By Matt Gade 

605 Sports 

RAPID CITY — For the last four seasons, Rapid City Stevens’ Ava Holzwarth has been a force for the Raiders’ girls soccer team. 

By the end of her freshman season, Holzwarth had worked her way into the starting lineup for a team that finished 9-3-1. 

Four seasons later, the future South Dakota State Jackrabbit has become so accustomed to scoring goals that she rarely celebrates her own scores and instead gets excited to see her teammates step up.  

“It's kind of a routine for me usually. I mean, I don’t do anything too crazy,” Holzwarth said. “I think just knowing that part of my job is to get the ball in the back of the net. So in any shape or any form, just getting the ball in that net is just a great thing for the team.” 

This past Thursday, in the Raiders’ final regular-season game against Spearfish, Holzwarth scored four goals, including her 100th career goal on her second goal of the game, and she said she didn’t even really know how to celebrate. 

“It definitely has been a goal that I've been reaching,” Holzwarth said. “I started last year knowing I think I ended around 68 goals, career goals after my junior year. So I was like, ‘Oh man, to get to 100 would be great.’  

“And after I scored that second one, it kind of fell in my mind like, ‘Oh, I did it,’ and I didn't even know what to do because I didn't know that they were announcing or anything. So I was just like, felt relief in my head, that I really wanted to accomplish that goal.” 

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Be the ‘best soccer player she can be’ 

As the oldest of three siblings, Ava Holzwarth said she can’t remember a time she wasn’t playing soccer. 

“She's been playing since she was four, and it's always been her jam,” Ava’s mom, Greta Holzwarth, said. 

Ava plays so much soccer, she doesn’t have an off-season.  

Holzwarth was a part of the Black Hills Rapid 19U club team that captured back-to-back National Premier League National Championships in the summers of 2025 and 2026. 

“It was super exciting to watch,” Greta said of the National Championships. “When they won the first one, that was huge, and last year, winning two consecutive was impressive, and to be a part of that was incredible.” 

To show how much Holzwarth loves soccer and is always trying to get better, the Black Hills Rapids weren’t the only team she played for this past summer. 

Ava also played for the Colorado Storm, a 19U Elite Clubs National League team based in Denver. 

Given how competitive Ava is, Greta said she and her husband, Michael, do their best to help her reach her goals.  

“We are right beside her. But the thing for us is, she has to want to do it, and so when she wants to do it, we're there to help her every step of the way,” Greta said. “She went down to Denver and trained with an ECNL team, made another soccer team down there to make herself better.  

“She's always reaching new heights to improve her abilities to make her the best soccer player that she can be.” 

Ava even admits she can have a hard time resting her body, saying this past summer was an example. 

“I'm always like, ‘Well, this is what I want to do,’” Ava said. “Just for a little example, I mean, in the summer when we had nationals in Denver, and then from my Denver club team, it was their playoffs actually that weekend after. So (my parents) they're like, ‘You have to pick one,’ and I said, ‘Nope, I want to do both.’  

“So after five games in Denver, we left from Denver to go to Seattle, and I played three or four more games with my Denver team right after that.” 

With the Black Hills Rapids 19U team as two-time national champs, Holzwarth said she has an almost love-hate relationship with playing against her club teammates and their respective schools during the high school season. But it also makes the level of competition in the area that much better. 

“Playing my close teammates on the club team and then turning around and we're rivals in high school team,” Ava said. “I mean, it's definitely a little emotional, especially during the Central Games, but just having that competition between us, it's great to keep pushing us, even for the club team.” 

Rapid City Stevens' Ava Holzwarth grabs a loose ball in front of Rapid City Central's Claire Hasse during a game on Sept. 10 at Sioux Park. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

Ava’s competitiveness is what separates Ava from past Stevens players, according to Rapid City Stevens head coach Luis Usera.  

Usera, who’s been the Raiders head coach since the team’s inception, has coached three teams to state runner-up finishes in 2018, 2021 and 2024. South Dakota first sanctioned soccer in 2012. 

“Ava brings a different dimension than what you normally see because she's got a lot of grit. A lot of the goals in a girls' game, you'll see goals scored, but you don't see players sacrificing their body to score goals, and she's a true goal scorer,” Usera said. She's got that intangible thing that coaches dream of deep down.  

“Just the desire to be good at everything she does. That's why she's great at track. She's great at everything. She's even a great student, great leader. She's just committed.” 

