Soccer Star Realizes Her True Potential

On National Signing Day, Masuk High senior Marissa Maiolo sat down at a table in her house and officially signed her intent to play soccer for Merrimack College on a partial scholarship. Though the setting was close to home, the signing was something that seemed unreachable to Maiolo years ago.

The athletic scholarship caps off an impressive high school soccer career for Maiolo. The two-time All-Southwest Conference (SWC) honorable mention captained the Panthers to an 8-3-4 record this fall, earning All-State and All-SWC honors and an invitation to the state's Senior Bowl soccer game.

However, Maiolo's most impressive achievement on the soccer pitch may be her journey to believe in herself. In the sixth grade, she joined her first premier soccer club, Everton America, wanting to see if she could compete with high-level soccer talent in the state.

“When I started premier, I had no confidence in myself whatsoever,” Maiolo said. “I didn't think I was very good. I thought the other girls at tryouts were 10 times better than me.”

Everton Coach Ian Banner thought differently and pushed Maiolo to the point where she would have “breakdowns” at practice. Maiolo was questioning if she could handle the pressure when Banner pulled her aside one practice and asked her to be captain of the team.

“He saw a lot of things in me that I never saw before,” she said. “He helped me realize my true potential.”

So started an impressive soccer career that includes moving on to a top-tier premier team, Olympic Development teams and three years on varsity with the Panthers. With each step, Maiolo's love for soccer and its challenges grew.

“Soccer challenges me in every game I play because the games aren't predictable, “ she said. “You never know what someone is going to do, when there will be a one-on-one or what sort of obstacles you are going to have to get through to win the game. It tests me and it makes me curious about playing more and learning more.”

From reserve to scoring star

New challenges came early at Masuk.

After a solid season on the junior varsity squad her freshman year, Masuk High Coach Eleanor Brainard called Maiolo up to varsity for the postseason. Believing she would sit on the bench for the tournament games, Maiolo was shocked when Brainard called her to go in the game for 20 minutes.

“My heart was beating when she put me in. It was really my highlight of my high school career,” Maiolo said.

For Brainard, it was an obvious choice to call up Maiolo based on the comments by assistant coaches.

“From the beginning her athleticism and soccer skills were outstanding,” Brainard said. “She was head and shoulders above everyone else in that time frame.”

That confidence enabled Brainard to move Maiolo from a center defense position to midfield her sophomore year to help bolster the offense. Though she played defense on her premier teams, Maiolo proved extremely versatile and talented on the attack. She exploded on the scene her sophomore year, scoring 31 points (12 goals, nine assists) to be the seventh-leading scorer in the state. She followed that up with a solid junior year, leading the team in scoring with 13 goals.

Tough test of leadership

Maiolo's role on the Panthers took on a newer and important meaning during her senior year.

As a tri-captain, she faced the task of leading a relatively inexperienced team. That role became even larger when co-captain Kathleen Snajder suffered a season-ending injury in the first game of the season.

Despite everything going against the team, Maiolo and the Panthers earned the fourth spot in the SWC and secured the No. 14 spot in the Class L state tournament, making it to the quarterfinals.

Just as she had to find the confidence years ago, Maiolo made it her responsibility to encourage her less-experienced teammates.

“We had a ton of new girls this season, so I realized that I had to make everyone feel welcome and accepted,” she said. “I was more of the speaking captain on the team and tended to take a leadership role speaking-wise at halftime or before games trying to get the girls pumped up. That is definitely a big thing with soccer, if your whole team is not feeling into it, then you won't play as well.”

Brainard appreciated Maiolo's ability to motivate her fellow players along with her willingness to do what is best for the team.

“She led by example on the field and off the field, whether it was in the halls getting the kids pumped up and psyched up or whether it involved what everyone wore to school that day,” she said. “There aren't many that work as hard as she does, day in and day out, and she also has the ability in a tense moment to have a sense of humor and to see the funny side or the good side of a situation.”

While Masuk wasn't able to continue its four-year streak of SWC championships last season, both Maiolo and Brainard said they see the All-State award as recognition of Maiolo's and the team's hard work last season.

“Our team had so much going against us and we had many teams talking about how we weren't going to be very good this year, but we did better than anyone thought we would, so I was proud of the team as a whole,” Maiolo said “Personally, it was hard because I felt at points last season that I had all this pressure on me, so getting All-state and All-SWC was definitely a relief and it showed how hard I worked this year.”

Said Brainard: “Something that made the All-State achievement even more special was that she wasn't our highest goal scorer, but she did everything else to contribute to the overall success of the team. A lot of times when they look at All-State, they look for the kid that scored 25 goals and had 18 assists. Here's a kid that didn't have that, but was still able to get that recognition, so it says a lot.”

Ready to be a Warrior

Maiolo is excited to bring her determined approach to the Merrimack Warriors. She believes coach Gabe Mejail will put her on defense, but she is willing to play anywhere on the field “except in the goal.”

Maiolo said she chose Merrimack because of the great response she received from Mejail when she visited the school and because the college fits her goals of a career in marketing and sports management. With a high school grade point average of 3.8 and many honors classes under her belt, Maiolo said academics was an important part of her college decision.

“The school fit athletically, academically and financially for me,” she said.

No matter where she goes in life, coach Brainard believes Maiolo will thrive because she has the character and confidence to accomplish anything.

“Here was the kid that didn't have these huge numbers, but was so outstanding on the field that she earned that All-State. She earned everything that she got out there,” Brainard said. “As a coach, I couldn't be more happy for a player achieving what she achieved. She went out and she earned it. It wasn't a gimme, it was just hard work in the trenches, getting the job done.”