South Salem's Maddy Haller Helping Duke Advance in Soccer

Katonah - Madison Haller, member of The Harvey School’s Class of 2009, hopes her 4^th ranked Duke University’s Women’s Soccer Team will go farther than last year’s  second round victory in the NCAAs.

Maddy, as she prefers to be called, says her junior year as a left outside back defender on Duke's Women's Soccer Team has been a very good season for the Blue Devils. “Our team has worked so hard all season and it feels so rewarding to be getting great results,” Maddy said. “After losing in the sweet sixteen last year, I was ready to start this season and do better and go farther.”

With a victory over North Carolina State on October 28, Maddy’s team won the ACC‘s regular season title. “Almost more entertaining than winning was being able to watch our head coach, Robbie Church, get dumped with the water cooler,” said Maddy, who has played for the Blue Devils since her freshman year, averaging 20 games played each season.

With the team goal of advancing deep into the NCAAs, Maddy and her fellow defenders have their own goal. “Our back line takes a lot of pride in what we do and how hard we work on the field, so we made it our goal to beat the team shutout record,” Maddy said. With a 1-0 victory over Virginia Tech on October 30^th, Maddy and her 2011 teammates can now claim the record for most shutouts by a women’s soccer team at Duke.

Recalling her days as a Cavalier, Maddy called playing for Harvey “a great experience.”   “It was at Harvey that I was truly able to work on my skills as a leader and communicator, something that has really paid off for me in college,” she said.

But there is a big difference in playing soccer for a college.  “Every practice and every game is so competitive that you really don’t have a chance to let your guard down,” Maddy said.  “”In my freshman year at Duke I learned that to be successful in our league you cannot just have skill, you have to be smart about how you play the game,” she explained.

To high school players looking to play in college, Maddy suggests that they keep working on their skills and their general athleticism. “College players have to be fast and strong to be successful, so my advice to high school players would be to work on fitness the most,” she added.

Told that the Lady Cavaliers won the HVAL Girls’ Soccer championship in 2010, Maddy was thrilled for the school and happy for Coach Tim Stark. She said, “I would like to thank Coach Stark for all he did for me and for supporting me when I was playing for both the Harvey team and my club team.” She said some of her best memories of Harvey came from playing soccer for the Cavaliers. “Playing for the school team was a chance for me to have fun with soccer,” she said. “It was always such an honor to go out and represent the school on the soccer field, something I took a lot of pride in,” she added.

Maddy, who is currently a double major in History and Africa and African-American Studies, is giving serious consideration to a career in law. Reflecting on her time as a student at Harvey, Maddy said, “Learning in such a small environment helped me understand better where my strengths and weaknesses are, “  she said.

“When I came to Duke and was at first overwhelmed by the classes I was required to take and the number of students that surrounded me, knowing my strengths and weaknesses helped me play this into a strength,” she explained. “When I look back at my high school experience,” she added, “I realize that what makes it such a special school is that all of your teachers care about you and your success as an individual.”

Maddy enjoyed much academic success throughout her years at Harvey, winning many awards including the History Award, the Scholar-Athlete Award, and the Presidential Award in her senior year.

Maddy and her family lived in South Salem when she attended Harvey, but this past summer the family  moved to Durham, no doubt to be closer to her. How does Maddy feel about it? “While it is a little too close for me, I am slowly getting used to the change,” she said. “But I know come winter, I’ll be desperately missing the snow.”

The Blue Devils, with a 17-2-1 overall, will take on No. 5-seeded Wake Forest this Friday in hopes of clinching the ACC Championship. If the Blue Devils win the ACC Championship and advance beyond the second round in the NCAAs, it’s a good bet that Maddy will get over missing the snow in South Salem.