Holzwarth’s competitiveness is also noticeable in track and field, where the Raider won gold as a sophomore in the Class AA girls’ long jump and was a part of last season’s 400-meter state record-holding relay team. Holzwarth also sits second all-time in the girls’ long jump with a personal best of 19’10.75 she set as a junior. 

Usera said Ava’s hard work, not only with the Raiders but in the off-season, is why she scored 100 goals over the course of her career. 

“She's earned it because she works. It's just a good show for any athlete that if you put the time in, the rewards come. But if you only think about the rewards and you don't put the time in, you'll never realize those rewards.” 

Holzwarth is believed to be just the second player in South Dakota high school girls’ soccer history to have recorded 100 career goals.  

Mitchell’s Mia Mullenmeister closed out her career with 130 goals in set in 2023 and now plays Division I at Utah State. 

While Usera notes how much Ava enjoys competing, he said her leadership is where she’s made the biggest jump as a player. 

“She doesn't like to not be playing, but she also is a total team captain. She understands the expectations and the realization that everyone needs time to grow and develop because four years ago she was in the same spot as these other ones dying to play, and when she got her first five games, she was hungry,” Usera said. “We're an extremely young team this year, and I would have to say that our captains, they've just brought them all up; they brought them up to speed.” 

The Raiders' other team captains are Bailey Brown, Jersey Von Eye and Braedyn Baird.  

Greta said there’s no one harder on Ava than Ava. 

“Maybe her mom. I’m kidding,” Greta said. “When she falls down, she picks herself back up and keeps going.” 

Holzwarth said she doesn’t like not playing, but recognizes it’s beneficial for the team for others to get playing time when possible. She said she loves the team aspect of soccer most.  

“It’s just making sure that we're all on the page, and making sure that they don't get too nervous about the games. Because I know when I was a freshman, I was extremely nervous, so helping them guide through the games because I have been there,” she said. “If we're up on a team, there's no need to put in all of our starters and give the younger girls a chance to experience a varsity game and to see that the level of play is so much different than club.” 

Rapid City Stevens' Ava Holzwarth kicks her 100th career goal against Spearfish last Thursday at Sioux Park. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

‘Really hungry to get back at it’ 

While Holzwarth is looking to break the state record in the girls’ long jump and battle for more gold at the state meet next spring.  

The senior said her current focus is solely on Mitchell as the Raiders host the Kernels in the first round of the Class AA playoffs on Tuesday. 

At 12-1 in the regular season, the Raiders have their sights on the state championship game, Oct. 17 in Watertown. 

The Raiders, the three-seed in power points, suffered their only loss of the season on Aug. 22 to Yankton, 2-1. 

“It definitely was a heartbreaking loss, as I did have the one goal against Yankton, and I think it was definitely an eye-opening experience after the game,” Ava said. “I mean, everyone has been so mad and just really hungry to get back at it, and I think it was a good thing that we did lose because these past seasons we've been undefeated, and I think it just didn't make us ready for playoffs. But I think seeing that loss and knowing that anything could really happen in any of these games.” 

A season ago, the Raiders finished the regular season 13-0-1 and reached the Class AA semifinals before falling to Sioux Falls O’Gorman 3-1. 

The Raiders graduated nine seniors off last year’s team, and Usera said he leaned on this year’s seniors to lead the girls’ team this season. 

Usera added that the loss to Yankton might have been a tough pill to swallow for the Raiders, but they have responded since. 

“The loss to Yankton at the beginning of the year has been the biggest motivation I've seen in years in this program,” Usera said. “They've been focused on it. Their mantras have been about it. Their mantras have been about overcoming it, and they know we can get beat if we don't do our stuff right.” 

Being the team’s top scorer, Ava said she expects teams to post multiple defenders on her and try to take her out of the game. 

That’s where she said she likes seeing her teammates step up. 

“It's definitely frustrating. I mean, walking to the game and there's always one girl just following me everywhere, and it's definitely a little frustrating of a game,” Ava said. “But I think our team has recognized that, especially throughout the season, we've played a few teams that have done that. So we, our team, have recognized that if I have two on me, someone's got to be open. So they find the open player.” 

Greta said she’s excited to watch Ava play collegiately. Still, she said with her being in Brookings next fall, balancing Ava’s games with her son, Nash, a sophomore, and youngest daughter, Evee, a seventh-grader, it’ll be more challenging.  

But for now, Greta said she and Michael are just enjoying being along for Ava in her high school career. 

One that Ava isn’t ready to be done with. 

“The last thing on my checklist is definitely a state championship,” Ava said. 

 Rapid City Stevens' Ava Holzwarth has 102 career goals as the Raiders head into the postseason on Tuesday. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)