Hartland's Alyse Daavettila is Livingston County girls soccer Player of the Year

HARTLAND — After a long soccer season that lasted until the final possible day , recent Hartland graduate Alyse Daavettila deserved a break.

But that’s not how she’s wired.

Her summer between high school and her freshman year of college doesn’t include much down time.

She is working eight to 12 hours a day in a bakery, practicing twice a week with a group of college players and doing strength training before work in the morning.

“Obviously, you want time to hang out with your friends, things like that,” she said. “It gets pretty busy. Weekends are pretty free though.”

Daavettila has never had an issue with hard work. It helped her make an impact as a freshman on Hartland’s state Division 1 championship team and become one of the best players in Michigan by her senior year.

Daavettila is the Livingston County Player of the Year, as selected by the Livingston Daily, after helping the Eagles return to the state championship game and making the select all-state Dream Team .

She is one of only three players in Hartland history to make the Dream Team, joining current pro player Maddie Pogarch and future college teammate Justina L’Esperance.

“I feel very honored, obviously,” Daavettila said. “I know it’s not an easy title to get. During the season, you’re there for your team and you’re concentrating on winning your games. You don’t think about your individual self and your accomplishments. You’re just playing as hard as you can for your team and your coaches.”

When summer ends, college life will begin for Daavettila.

She will continue her soccer career at Northern Michigan University like so many Livingston County players before her.

Daavettila will be joined by fellow 2024 Hartland graduates Emma Kastamo and Katie Swirczek. They will be reunited with five former teammates currently at Northern.

“For sure, it’s going to be fun and exciting, especially since you’re already comfortable moving up there,” Daavettila said. “You have some support with you and people who have already been through the process. That’ll be a huge help. Coach Jon (Sandoval) is very nice and has a great system. I’m excited to see how college differs from high school and club.”

Having played with so many current and future Wildcats, Daavettila knows the type of people with whom she’ll be surrounded.

“I feel like we’ve always been pretty competitive growing up and trying to be the best we can be,” she said. “That’s just a college mindset you have.”

The last time Daavettila was a freshman, she didn’t know what to expect. She arrived at Hartland tryouts the spring after the COVID shutdowns wiped out the 2020 season. The Eagles were 14-4-3 in 2019 and still had several key players back from that team. It would be a hard team to make as a ninth-grader.

“My freshman year, I was scared for tryouts,” Daavettila said. “We had such a great team. Making it helped my confidence. There were such great players and a great program. You have to hold yourself to the standard every year.”

Daavettila either started or was one of the first players off the sideline her freshman year.

“Right away, we could see the pace on the ball and the intelligence of what she does with it,” Hartland coach Andrew Kartsounes said. “She played outside forward so we could keep her a little more isolated from girls who were three, four years older than she was. Very quickly, she moved into more of an attacker.”

Hartland rolled to the state championship that season before losing in the regional final to eventual champion Bloomfield Hills in 2022 and in the district semifinals to Brighton in 2023 .

The Eagles rekindled the magic of 2021 this spring, making another run to Michigan State University before losing 2-0 in the title game to Rochester Adams.

“It was just really rewarding to get to that spot,” Daavettila said. “We felt our team had a lot of talent and skill. Obviously, it was important for us to see how far we can go with that.”

During the postseason run, Hartland scored winning goals in one-goal victories with 4:12 left against Lake Orion , 17:47 left against Bloomfield Hills and 9:13 left against Grand Haven .

“It was weird,” said Daavettila, Hartland’s leading scorer with 12 goals and six assists. “If it was even or we had to get one back, we somehow felt calm in those situations almost every time, because we had so much faith. We knew one of our players on that team would get that goal in the net. All of us would be working as hard as we can consistently.”

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Hartland's Alyse Daavettila is Livingston County girls soccer Player of the Year