Player Profile: Macy Schultz
Schultz taking the ball to the goal in Fossil Ridge league game. Photo Credit: Macy Schultz
December 15, 2017
Some people say that you discover who you really are when you overcome an outstandingly difficult task or obstacle, but what do they say when someone suffers a devastating, and possible career ending injury, not once, but twice?
Macy Schultz, a junior at Fossil Ridge, has been playing soccer since she was four years old. She first played 3v3 occasionally, while also participating and competing in gymnastics until the age of nine. It wasn’t until her U11 year with Real Colorado, that she had fallen in love with the game of soccer, and still can’t get enough of it, despite the reality she has to face.
For the previous few years, there hasn’t been as much playing soccer for Schultz, as there has been rehabbing injuries. For most of her career, she played for the club Storm, and just recently made the switch to Real, to play DA (Development Academy). Due to the change by US soccer, restricting any player of playing outside of their natural birth year, Schultz is the youngest on her team by almost a year, but that doesn’t show on the field.
With trips to Nationals, two National Camp appearances, and winning Player of the Year in (2013), Schultz can not only keep up, but compete strongly with girls who share the same birth year as her, who just so happen to be months older. However, in an unfortunate moment a year and a half ago, she tore her ACL just weeks before she made her transition to Real.
After having time to reflect on the year of rehab, Schultz felt as though the process of recovery was easy for her. In an interview she stated, “I think that it was that way for me because I tried to be really positive about it even though it is pretty much every soccer players worst fear, to tear their ACL.” Schultz injury came from contact, she collided with a keeper on a 1v1 run. “I had opposite side patella tendon surgery which means that they take a part of your patella tendon out of your healthy leg to act as your ACL in your injured leg.” Unfortunately, she missed playing high school soccer with her sister, McKenna, who was a senior at the time.
She took seven months off, lifting everyday after school to stay as in-shape as she could, and began running again after four months. It wasn’t until a little after six months that she gradually progressed back into playing. And as happy as she was to be back out on the pitch, playing with her best friends on one of the top teams in Colorado, she was aware of what was going to happen in only a few short months.
Schultz showed up to training one day, and warmed up with the team, and was playing possession, when she went to receive a pass with a defender on her back, and as she tried to turn with the ball, her cleat got stuck in the turf, and the same ACL snapped.
“In that moment, I sadly knew exactly what happened. The only difference was that I heard it pop, whereas the first time it did not. It was devastating. I never thought that I would have to go through the process again especially with the same leg. This time around it has definitely been harder for me emotionally because I know what this road looks like that I have ahead of me, whereas last time I didn’t know what I was going to have to do to get back to the sport I love.” She also said that she is really dreading the recovery this time around, just because like mentioned above, she knows how much hard work, and mental toughness it’s going to take to be back out on the field.
Even though she can’t play this year, she still goes to her teams trainings/practices, and travels with them, which creates enough challenges itself despite the emotional hardship of having to sit the bench. Balancing school, soccer, and her social life is sometimes hard for the young athlete, “School is very hard with the amount of traveling I do, and how much in class time I miss out on. But my teachers have been very helpful and supportive even though I’m not always in class. It’s a lot of time in the car and every night is three hours total driving to and from practices. I do my homework in the car and I don’t see my family much during the week.” With that said, she is very thankful she gets to play with a Denver team because the exposure that she has gotten in front of college coaches and the US National Team as been amazing.
On top of having supportive teachers, her family is even more supportive of her and her goals of playing at the highest level she can. Her mother, step father, sister, and two brothers mean the world to her. “My mother is the most important person in my life. She is so supportive and helpful and does everything she can to help me academically, as well as pays for all of my soccer expenses. I literally could not do my life without her.”
She stated that her mother has always told her, “Give all the glory to God.” That piece of advice has stuck with her over the course of everything she as been through with soccer, and every time she steps onto the field she says that to herself because “it is so much more than the mistake you make in the game. There is so much time, effort, and commitment that goes into it, not just from myself, but from my mom, family, and coaches.”
After she graduates from Fossil Ridge, she plans to attend Texas Tech to play soccer and study Nursing. Schultz verbally committed there during her freshman year in high school, and can’t wait to move there next year to begin the next chapter of her life.
