- May 4, 2024
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Giuliano says she' s going to miss everything about playing soccer with FPC, from the bond with her teammates to the everyday grind of trying to be the best.
Their tears didn’t merely symbolize the final loss of the season at the 5A Regional Championship. Those tears represented the end of a four-year bond with the Lady Bulldogs program, a 10-year connection with each other, and a lifelong coaching relationship with her dad.
Standing on Oviedo’s artificial turf after a 3-0 loss to the Lady Lions on Friday, Feb. 3, seniors Madi Hald and Bella Giuliano consoled one another for the last time as teammates. They didn’t want to leave the field. Through watered eyes and short, muffled gasps, Bella told her “soccer sister” it had been a great four years playing high school soccer together.
Soccer sisters
On the way home from the game, Giuliano and Hald reminisced on their past decade together. They went all the way back to when they first met and became friends — on a soccer field.
“When I moved down to Florida at age of 6, our dads (Michael Giuliano and Pete Hald) were coaching together at the local club in town,” Giuliano said. “They introduced us at the Indian Trails Sports Complex. We were standing over a sewage drain next to the field, and Madi told me to be careful because alligators lived in them. We've been best friends ever since.”
As they continued to grow and play together, Madi says she and Bella went through a phase where they always wanted to dress alike.
“I’m not sure why we thought we were twins, considering we look nothing alike,” she laughed. “But we always tried to buy matching stuff when we shopped together.”
They would often irritate their fathers on the way to games with their constant laughter in the back seat.
“Coach Hald never failed to tell us, ‘Nothing is that funny,’” Bella laughed.
Now that Bella is headed to Rollins College in Winter Park, and Madi has yet to decide where she will next play, it is likely the two will suit up next season in different uniforms for the first time in over 10 years.
Madi’s next coach, not dad?
Splitting from her best friend, Madi will also leave behind her lifelong coach — coach Hald — who happens to be her dad. He has coached her throughout her entire soccer life.
“It’s been a great experience,” Madi said. “There's no one who is harder on me. He's always been my biggest fan and has always wanted the best for me. I’m so grateful I was fortunate enough to be guided and coached by him; he's truly an amazing coach.”
“Everyone joked with me — when she was a freshman — and said, ‘It took your daughter to get you to the Final Four,’” coach Hald said. “I’m just happy her high school career has been a very successful one.”
Thank you, seniors
Along with Hald and Giuliano, seniors Tanagna Payne and Baylee Mills and Madison Friedman donned a Lady Bulldog jersey for the last time last Friday. These seniors went to a state Final Four, reached two region championship matches and won three district championships.
Putting their best foot forward
As coach Hald has proven over his 25-year career, he will return next year with hopes of making it just as far with upperclassmen and younger players. Lady Bulldogs Saba Amiri, Jade Jean-Louise, Malia Dalzell and Brittany Murphy — to name a few — and other key players will be returning. There will be no rebuilding for FPC girls soccer next season.
