A cool breeze fans the grass on Davis Field. Eager spectators gather in the stands, cheering on each of the seniors on the Harker varsity soccer team. As Laszlo Bollyky (12) stands to reach for his basket of flowers, applause from his parents and teammates greets him. After his teammates receive their flowers, he heads to the goalpost he will be guarding in the field. It’s showtime.

Laszlo fell in love with soccer at the age of four. Having found some of his closest friends through the sport, soccer is a way for Laszlo to connect with other people and know them better.

“[Soccer is] one of those things where you can interact with anyone from around the world, and they’re going to know what you’re talking about, and they’re going to know what you’re doing,” Laszlo said.

Laszlo recalls his sophomore year, when his team won four games in the Central Coast Section (CCS) Championships. Because neither side could score a goal during normal play, those games were decided off penalty kicks. As the goalie, he remembers the pressure he faced when the outcome of the game depended on whether he could save the opponents’ penalty kicks.

“As the goalie, I thrive in those scenarios, being under that sort of pressure without too big of a risk,” Laszlo said, “Your teammates know that you’re going to try your best no matter what, so it was a big thrill being able to save all those penalty kicks … I was so excited to be able to pay back our team and show them that I’ve got their backs as much as they’ve got mine.”

As one of the co-captains of the varsity soccer team, Laszlo has a strong sense of duty to his team. Besides helping hone each team member’s skills, he also rallies the team whenever there are setbacks. Laszlo recalls an instance when he recognized his team needed a morale boost after a tough loss to Menlo High.

“When we were scored on against Menlo, it was hard to build up that sort of team camaraderie,” Laszlo said. “We took a day off [after the game] and everyone got to collect themselves. Then [fellow co-captain] Ishaan [Mantripragada (12)] and I came back as captains. We led the team. We had some intense practices. We held everyone accountable, but understood that people will make mistakes.”

Laszlo’s teammates look to Laszlo as a leader both on the field during games and off the field. As the team’s goalie, he directs the team through each game.

“[Laszlo] is very vocal,” close friend and soccer teammate Arthur Kajiyama (12) said. “As a goalkeeper, that’s important. Everything is in their perspective, so he should be telling players what to do. In that sense, he’s a leader as well.”

Laszlo brings the same determination and leadership that he brings to soccer to his other interests, such as chess. As with soccer, chess was another way for him to meet other people. During the pandemic, his passion for chess reignited after watching the Netflix hit series “The Queen’s Gambit.” Simultaneously, he and his friends realized that before the pandemic, Harker’s Chess Club shut down. Resolving to keep a love for chess at Harker alive, he and his friends restarted the club.

“We realized that there were at least seven people who had watched “The Queen’s Gambit” and would be interested in at least trying out chess, and we could make sure that this chess flame never dies, as it did with me,” Laszlo said.

As an outgoing individual, Laszlo has also met Spanish-speaking people while playing soccer with them and became fascinated with their language. In the summer after Laszlo’s freshman year, he was chosen by his Spanish teacher Diana Moss to take an exchange trip to Southern Spain.

“I thought of all my students who would be plopped down in the middle of a Spanish speaking country, without anybody being able to speak English to him and have a lot of fun and do fine,” she said. “And I immediately thought of Laszlo.”

After the trip, Moss noted that Laszlo’s confidence in his Spanish-speaking abilities had increased. But Laszlo believes that the biggest impact the trip had on him was the connections he was able to make with Spanish citizens. On the trip, he was able to experience the Spanish way of life and their emphasis on the family, as well as being able to play soccer with some Spanish citizens.

“The most impactful way that [the exchange trip] helped me has been through my being able to connect with people from different nations and realize how they live and what they value,” Laszlo said.

Drawing from his experience as an exchange student in Spain, Laszlo has continued to form connections with the Spanish-speaking community. Over quarantine, he participated in some volunteering opportunities that benefit Spanish-speaking citizens in the Bay Area. He volunteered for Stanford’s Track COVID project and translated forms and documents that would allow Spanish-speaking citizens to receive testing and other services into Spanish.

In the future, Laszlo aims to use his leadership skills from his tenure as soccer captain and his love of connecting with others to help improve the lives of those around the world.

“What I want to do is something that helps make people, countries and organizations make the best choices for themselves, something where I’m able to provide a platform for people all around the world to thrive upon and succeed,” Laszlo said.