When watching a Lakeland boys soccer game, you may notice that everyone is jumping around or doing a quick stretch to get the nerves out. The pregame nerves start to hit right before the ref blows the whistle. But before that whistle is blown, you see the tallest man on the pitch standing at six foot two, walking as cool as can be, with lockdown focus, ready to compete with whatever team is put in front of him. This player is Hawks senior midfielder Xay Dricketts.
Dricketts moved from St. Ann Parish, Jamaica, in 2022 after his mom met her husband. They made the five-hour flight to Rathdrum, Idaho, and have lived here since.
Moving from such a warm climate in Jamaica to where one day it could be pouring rain, to the next being 80 degrees and sunny, it can be hard to adapt to.
“It is way warmer back home. It’s always 78 or something in Jamaica,” Dricketts said.
Dricketts started playing soccer for LHS during the 2022-2023 school year and is having a great time.
He has been playing soccer since he could walk and has always dreamed of one day going pro.
“It has had a big impact on my life, and it changed my life,” Dricketts said. “Ever since I started playing, I never stopped because I fell in love with the sport. I realized I was really good at it, and I just never stopped playing.”
Dricketts is a positive teammate on the field as well as off.
“Xay is a good teammate. He is encouraging. He doesn’t try to degrade others and bring them down,” senior wing Wyatt Holfeltz said.
Holfeltzs sees Dricketts as a possible role model both on and off the team.
“He is competitive, and I’m glad I have him on my team,” Holfeltz said.
Head Coach Nick Haynes had the same high praise for Dricketts that Holfeltz did.
“Xay is a very skilled and creative player with lots of tricky moves that he likes to use to embarrass other players,” Haynes said. “He is a good teammate because he always has a positive attitude.”
Dricketts is not sure where exactly he wants to go, but he would like to go somewhere out of state and play soccer at the college level with whoever will take him. If he is not able to play at that level, he still wants to continue playing either with a Sunday league or a club team of his choice.