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Roth: Inspirational Journeys
8/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
By John Roth, Blue Devil Weekly
Wilma Rudolph's story of overcoming polio to become an Olympic track champion has inspired countless people over the years, so much so that Duke soccer player Christie McDonald felt humbled this summer to win an award bearing the three-time gold medalist's name.
But McDonald claimed the Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Award precisely because she, too, had faced long odds in overcoming physical adversity, and now her story also can serve as an inspiration to others. The defender from Newnan, Ga., underwent risky brain surgery to remove a tumor at the end of her freshman year and fought her way back to start the opening game of her sophomore season only 106 days after the operation.
The surgery caused permanent hearing loss in her left ear and required that she learn to walk again before she could entertain thoughts of resuming her soccer career. But resume that career she did, earning a starting nod in 18 of the Blue Devils' 21 games last year. Now she enters the 2007 season primed to serve as one of the captains for a young but talented squad and says her previous medical condition is no longer a factor in her fitness or playing.
“One of the most rewarding things for me through all this is that because of the press I've gotten, people heard about my story and I actually was emailing with several people who were about to have the same surgery I did, or were deciding whether to have the surgery,” McDonald said. “I was able to talk to them and felt like I was able to help them out, which for me was a very rewarding experience.”
McDonald's perseverance and commitment to hurdle her physical obstacles provided plenty of inspiration closer to home as well ? within her own team.
“She was a huge inspiration for all of our players, our staff, everybody associated with our program,” said head coach Robbie Church. “We would have days where we'd go out there and kids would be tired and sore, stuck in the routine too much, and there would be Christie, the first one out there and the last one leaving the field. She'd be doing extra stuff after training, working on technical skills, and everybody would see that.
“She was not a vocal influence, it was more of seeing her hard work and dedication every day after what she had been through. At that time, less than six months after (brain surgery), it really inspired us. It was an up-and-down season for us, and I think she was one of the reasons we stayed together and played our best soccer toward the end of the year and got in the NCAA Tournament.”
“I think the most inspiring thing she did was that she did not make a big deal about it,” added fellow junior defender Kelly McCann, McDonald's close friend and roommate this year. “She came out here, worked as hard as she could and never complained. I think that was an example for everybody because the rest of us didn't go through anything like she went through and we still complained. She definitely led by example for all of us.”
McCann and McDonald first got to know each other en route to their official recruiting visit to Duke, when they were stuck together in the Atlanta airport for 10 hours during a hurricane. This summer they enjoyed another bonding-through-travel experience when they spent a month backpacking together across Europe.
They flew into Frankfurt, Germany, with a few specific destinations in mind ? Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Vienna. But they planned the rest of their itinerary on the fly.
“We went to Berlin first, then we sat down with the ?Let's Go To Europe' book and a map and said, okay, this is where we're going,” explained McCann. “It changed along the way, but we saw some amazing places and some places you wouldn't see if you just hit the big cities. And we met a lot of really cool people, which I think was my favorite part.”
“It was definitely an experience, an amazing time,” added McDonald. “When we got to the airport at Frankfurt we had no idea what we were doing. At first we couldn't find the train to get to Berlin, and when we got to Berlin we didn't know how to find our hostel. It was definitely an experience and we learned a lot on the trip.”
McDonald and McCann foresee an amazing season ahead for their third Duke soccer campaign. The team is young with only two seniors and a big freshman class, and it is unranked by most of the preseason polls. But a core group of returnees were together for spring drills and some summer training, and they are hungry to put some of the disappointment from a year ago behind them.
While the '06 Devils earned their fourth consecutive NCAA bid with clutch wins over Florida State and Miami the last week of the season, there was also the sense that they could have done more. The final record was just 9-8-4 and the team was shut out eight times, including all three postseason games.
It also had trouble dealing with some adversity against Wake Forest. Duke led the Deacs 1-0 in the second half of a televised game at Winston-Salem, only to have some bad weather force a cancellation. Had the game lasted another 10 minutes, or resumed after a delay, it could have gone in the books as a victory. Instead, it was replayed from the beginning just before the ACC tourney and Duke lost 1-0.
That one game made the difference between the Devils finishing second and seventh in the standings. As the No. 7 team, they were matched with Florida State in the first round of the ACCs and the nationally-ranked Seminoles avenged their loss from the week before.
Duke then went to the NCAAs at Tennessee and posted a pair of 0-0 overtime games to close the season. In the first they advanced past Louisville on a penalty kick shootout, then were eliminated in the same way by the homestanding Vols.
“It was a very difficult year for us last year,” McDonald said. “Unfortunately, we weren't able to get it done in the tournament.
“This year we're not ranked and we're not happy about it, but that will give us something to strive for and something to prove throughout the season. We are a relatively young team, but I think we're also a very close team. Because everyone is so close in age, I think during the spring we were able to mesh well and really focus in on how we want to get better.”
“I think this is going to be a really good year for us,” added McCann. “We have a lot of freshmen, but the 13 girls who were here in the spring were extremely dedicated and we really want this. I think we all feel like this is our season. We're trying to set a good example for the freshmen and they all seem very dedicated also, so I'm excited.”
Duke will open the season in the ACC-WCC Challenge at San Diego on Aug. 31 and will play in UNC's Carolina Classic the next weekend before the home opener Sept. 13.
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