion track and field team as a sophomore and played three seasons of basketball.
Last fall, he suffered a mid-season knee injury that cut both his soccer and football seasons short.
“That did not feel great, and it motivated me to have, what I think has been my best season,” Collison said.
Collison would like to play soccer in college and major in biomedical or chemical engineering. He has this advice for anyone wanting to play two highly-intensive sports in the same season:
“If you’re really passionate about both sports, go for it, but make sure you can handle school first,” Collison said.
He recalled times when, after a school day and soccer practice, only 15 minutes remained in football practice. He always made sure to suit up and participate, nonetheless.
“It’s easy to say, ‘I’m tired, I’m not going to get that much work at football practice,’ but I think it’s important to have a commitment to both teams, and to be as much a part of each team as you can.”
Friday, the Westminster football team (6-5) will attempt to win its first district title since 2015, a year that the Wildcats won their first 13 games of the season and advanced to a state semifinal.
Saturday, the Wildcats’ soccer team (18-5) will attempt to reach the state semifinals for the first time in program history.
And Collison is certain to be a major contributor in both games.
“We’re not done yet,” he said. “I hope it keeps going.”