Soccer, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Russell Westbrook
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning Rock Cup
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: With the CRNWS family, every day is full of funny events. One event that tops all others was when one of my teammates went to throw the ball in and threw it in like a chest pass.
Music on iPod: John Mayer, Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, Flatbush Zombies, Frank Ocean, Flume, Drake Bryson Tiller
Future plans: I plan on going to either Penn State or the University of Mary land for college.
Words to live by: “Stay far from timid, only make moves when your heart’s in it, and live the phrase ‘sky’s the limit.’” –Notorious B.I.G.
One goal before turning 30: Study abroad in Australia
One thing people don’t know about me: I love to draw and do certamics.
By GORDON GLANTZ
Like a family.
That’s the way Emily Mackin describes the Council Rock North soccer team.
“I’ve been on a lot of teams, for soccer and basketball, they are not this close,” said the Univest Featured Female Athlete of the Week. “It’s hard to explain. It’s something great to be a part of, something like this.
“(Coach Wendell Beres) says, ‘What we have here is not normal,’ and he’s right.”
The CR North soccer family welcomed some new members recently with a team sleepover that featured a 
low-impact “freshman initiation” session.
The freshmen were asked various questions, such as their “favorite senior.” Their answers included the selection of Mackin – the undeniable queen bee of the four team captains – as the senior they fear the most.
“Every single one of them picked me,” said Mackin. “I asked them why, and they said because I was intimidating. Sometimes in practice, when we scrimmage the junior varsity, they’ll just give me the ball sometimes.”
That intimidation stems mostly from the fierce determination that the center-midfielder brings, especially after missing last season with a torn ACL in her knee.
“Right down the middle is where you want your best players, and that’s where she is,” said Beres. “Last year, we lost in the state quarterfinals. We lost four seniors, but we picked up Emily and she is our neutralizer.
“She’s a special kid. Everybody looks up to her. She’s one of the four captains, but the other three look up to her. She cares about her friends, but she wants to win. With her, we win one or two more games last year, which puts us in the state semis or finals. She means that much. She’s that important. She’s our engine.”
In time, the freshman class will learn that Mackin is not only a teammate you want watching your back but who has a heart of gold and would give you the spikes off her feet if your needed them.
She is just a young woman on a mission, for soccer and basketball, in 2016-17.
“Sitting and watching, it was so hard,” she said. “It was difficult, not being out there and being able to help.”
She’s Everywhere
Mackin’s playing style carries over into her role in the overall school community. She takes honors and AP classes, sports a 3.8 grade point average and is involved in activities such as SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving) and SHARE, which helps the homeless.
“She’s everywhere,” said Beres. “I just saw her in the hallway the other day. It seems like every person in the school knows her. I don’t know all the activities she is involved in, but I know she puts herself out there. And she’ll do anything for you.
“And she also gets very good grades. I never have to worry about issues with teachers coming to me about her. She’s just the All-American kid.”
The All-American kid?
“That's quite the compliment,” said Mackin. “I hope to continue to live up to that compliment, as well as live up to his expectations on the field.”
Mackin’s older brother, Eddie, played football at CR North and she has cousins at rivals CR South on Pennsbury with a common thread.
“We all play sports,” said Mackin, a basketball shooting guard/small forward who admits her long-term career aspirations “change every week,” with interests ranging from psychiatry to advertising to sales/marketing.
In between, she does the best she can to excel on and off the field.
“I just take it one day at a time,” she says of her time management skills and her seemingly impossible ability to “be everywhere” at once.
“I have two AP classes this year, so it’s going to be tough,” she added. “I’m just going to use Sundays to catch up on everything.”
Reclaiming the ‘Outlet’
Juggling schoolwork, activities and making time for a social life were never enough for the daughter of Dawn and Ed Mackin.
For her, the moniker of the two-sport athlete was necessary. She saw it as her “outlet.”
And one she freely admits she took for granted – until a fateful mid-April night in 2015 (her sophomore year).
In an AAU basketball game, she landed awkwardly on her knee and knew immediately something was wrong.
“It was during a basketball tournament,” she recalled, every bitter detail still vivid. “My left leg didn’t land properly. It hurt, and I cried, but I had no idea that I completely tore it. The thing is, when it is a complete tear, it isn’t as painful.
“I sat the rest of the game out, but I didn’t think it was that serious. Then, I got up to walk (and couldn’t). They told me I tore it completely.”
The road back included the mandatory failed test last winter that could have conceivably gotten her back into action for some part of the basketball season.
“The first time, I didn’t think I was going to pass (the test),” she said of the setback. “All I could do was try to work harder.”
With a junior season lost for both her sports, Mackin’s chances to play at the next level – unless she opted for a school at the Division II or III-levels that didn’t meet her academic needs – were also gone.
Barring intramural sports in college (Penn State, Maryland, James Madison and a few schools in Florida top her list), this year is her last hurrah.
And she is looking to make it count on two squads with a real chance to do damage on the league, district and state levels.
“It’s very important,” she said of her senior season. “It’s sad in a way, because I am not going to be playing in college, but both teams – soccer and basketball -- are going to go pretty far.”
And she moves forward emboldened by what she has endured to get back into action with her teammates.
“I had my outlet ripped out from under me,” she wrote in her college essay. “I didn’t think it would happen to me, until it did.”
The essay, shared with suburbanonesports.com, adds: “The incomparable thrill I received while playing is something that words can’t describe. When the doctor told me the extent of my injury, devastation was an understatement. My future, at that moment, seemed to crash and burn right before my eyes. My goals to play in college were simply not an option. The time and severity of my injury set back by milestones, leaving me in defeat.”
She went on to describe the recovery process – aided by trainer Andrew Haberman – as “beyond frustrating” but, after failing the strength portion of the first test, she was “defiant” and passed it around 10 months after the injury felled her.
It wasn’t in time to compete in either sport as a junior, but she is now at full-speed and stronger physically than before.
“I worked until I felt confident in passing the test,” she wrote. “When going back to take the test, failure was not an option for me. I was determined to pass and I did just that. The feeling I received when being told that I could play again was something worth every minute.”
All In The Family
Mackin tried to put on a happy face for the outside world, but her essay also reveals the emotional anguish that topped the physical.
“It was a different kind of pain,” she wrote. “Not being able to play for months on end was the end of the world in my eyes.”
Some student-athletes would distance themselves in such scenarios, and it would be understandable. In Mackin’s case, that’s just not who she is or how she is made.
Her soccer team was her family, and she wanted to be part of it. She approached Beres, who was more than happy to oblige, but felt being a “manager” was not appropriate.
He told her to come back when preseason practice commenced and they would discuss a role. He expected to see her at some point, but not first thing on the first day.
The agreed-upon role was as a junior member of the coaching staff.
“She is just a great kid,” said Beres. “She played substantial minutes as a sophomore and then missed her whole junior season. She still showed up every day. And she didn’t just show up and sit there. That’s what makes her a special kid, why everybody looks up to her the way they do.
“She never complained. I was devastated for her, but she still wanted to be a part of it. We made her more part of the coaching staff than a manager, and she just fit in perfectly.”
And the age-old adage about whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, has made her stronger – mentally and physically.
“Definitely, 100 percent,” she said. “This a big reason why I am so confident now.
“I never realized how lucky I was to be able to play and then I had it taken away from me. I had to learn to cope with it.”
While Mackin never complained and feels she learned from watching and providing guidance, it did not replace being on the field.
“I was a manager for basketball, too,” she said. “I did everything I could every day.”
