Soccer, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Wilt Chamberlain
Favorite team: The Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning a state championship in soccer and beating CB East for the first time in basketball.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: In an AAU basketball tournament, I dove to save a ball that was going out of bounds, and I fell into a bunch of bags. The ball went right to the other team when I threw it, and then I got up to run back on defense, and a bag was stuck on my leg, and I ended up tripping. I tried to get up and tripped again and then finally, after 15 seconds went by, I untangled the bags and got up.
Music on iPod: Foster the People, Passion Pit, Grouplove, Ellie Goulding, Imagine Dragons
Future plans: Attend and play basketball at Colgate University
Words to live by: “There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.”
One goal before turning 30: Graduate college and get a job that I love.
One thing people don’t know about me: I started skiing when I was three years old, and then when I turned six, I started snowboarding and I still enjoy snowboarding today!
By Mary Jane Souder
Mackenzie Carroll grew up playing soccer, learning under the tutelage of older brothers Andrew and Billy Carroll
“When I was really young, I really liked soccer,” the Central Bucks West senior said. “I was actually the goalie because my brother (Billy) was a goalie, and I wanted to be like him.
“He would train me. He would make me run laps around the yard.”
These days, Carroll is first and foremost a basketball player. A standout guard, she has committed to take her talents to Colgate University and will be a key player on a Bucks squad that is predicted to be one of the district’s best.
Still, Carroll’s backyard soccer training apparently has served her well. Mention her name to West soccer coach Jorge Rodriguez, and it would easy to assume that soccer is her sport of choice.
“I could talk about Mackenzie for three hours,” the Bucks’ coach said. “She’s an amazing story.”
Amazing for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that she wasn’t sure she would even play soccer this fall but ended up playing a key role in West’s magical run to a state title.
“Funny thing – this summer me and my parents were talking,” Carroll said. “Now that I committed to play basketball we weren’t sure if it was a great idea to play soccer, but I wanted to do it. It’s a good thing I did.”
Carroll was a stalwart defender for a West squad that captured the imagination of a school community with its postseason run from the 13th-seeded team in districts to the last team standing in the PIAA Class AAA State Tournament.
“I honestly don’t know where we would be if she hadn’t come back this year,” Rodriguez said. “I think without Mackenzie we have more losses and we don’t get to where we got to.”
Making Carroll’s contributions even more remarkable was the fact that she changed positions, moving from a center mid to center back.
“Going from a center mid to a center back is a completely different world,” Rodriguez said. “One of the reasons we were able to do that with her is her IQ. She has a tremendously high IQ for someone who’s not in the sport like some of our other players.
“Mackenzie’s very, very focused. She’s mentally strong and able to make those changes. Not only that, she’s able to do it at the highest level.
“Not only does she play a different position, but at the same time makes sure she’s mentoring this very special, talented freshman (Allie Walsh) next to her. One of the reasons she was able to do that is a tribute to her basketball skills.”
Carroll was a natural in the defensive backfield and admits she enjoyed her new role.
“I enjoyed it a lot because I got to tackle people, and you get a lot of head balls,” she said.
The senior defensive back, according to Rodriguez, managed to turn a perceived weakness into a strength.
“One of the things she always said is she’s not the best at playing with her left foot,” the Bucks’ coach said. “The entire playoffs I must have seen her play with her left foot more than her right foot, and by the time we played in the state finals, she was playing better with her left foot than her right.
“The fact that she took it upon herself to put herself in a situation that her team was now in a better position to succeed – I thought that was very big of her, and to take on that challenge herself was pretty classy, pretty mature.”
According to Rodriguez, Carroll was a more confident player when the postseason rolled around, and her response when asked what she will remember most about the season speaks to the confidence.
“It was honestly just playing the games – I just had this feeling we were not going to lose, and no matter how gloomy it looked, even in the final game with five minutes left (losing 1-0), it was like a miracle,” Carroll said. “It really was. Just always getting that goal right when we needed it.
“It was amazing, so surreal that we won.”
Carroll is hoping her basketball team will have a title run of its own this winter after coming up short of its goals last year.
“We were a little disappointed last year,” she said. “I think coming into it we were almost – I don’t want to say cocky, but that’s kind of the word I’m picking.
“We were looking at the team we had – we had some pretty good players, and I think we were a little too high on our horses, thinking we were going to breeze through. It was not that way.
“This year, even though we all have high hopes, it’s definitely not going to be an easy road. There are tons of good teams out there, so we’re really going to work hard because I know – especially the seniors this year – we really want this.”
A four-year varsity player, Carroll served notice that she would be a force when – early in her sophomore year – she stepped into the role of point guard when teammate Nicole Munger was sidelined for the first five or six games.
“She averaged close to 20 points a game, and she was awesome in that role as point guard,” West coach Terry Rakowsky said. “She’s more of a two guard, more of a shooting, slashing, rebounding type of kid.
“She’s bright, extremely hard working. She works on the little things. Defensively, you can tell she’s worked very hard on that aspect of her game along with her offensive skills. She’s always been a pretty physical, slashing type of kid. She knows when to pull up, knows when to go to the basket.”
Carroll, one of four senior captains, also has played a positive role in the development of the team’s younger players.
“She’s great with the younger kids,” Rakowsky said. “She takes on our younger freshmen and sophomores as little sisters, and she’s a great mentor to these kids.
“We’ve talked to her about using her leadership with our basketball team. The soccer team made it to the state finals, which is where we want to go. She’s been much more vocal with regard to expressing what it really takes to get to that stage and win.”
An outstanding student, Carroll is a member of the National Honor Society. At Colgate next year, she plans to major in economics with an interest in science as well, pointing toward a career as a physical therapist.
“I didn’t want to just choose a school because of basketball,” she said. “My parents always tell me that academics come first, and that’s how I feel too.”
Carroll is also active with her church youth group, and the summers after her freshman and sophomore years, she went on mission trips with her church, helping the underprivileged in two New York communities.
For now, Carroll is focusing on contributing to her basketball team in much the same way she did for her soccer team.
“Mackenzie was one of the few people – besides (goalie) Grace Bendon – that never came off the field,” Rodriguez said. “Give me a player like Mackenzie – she may not be the most outspoken and she may not be the most boisterous, but when she comes out to play, that’s when she speaks the loudest.
“We’re definitely going to miss her big time. We’re losing quite a lot of players, but she’s someone that will be tough to replace. Coaches talk about how you can tell when a player is mentally tough or mentally confident in their ability, and I think the best proof is consistency.
“There are other players on the team that have played potentially better games, but I would have a hard time finding a player that was able to do it throughout the entire year the way she did.”
