There are many incredible athletes in Poly’s senior class. With the fall season coming to an end, it is a great time to highlight one senior student-athletes: Nicole Bogdanos, Co-Captain of the Girls’ Soccer Team. 

Bogdanos didn’t start her athletic career  playing soccer, but she was a natural-born athlete. In fact, according to Bogdanos, she “played every sport under the sun from basketball and ice skating to tennis and swimming until fifth grade.” Her mom and friends had to convince her to start playing soccer, so at ten years old she joined the girls’ league in her area. She immediately loved it. Bogdanos said,“The feeling of dribbling with the ball on a breakaway, determined with all eyes on you, is unmatched. I might not be super confident in every aspect, but when I play soccer, I feel unstoppable.” 

After starting to play, she quickly improved. Bogdanos has been on the Girls’ Varsity Soccer team since eighth grade and has been an integral player. The field became her happy place, and she found a kind of family. Simultaneously, her soccer teammates became a community off the field. Like many sports, the team aspect of soccer makes the sport unique to Bogdanos, which is why she works to create an uplifting team environment. Poly GVS takes team bonding to the next level. They have their own hype playlists, days where the teammates are assigned someone else to support, and heartfelt memories with wins and losses. 

Bogdanos says that her “teammates are more than friends: the chemistry and honesty we need to have to be successful is insane.” The team’s off-field chemistry is supportive, as Bogdanos explains, even when she comes “to practice in tears after bombing a math quiz” or with a “funny story from the day to share…my team is always there for me.” She shares that in her 8th-grade year, she “was the only 8th grader on a team of Big Ten commits and All-American players, so truthfully, I was always a little scared. I remember the first time I scored, the whole team came running to me, chanting ‘BOGS’ over and over again and finally collapsing into a dogpile. In this one moment, my fear dissolved, replaced with a sense of belonging and pure jubilation.”

Bogdanos’s legacy on the Poly team will be set in history, and her hard work and dedication have made her an incredible role model for underclassmen. Teammates are incredibly sad that this is her last year. With Bogdanos as co-captain, Poly Prep is, for the first time in GVS history, the number one seed in the Ivy Prep League and NYSAIS.