With Central’s football season already halfway over, senior Mitch Haldane’s time in crimson and black is coming to an end.

Haldane, an environmental studies major with a specialization in biology, has been on the Central football team since his redshirt season in 2011.

Last season, Haldane, a linebacker, had 85 tackles and 4.5 sacks on defense. His impressive season earned him an All-GNAC Defensive Team Honorable Mention.

With the football season coming to a close, Haldane looks to make the most of his final season playing football.

“It means everything,” Haldane said. “Football has always been one of my favorite things to do… The relationships that you make with friends, playing with your brothers and making a big play, putting all that hard work in and having it show on the field: I just love playing football.”

Haldane has had a successful career on the gridiron at Central, and his success is a byproduct of all the hard work that he has put in.

“I feel good, and I am actually pretty proud of how I have kind of worked my way up the ladder here,” Haldane said. “I feel like I have done okay, I could have done better, but I am pretty pleased with how I have played here.”

The football team and the brotherhood within it means a great deal to Haldane.

“The team is very important,” Haldane said. “Football means a lot to me. I understand that this is basically my last year playing. The team is my brothers. It means a lot to me to be around them.”

Every year before the season starts, the football team selects team captains. Haldane, a vocal leader that also speaks with his play on the field, was selected to lead Central and be one of the four captains for the 2015 season.

“One of the greatest things about voting for captains is it’s all through the team,” Haldane said. “Coaches don’t pick it, and it’s not always who is the best player all the time. It is who everyone as a team wants to represent the team. It is one of my greatest honors to be voted as a captain and it meant a lot to me.”

Being a natural leader and a captain isn’t anything new for Haldane, as he was the captain of his Mountlake Terrace high school football team in 2010.

Haldane gives a lot of credit to his coaches at Mountlake Terrace. He said they helped mold him into the player and leader that he is today.

“At Mountlake Terrace there was a great coaching staff and great guys,” Haldane said. “They taught me a lot about what I know about football.”

Haldane’s biggest supporter and inspiration from day one has been his mother; she has made a big impact on his life.

“She raised me and put up with me,” Haldane said. “She always made sure I had what I needed and never missed me play a single football game in her life. She has supported me through everything and always made sure I was doing the right thing.”

The defensive coordinator for Central, Payam Saadat, who joined the football team in 2014, has really seen Haldane grow as a player and as a person over the past two years.

“Besides a great football player, Mitch is a great person,” Saadat said. “He has been someone who has been receptive to whatever we have asked and has been a guy that always leads by example.”

Haldane is one of those guys that Saadat wishes he could have more of.

“He is a guy that you wish you could coach 100 of them,” Saadat said. “His attitude and his want to be the best that he can possibly be, if you were able to clone him you would be pretty pleased as a coach on the field and off the field respectively.”

Haldane’s passion for the game is what makes Haldane a special player to Saadat.

“He plays with passion and does a lot of things with passion,” Saadat said. “His determination to always be the best captain, player, teammate, and the best friend. He wants to be that and is determined to be that. He has a passion for Central and the football program.”