John Christopherson

Stewart (#4) goes up to head in the only goal in the CCS semifinals on Feb. 25, 2009, Paly won 1-0.

Palo Alto High School boasts some of the best student-athletes in high school sports. Throughout this issue we honor athletes such as Joc Pederson (‘10), Gracie Cain (‘11), Emy Kelty (‘12), and Kris Hoglund (‘12), all of who contributed significantly to Paly sports with stellar athletic performances this year.

The Alok Subbarao Award honors the members of Paly’s athletic community who help bring success to their teams in ways besides direct athletic performance, specifically by their leadership and inspiration.

Maeve Stewart (‘10), captain of the varsity girls’ soccer team, exemplifies the qualities The Viking looks for in the recipient of the Alok award. In her fourth year on the varsity soccer team this season, Stewart demonstrated these virtues in abundance.

Commanding the respect of her teammates on the field while uniting the team off of it, Stewart proved her mettle as a leader. Entering the season sidelined with an injury and continuing to do all in her power to benefit her team, she showed her teammates the definition of perseverance. Returning from her injury midway through the season as a driving force on the team, she proved to be an inspiration.

Before Stewart came to Paly, soccer already played a major role in her life. She joined her current club team, the Alpine FC Ruckus, in eighth grade and was self-admittedly “one of the worst people on the team”. Stewart, however, worked hard to improve herself and was a team captain the very next year.

“My coach pushed me to work harder,” Stewart said. “He helped me be the leader I am today.”

When Stewart did arrive on the upper field, she made the varsity squad as a freshman and scored eight goals with two assists in her first high school season. More importantly, her time on the team allowed her to gain valuable experience at the varsity level from veteran teammates.

“Being a freshman on varsity I saw what the seniors were like and I really looked up to them,” Stewart said. “Another cool thing was that I got to play with Teresa Noyola [‘08] She was a really inspirational leader who made me want to try my best. [Playing with seniors] drove me to want to be like them when I was a senior.”

Stewart sat out much of her sophomore year with a foot injury, but then had an impressive junior year, scoring eight goals and racking up 22 points overall (goals are worth two points and assists one). Finishing her third year on the team as a leading candidate for a captain spot, Stewart looked forward to her best year of Paly soccer yet.

Then, the summer before her senior year, playing countless soccer matches in order to improve her recruiting standing, Stewart injured her groin. She continued to play on the injured groin throughout the summer, worsening the injury until the pain became unbearable and she was forced to stop playing to heal herself.

“It turned out to be a lot worse than I thought it would be,” Stewart said, “I sat out, three months of no soccer at all. I finally started taking care of my body and building strength back and starting from the beginning.”

Far from the exciting expectations she had entertained, Stewart entered her senior season chained to the sideline. It wasn’t easy for Stewart to cope with her injury at first.

“It was tough to sit on the bench for the first half of the season and watch the team have their ups and downs, and know that I could have been out there if I were healthy,” Stewart said. “I just sat there.”

Frustrated by her inability to play, Stewart lost some of her characteristic focus.

“It was easy to joke around with everyone and not pay attention to the game,” Stewart said.

When head coach Ernesto Cruz took notice that Stewart’s frustration was manifesting itself in her behavior, he pulled her aside after practice to speak with her.

“At the beginning she was not dealing with [being injured] well, but I think that was the first time she had to deal with something like that,” Cruz said. “We had a little talk and then she was right there, she was cheering and directing. She is a total leader, inside and outside.”

After her talk with Cruz, Stewart stepped up into her role as team captain, offering encouragement, guidance, and friendship to her teammates. A mere groin injury was not going to be enough to beat Stewart’s passion for the game.

“Even though she wasn’t on the field, she was just as encouraging on the bench,” goalie Erin Chang (‘13) said. “Her pregame pep talks always sparked some energy into the team.”

Stewart pressed on through the first half of the season, sitting on the bench and recovering from her injury, until finally the time came for her return. However, returning from injury is never an easy thing to do, and Stewart had to start off slowly.

“Coming back was hard. I guess being a senior and being on the team for four years I was expected to come back as my normal self, which wasn’t exactly the case,” Stewart said. “I started out playing 20 minutes a half and when I was in, the team would do different things on the field. I would play the first half and depending on how the game was going I would play the last 20 minutes of the second half.”

If Stewart’s performances on the field were lackluster, her spirit was anything but. As she made her comeback run, Stewart showed abundant energy in both practices and games, even while she struggled to regain her pre-injury abilities.

“Maeve is a great leader on the field because she always works so hard, it motivates others to do the same,” midfielder Emy Kelty (‘12) said. “When Maeve wasn’t injured and when she was playing in the games we were a different team. The energy level would just go up when she was in there. She is so energetic and her work ethic is contagious.”

Stewart’s attitude towards the game also stands out as an area of inspiration for her teammates.

“Maeve just has this great attitude toward the game, and it never changes,” Chang (‘13) said. “She’s always positive and trying to encourage our teammates to be as well. When she’s on the field she’s so encouraging, it’s like serious about the game, but she’ll never yell at you, I’ve never seen her seriously angry, unless it’s at a referee. She leads by example, I feel like just being on the field with her pumps up the entire team.”

This sentiment is echoed by Kelty, who notes both Stewart’s light-heartedness and simultaneous intensity.

“Maeve is really funny and jokes around a lot off the field, but when she is on the field she is all serious. She likes to have fun, but she is a real competitor,” Kelty said.

Head coach Cruz sums up Stewart’s attitude in terms of immeasurable praise.

“She was the heart of the team. I know that it’s a team concept, but Maeve Stewart is the type of player that as soon as she came in the level of the game goes up right away,” Cruz said. “She is very intense and very kind. Maeve was probably one of the best leaders I have had on the team in the last five seasons.”

Stewart’s relationship with coaches and her ability to act as a bridge between players and coaches add significantly to her abilities as a leader.

“I have a lot of respect for my club coach and Ernesto. I never want to disappoint them,” Stewart said. “There is always joking around but when it gets down to business you’ve got to be serious.”

Stewart’s penchant for “keeping things light” seems to also be a major cause of the praise and adoration with which she is showered by her teammates. Off the field, Stewart, along with other team seniors, were largely responsible for the team’s social agenda, organizing pasta feeds and get-togethers that helped build a strong bond of friendship between the girls of the team.

“I didn’t want people to feel awkward,” Stewart said. “Ernesto wants all of us to feel comfortable on the team.”

As crucial as Stewart’s leadership was for the team during the season, it is equally important for the future of Paly girls’ soccer. In the same way as the seniors she played with influenced her, Stewart has influenced her younger teammates who look up to her.

“[The seniors] left a great example for the juniors,” Cruz said. “She definitely showed a lot to the juniors.”

Stewart will depart for Tufts University in Boston, in the fall, where she will play for the girls’ soccer team, leaving a memorable legacy on Palo Alto girls’ soccer and likely having influenced a number of future team leaders. However, taking into account the fantastically high esteem in which her teammates and coaches hold her, finding the next Maeve Stewart might prove a difficult task for Ernesto and the girls.

In the words of Cruz himself, “Someone has some big shoes to fill.”