Belchertown senior Jack Holt is the 2022 Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys soccer Player of the Year. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE
Belchertown senior Jack Holt is the 2022 Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys soccer Player of the Year. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE
Belchertown senior Jack Holt is the 2022 Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys soccer Player of the Year. STAFF PHOTO / KYLE GRABOWSKI
against Dedham in the Division 3 boys soccer state semifinals Wednesday in Medway. The Orioles fell 2-1. STAFF PHOTO / KYLE GRABOWSKI
Belchertown senior Jack Holt is the 2022 Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys soccer Player of the Year. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE
Belchertown senior Jack Holt is the 2022 Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys soccer Player of the Year. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE
Belchertown senior Jack Holt is the 2022 Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys soccer Player of the Year. STAFF PHOTO / KYLE GRABOWSKI
Belchertown senior Jack Holt is the 2022 Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys soccer Player of the Year. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE
Belchertown senior Jack Holt is the 2022 Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys soccer Player of the Year. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE
Jack Holt spent a Cape Cod vacation with his toes stuffed into shooting boots rather than the sand.
The Belchertown senior broke his scapula during the summer soccer season and returned just in time for a family beach trip. He and his younger brother Colin Holt rose early every morning and headed to the Nauset High School pitch, not the shore.
Jack is a striker and Colin a goalie, so they prepared each other for the impending fall season. The Orioles graduated much of their lauded midfield that keyed the 2021 state final run. Jack Holt’s supply lines wouldn’t be as efficient.
“I knew I’d get less chances than I did last year,” he said. “I was focused on making those chances count, putting the ball into the back of the net every time I was asked to.”
The Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys Soccer Player of the Year tucked away a modern-era school record 31 goals with three assists. He had five hat tricks and scored in 19 of Belchertown’s 23 games, as the Orioles won their fourth straight Western Massachusetts championship and reached the Division 3 state semifinals.
“In my 10 years there’s never been anyone quite the scorer like Jack is, especially in that Smith League,” Belchertown coach Zach Siano said. “Statistics aside, just watching how hard he works, how much he plays, you can tell at times this is kind of his playground. Jack is a great teammate, great student, but this is where you see his true character and see the true embodiment of who he is and how hard he works come to fruition. He’s put all that together, put the team on his back in countless spots.”
Holt received All-New England honors after his sterling season. He improved from 17 goals as a junior after dedicating the hours over the offseason and on the practice field.
“I knew how elite and elusive Jack could be in the final third of the field. He certainly put the prerequisite effort to transform his body and style of play to be relied upon more as that sole [number] nine up front,” Siano said. “I knew he could finish, but he became that much more dynamic a threat by adding a little more pace to his game and adding a little more size to himself and being able to be more of a hold up player instead of someone who can find the ball and find the back of the net. He created a lot more this year than I’ve ever seen in the last three [years].”
Belchertown relied on Holt more than it wanted to. He scored 57.4 percent of the Orioles goals. No one else had more than six, and only four other players found the net more than once.
“I feel like he felt if he didn’t score in games he was letting the team down, and that shouldn’t be the case at all,” said Siano, the Massachusetts High School Soccer Coaches Association small school boys coach of the year. “That shows how much of a competitor he is, how hard he works, how much soccer means to him. It encompasses so much of his being. It was unfair at times how much pressure he would put on himself, but he was certainly up to the task.”
His teammates sometimes saw frustration during games when he didn’t score the goals he felt he should have. Or if he only scored once. That extended to the training ground when he wasn’t executing in drills the way he was supposed to.
“He always wanted to be better,” Belchertown captain Kaden Houle said. “He knew he could be better.”
That drive comes from a love born and nurtured in a soccer family. Jack’s dad C.J. Holt has coached soccer in Western Massachusetts for decades, recently at Northampton and for more than a decade at Hopkins Academy before that.
