ALL-SE MISSOURIAN SOCCER: Finally healthy, Crusaders' junior enjoys a stellar season

The 2013 season was going to be different.

A concussion she sustained early in the 2011 girls soccer campaign never really allowed her to get untracked as a freshman.

The following year, she severely sprained an ankle in her first game and was sidelined for half of her sophomore season.

Two years of soccer -- two seasons sharing the pitch with her teammates, going into battle shoulder to shoulder with her friends and classmates -- cut painfully short by injuries sustained playing the game she loved, a sport she had played since before entering kindergarten.

Two seasons spent on the sidelines watching her teammates revel in victory, agonize in defeat.

The 2013 season was going to be different. Maci Daniel would make sure of that.

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Southeast Missouri's typical sweltering, summer heat greeted the students that walked through the doors of Saxony Lutheran High School in August, 2012, for the first day of a new school year. Maci Daniel began her junior year like she did the others, lacing up her shin guards and soccer shoes and heading out to practice with the Saxony Lutheran boys squad.

Daniel had run cross country as a freshman, and played on the girls basketball team her first two years as a Crusader. But nagging injuries had taken their toll, and a stress fracture in her back wouldn't allow her to play basketball as a junior. The spring soccer season, she thought, is going to be all or nothing.

Her heart raced with excitement as she imagined what the spring season would bring. An influx of talented freshmen seemed to bode well for Saxony girls athletics, and Daniel looked forward to being a part of that future success. She smiled at knowing her younger sister, Tess, one of those freshmen, would join her on the soccer field in the spring.

Oh, yes, 2013 was going to be different.

"The freshman class we got in is super-athletic," Daniel said. "It was really good for us as a team, because we've had girls in the past who just have a love for the game and a knowledge of the game, but we've also had girls that had never played before but came out so we could have a team. And I'm so grateful for them. We had just a love for the game and a desire to work hard, and that ultimate goal of seeing how far we can get as a team."

That handful of talented extras was just what the Crusaders needed to ascend to the next level.

And for Maci Daniel to do the same.

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Four wins to open the season quickly put Saxony Lutheran on everyone's radar. A 5-0 blanking of Poplar Bluff, followed by a 3-0 whitewash of Sikeston, proved these young Crusaders truly possessed something special. Daniel and her upper-classmates quickly jelled with the incoming freshmen, and the results were there on the field for all to see.

But Daniel didn't foresee exactly how much her success would be tied to her teammates' improvement.

"I would not have had as many goal opportunities or goals that I had ... or even getting the awards or recognition that I had this year (without them)," she said. "I think most of it was a confidence issue, and I feel that my team really helped me out. They gave me the ball. They gave me opportunities to do the things I didn't know I could do. Being in those situations, I just grew as a player and grew as a person and grew as a teammate."

As Daniel grew, so did her team. A 5-0 road win over a good St. Vincent team preceded a 10-0 blanking of Massac County in which 10 players -- including Daniel -- scored for the Crusaders. Daniel then scored twice in a 5-2 win over Anna-Jonesboro and added another goal in a physical, 3-0 win over Poplar Bluff that ran the Crusaders' record to 10-0 on the season.

"She's the type of player that leads by example," said Ryan Schweain, her high school coach. "Even in practices, she's very intense. That's nice to see. It's something you want from your older players."

Saxony -- which had assumed the top spot in the Class 1 girls soccer poll for the first time in its history -- was on a roll. And so was Daniel.

"I feel like if I was in a situation like that my previous two years, I don't know if I would have succeeded or accomplished as much as I would have, because I needed the experience," Daniel said. "This year really gave it to me, and I was blessed and thankful enough that they went and my talent really showed throughout the year. I thank my team and my coaches for that, because, without them, I wouldn't have the opportunity to do any of that, so that's really great for me."

A 1-0 loss to rival Notre Dame turned out to be the Crusaders' lone regular-season blemish before a crushing 1-0 double-overtime loss to St. Pius X in the Class 1 district championship game ended their season at 20-2. As excruciating as that loss was, it allowed Daniel the chance to look back on a season that included far more positives than negatives for both Daniel and the Crusaders.

"Our first game against St. Pius, we won in overtime, and my sister had the game-winning goal, and that was so great for me as a sister and so great for me as a teammate, just to experience that," Daniel said. "We'd never beaten St. Pius before, and that was an accomplishment in itself, cause they're a great team. They've got a lot of talented girls, good coach. But the district championship game stands out in my mind because it was a heartbreaker for me. I really had a hard time with losing to that team. I didn't think it was going to be an easy game, I knew it was going to be a hard game, and I felt like our team had the right mentality going into it. We were ready.

"(Losing) was unfortunate for us, but I think that's gonna make us work harder this year so we can be ready for them next year. But that game just kind of sticks out to me because it was a heartbreaker, but you can learn a lot from it. I'm sure we're gonna get a lot out of that feeling and make sure we don't feel that again."

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It will be tough for Daniel and the Crusaders to top their 2013 season. Daniel led the region in scoring with 22 goals and 10 assists, garnering second-team All-State honors along the way. It was enough to earn her the Southeast Missourian Player of the Year honors.

But she had already attained one of her goals this past season.

"First year I actually made it through a whole season without missing any games!" she laughed. "That was an accomplishment in itself for me. I'm very thankful for that!"

Now she wants to take what she learned and apply it next spring.

"As a player, I think I understood the game more," she said. "I've always had a passion for soccer, but this year I knew our team had the ability to go far and we were going to be able to accomplish so much more. The passion and the desire to win and get better was so much higher for me."

First things first. Daniel needs to stay injury-free, not just for her sake or for the sake of the team, but also for her family's sanity.

"She definitely does not like to sit," said Daniel's mother, Kim. "It drives her crazy. She's a doer. She loves to sit on the sidelines to support her team, and I believe that really helped her learn more of the game.

"But I remember her saying to me, 'This is excruciating!' It was really difficult. I never looked forward to her injuries."

But having to sit and watch so many games from the sidelines helped Daniel progress once she was able to play a full season.

"My coach, especially, never, ever, ever gave up on me," she said. "He believed in me throughout they years when I had injuries and whenever I was upset with myself."

And now it's up to Daniel to help lead her young teammates even further. One of her goals now is to assume that mantle of leadership.

"Just to be a leader. To help everybody realize together we are a team, and if work hard together and we have that drive, and we have the desire to win, we will," she said. "And I feel like, the love of the game, and the desire to work hard ... if our team really hits home on that, and we practice really hard, and we have the desire to get better, we're gonna go far."

Daniel would rather deflect any talk about her individual honors in favor of team accomplishments. She counts being named Southeast Missourian player of the year as a team honor.

"I never saw this in the future for myself," she said. "I knew that coming into this year we were going to have a lot more accomplishments. But I did not ever think that it would be this far. And I feel like it's going to be even greater for next year."