4 Shawano boys soccer players earn all-conference nods

Four Shawano Community High School boys soccer players earned all-conference honors this fall season.

Seniors Julian Perez and Chad Norton each earned spots on the first team for Shawano. Junior Drake Herm landed on the second team for the Hawks, while senior Brandon Reed was an honorable mention.

Perez made the first team as a midfielder. His biggest match this fall came against Xavier, when he scored four goals and added an assist in a 5-1 win. He scored three goals and had two assists in a win over Green Bay West.

“It means a lot,” said Perez of the first-team honor. “I’ve put in a lot of work over this last year, and being named first team all-conference was a big goal of mine. So it felt good to succeed and reach that. I couldn’t have done it without my teammates and my coaches pushing me every day. It’s a huge honor to get to play with those guys, and I love to see other fellow teammates getting conference awards as well.”

Norton landed on the first team as an at-large selection.

He mostly helped on defense but did score a couple of goals in Bay matches.

“It means a lot to me to win an all-conference award for me and for my team,” said Norton. “Over these four years of playing soccer, I’ve tried my best to do the best that I can, and I can happily say that I have done that in my high school years. This year was even more special because it’s my final year with the Shawano Hawks, and I’ve loved playing with everyone on that team and loved playing for my coaches.”

Herm scored in several Bay matches for the Hawks. He scored twice in a tight loss to Menasha and also had a couple games where he scored and was credited with an assist.

“Making second team will push me to work harder in the offseason,” said Herm. “My goal was to become first team, but I fell short of that this year — I plan on playing even better next year and becoming first team all-conference.”

Reed was Shawano’s goalie this fall, racking up more than 100 saves on the season.

“Making the all-conference team shows the level of respect that the other teams and coach had after playing against you,” said Reed. “They could see the amazing amount of time and sweat that I was putting in before each game every week.”

The Hawks placed sixth in the conference standings with a 3-6-1 record. Shawano earned a No. 3 seed for the postseason but was upset by No. 6 Green Bay Southwest in its first match.

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