Soccer
Favorite athlete: Carli Lloyd
Favorite team: USWNT
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the state championship senior year
Music on playlist: Rap music and country music
Future plans: go to Youngstown State University to play D1 soccer and study engineering
Words to live by: “I failed over and over and over again in my career and that is why I succeed” Michael Jordan
One goal before turning 30: travel to Europe
One thing people don’t know about me: I have a peanut allergy.
By Mary Jane Souder
It was a moment every soccer player in Pennridge’s highly competitive girls’ program had dreamed about. The Rams - thanks to their heartstopping 1-0 double overtime win over North Allegheny – had just clinched the coveted PIAA 4A state title.
It was the program’s first after trips to the state title game in 2011 and 2018, and it was a moment to celebrate. Coach Audrey Anderson, who has led one of the state’s premiere programs since taking over the helm in 2012, surveyed the jubilant scene.
“I remember seeing tears in Maddie’s eyes after the state championship game,” Anderson said of senior captain Maddie Angelo. “One, because we won and two, because she wished she could be on the field.”
And that effectively summed up Angelo’s emotions at that historic moment in Pennridge girls’ soccer history.
“That was the most bittersweet moment I had all season,” said Angelo, who was sidelined her entire senior season with a torn ACL. “Obviously, I was excited. We had been working for that as a program since Aud has been the coach at Pennridge.
“We have always been a top contender so to finally win that for the first time was the best feeling ever, but then again, I kind of felt I didn’t really do anything to contribute to that. Looking back on it, that’s not the case, but I just felt like ‘of course, the year that I couldn’t play we win it.’ That sounds kind of selfish, but those were my feelings after the state championship. That was bittersweet.”
Angelo’s feelings were certainly understandable. After all, she was a starter and mainstay in the defensive backfield since setting foot on the field as a freshman, but suggesting her feelings were selfish could not have been further from the truth. For the entire season, Angelo had put her team above herself, and listening to Anderson tell it, she was invaluable, becoming something of an assistant coach and advisor to the Rams’ coach on the sidelines.
“I joke around with her that she was like my assistant coach,” Anderson said. “She would walk around with me and tell me what her teammates were feeling, what they were dealing with that day.
“She was always my eyes and ears of what the rest of the group was feeling – Do we need a break? What’s our morale look like? She was that person, she was the glue. You would hear her on the sidelines in tough games where she was trying to get the bench moving – ‘Hey, let’s carry the team to the end.’
“I feel bad that she wasn’t on the field, but she was a huge help to me, just keeping me focused, challenging me to do better as a coach in the aspect of – ‘We can do this, don’t compare us to other teams, we’re a new team.’ She said a lot of really good things that, as a coach, opened my eyes up – ‘Okay, maybe I can’t compare this group to last year’s group, that’s not fair.’
“She was great in the role of captain and saying things maybe other people were afraid to say. This year, of all years, they just really seemed to like each other, and I think a lot of that had to do with Maddie. She kept it light, goofy sometimes, focused other times. She helped watch game film on other teams. She was the biggest cheerleader for the entire team.”
Angelo actually had clearance to play the date of the state title game, but Anderson put her senior captain’s safety first and elected to not take the risk. It was a difficult decision for both sides.
In a moment of reflection, Angelo admits that maintaining a positive front was not always easy.
“It was really hard, especially having that captain role and being the one everyone else looked up to,” she said. “I couldn’t show what I was really going through, what I was really struggling with. Whenever I was there, whenever I was around the team, I had to be the one encouraging other people – encouraging them to keep going, being the one they looked up to, being the positive attitude when sometimes things didn’t go our way and stuff like that.
“The high school season was during the bulk of my recovery, so whatever I was struggling with whenever I went to soccer, I couldn’t let it show because I didn’t want to take away from all the success we were going through, I didn’t want to bring anyone’s attitude down or anything because of things I was struggling with. That was the most difficult part.”
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Soccer wasn’t Angelo’s only sport growing up, but it definitely was number one.
“I played a bunch of different sports – soccer, basketball, and I ran track because both my parents ran track in college, but once I was in middle school, I pretty much dropped everything else because I knew that’s what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be the best at,” Angelo said. “I’ve been playing at Deep Run since I was four or five years old.”
What made soccer her top choice?
“I feel like there’s an independent aspect of it, but also you’re playing for a team,” Angelo said. “I just really liked the team culture of it, being surrounded by a bunch of girls.
“The people that I met playing club soccer still go to my school, they’re still my best friends, so that was a big part of it.”
Angelo played on Deep Run’s travel team until she was in seventh grade, then played with Ukrainian Nationals for one year and has been with FC Delco ever since. Although she began her soccer career playing outside forward, she found a home in the defensive backfield almost by happenstance.
“I played holding midfielder, and one game, our center back got hurt, so I had to move back there, and it kind of just stuck,” said Angelo. “Normally defenders don’t get all the glory. You don’t score a lot of goals, you don’t see a lot of headlines with your name in it, but you can’t win games without defense.
“Aud is also very defensive-minded, so she kind of drives that home. You can’t win games if you don’t put the ball in the back of the net, but you also can’t win games if you don’t have a solid back line. I think that’s one of the most important things to me – stopping the other team and just being a force in the back.”