C.J. is one of Jack’s most incisive critics but also his most ardent supporter. He was first through the gate to hug his son following the Orioles’ state semifinal loss. Then they immediately began breaking down the tactics and refereeing decisions in the match.
“He tries to watch as many of my games as he can, which is great because he keeps pushing me and telling me what I need to work on. I can definitely trust him and his opinion,” Jack Holt said. “It means a lot to me since I know he’s very busy with his own team.”
Holt is the right kind of coach’s kid. He’s not entitled and never got away with bad habits.
“Coaching coaches’ kids is sometimes a mixed bag,” Siano said. “Jack is every sense of a leader. He embodies the positive aspects of a coach’s kid. He knows what’s expected of him, more is expected out of him because of his pedigree and how he was raised and the spots that we put him in.”
Houle, a center back, sees those spots develop from behind the play. He used to compete with Holt for playing time and touches up top before moving to the back line as a senior. His view beats the one from the stands.
“Seeing him do what he could do 1-on-1 in the final 18, the PK box, the free kicks, it was really cool to see,” Houle said. “It was a special thing.”
Charlie Anischik, senor, South Hadley
Matt Bacis, senior, Easthampton
Ryan Belina, senior, Smith Academy
Brady Burch, senior, Frontier
Teddy Cyr, freshman, Hopkins Academy
Patrick Fitzgibbons, senior, Hopkins Academy
Logan Graves, senior, Smith Academy
Jack Holt, senior, Belchertown
Kaden Houle, senior, Belchertown
Riley Intrator, senior, Smith Academy
Robert L’Abbee, senior Granby
Ethan Marowitz, senior, Easthampton
Aidan Miklasiewicz, junior, Hampshire
Devin Niles, junior, Frontier
Finn Norsen, junior, Northampton
Nate Oldenburg, senior, Belchertown
Roscoe Palmer, junior, Smith Vocational
Charlie Por, senior, Hampshire
Colin Quinn, senior, South Hadley
Jonathan Santiago, senior, Granby
John Senn-McNally, senior, Northampton
Matt Sicard, senior, Frontier
Ayden St. Martin, sophomore, Hampshire
Eddie Wykowski, senior, South Hadley
Nick Adzima, senior, Belchertown
Jack Belcher-Timme, senior, Easthampton
Nate Carillion, senior, South Hadley
Shane Cooper, senior, Gateway
Carlos David, sophomore, South Hadley
Nico Fasulo, junior, Frontier
Ben Foley, senior, South Hadley
Finn Garvey, sophomore, Easthampton
Daniel Gauvin, senior, Granby
Ben Hudzik, junior, Smith Academy
Joe Kurkolonis, senior, Smith Vocational
Tanner Lockwood, junior, Belchertown
Aidan Moynahan, junior, Hampshire
Mateo Navarro, senior, Easthampton
Emile Roth, senior, Northampton
Alvin Silva, junior, Holyoke
Chanhee Son, junior, Frontier
Patrick Staudenmayer, junior, Amherst
Brendan Stevenson, sophomore, Hampshire
Liam Stewart, junior, Amherst
Aidan Valderamma, junior, Frontier
Trevor Weiss, junior, Belchertown
Carter White, senior, Granby
Dom Aloisi, junior, Hopkins Academy
Owen Babb, sophomore, Frontier
Cameron Ball, freshman, Smith Vocational
Benjamin Berger, junior, Granby
Yahsiel Devi Dalomba, senior, Amherst
Josh Gigras, senior, Smith Academy
Moki Kovacs, sophomore, South Hadley
Elias Marques, senior, Belchertown
Dan Martin, sophomore, Hampshire
Alex Martin-Romero, senior, South Hadley
Jamie Park, senior, Amherst
Casimir Pierre, sophomore, Holyoke
Gabe Rapoza, senior, Easthampton
Jayden Santiago-Lopez, senior, Gateway
Teddy Scott, sophomore, PVCICS
Owen Tuttle, junior, PVCICS
Connor Stiles, senior, Northampton
Jake Young, senior, Northampton
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