Angelo was a sophomore when the Rams fell to Souderton 1-0 in overtime in the state title game. The team’s singular goal was to return and win the ultimate prize, and although that’s exactly what happened, Angelo’s dream of being on the field was shattered when – while playing in an ECNL Showcase in Florida – she suffered an injury.
“I was actually playing a holding midfield position, and I went to switch the ball from my right foot to my left foot and play behind the back line,” Angelo said. “The girl just came in and took out my leg, so my injury was actually contact.
“I didn’t hear a pop and the trainers do a test, and they said, ‘Your ACL seems as though it’s intact. You’re going to be fine.’ That night my leg swelled up like a big balloon, and they were still like, ‘It’s probably just a bone bruise. You’ll be fine. Just get it checked when you get home to make sure.’”
Those reassurances rang hollow when Angelo was told she had not only torn her ACL but also her lateral meniscus.
“That made it a little bit worse because I told myself it wasn’t my ACL, 100 percent it wasn’t, just to find out it actually was,” she said. “I don’t even know how to describe it. I felt defeated because it was my junior year.
“I had just committed to college, and that’s the year when everyone starts peaking. I was going to be a captain, I was looking forward to club season, and I just felt like all the hard work I put in was gone. That was hard to overcome.”
There was also the not-so-little matter that the Rams had lost in the state semifinals last year and were gearing up for another run with the addition of a talented freshman class.
“My sister, Tori, is a freshman, so I knew all the girls that were coming in freshman year – I’ve known them since forever,” Angelo said. “So I was like, ‘This is our year, we’re going to go back, we have a solid team. This is the year we’re going to do it.’ I was excited to lead our team all the way and leave my mark on the program, and obviously, that wasn’t the case.”
The injury also cost Angelo the opportunity to play with her younger sister, Tori, who – according to Anderson – played for her sister.
“This was my first, and only, year that I was going to get the chance to play with my sister,” Angelo said. “Watching her play was the most amazing experience - she actually wore the same jersey number as I did my freshman year, but it made me super, super jealous of her.
“I was her biggest fan, but I wished nothing more than to be in her shoes. I’m glad one of us got to be on the field this season though. It was almost as if I got to live the experience through her, which was nice.”
Angelo – who committed to play Division 1 soccer at Youngstown State in September of her junior year – is the complete package on the soccer field.
“She’s so fast, and as an outside back, she got forward and was dangerous,” Anderson said. “To be a freshman and playing at Pennridge, you have to have a certain strength about you, and she had it. She wasn’t as tall as she is now when she was a freshman, but she went out and played like she was an upperclassman.
“I think that says a lot about her character – ‘Hey, this is what’s been put in front of me, and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability,’ and she did, which shows her inner strength and her ability to look at something and not make it bigger than it is.”
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During last spring’s COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, Angelo focused on her recovery.
“Honestly, for a lot of athletes that was a giant nightmare, but in my situation, I think COVID was a blessing in disguise for me because I only missed two club games and then no one was playing,” she said. “No one was playing the entire summer, so I didn’t miss my junior club season because COVID took it away from everyone.
“So that made the beginning of my recovery a lot easier. I could focus simply on what I had to do to get better and didn’t have to worry about club or missing any games.”
Three weeks ago, Angelo played her first 90-minute game since being injured.
“I know there’s still a lot I need to do to get back to where I was before,” she said. “My knee is completely healed. It doesn’t bother me ever, but anyone who has had an ACL injury will always tell you that it’s the mental piece that’s the last to come back.
“Sometimes I can feel myself hesitating or not being as aggressive as I was before, and that’s the hardest part to overcome because I know that I’m healed, I know that I’m perfectly healthy, but it’s hard to overcome the last mental part of it, so I’m still working on that, but other than that, my knee feels great. It hasn’t bothered me.”
Angelo acknowledged she takes the field with a new perspective.
“It makes me 10 times more grateful for the opportunity to play every time I step on the field,” she said. “Before I got hurt – if you don’t get the playing time you want or if something doesn’t go your way, you always complain about it, but now I’m just lucky and feel grateful to have the opportunity to be on the field whenever I get a chance because back in January 2020 it got taken away from me so fast.
“Knock on wood, but you never know what’s down the road. I’m just grateful, and I make the best of every opportunity I get and don’t leave anything behind.”
Angelo will enter Youngstown State with an undecided STEM major. She has her sights set on becoming an engineer but has not declared a specialty.
An excellent student, Angelo is a member of the National Honor Society and Key Club. She is a referee for youth soccer at Deep Run, and she also works at Anderson’s summer soccer camp.
Anderson acknowledged she will miss Angelo’s presence on the field and on the sidelines.
“To be that kid who had such a huge role all her previous three years and to watch her teammates win a state championship – a lot of it had to do with how she spoke to her teammates before games,” the Rams’ coach said. “She kept them focused - ‘You don’t know when you’ll be done playing. I did not think my senior year would look like this. Don’t take things for granted, stay focused.’
“I know it was tough for her as an athlete who had such a huge role all three years and then her fourth year she had to take a different look on the team. She showed up at every single practice, every single game. She was always there. She was a captain for all the players. If you were to ask the girls on the team, she was one that kept it light. You never know when you have a player who had so much pull on the field and now they’re hurt – what are you going to get, but she was great. She’s just a great kid.”
