Marine Corps Base Quantico -- Quantico Middle/High School graduate Emily Maxwell, now a freshman at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia, has been racking up the athletic honors since leaving QMHS. In her first four months at Lynchburg, a Division III school, she has been named the 2014 NCAA Tournament most outstanding defensive player and the 2014 all-state and Old Dominion Athletic Conference rookie of the year, among several other honors.
Maxwell didn’t become a soccer star overnight; she’s been playing since the age of four. She said she branched out a little in middle school and high school by taking up basketball as well, but by the end of high school, she had devoted herself entirely to soccer. At first, she said, she played because she got to be on the same teams as her friends, and her parents and her friends’ parents were the coaches. Over the years, however, she grew to love the sport and played wherever and whenever she could.
When Maxwell’s father, Marine Corps Base Quantico Base Commander Col. David Maxwell, was transferred to Germany while she was in middle school, she played on a German club team. Maxwell credits her German coaches with instilling confidence in her about her playing ability. She said her high school coaches, both at Croatan High School in Newport, North Carolina, and at QMHS, worked her even harder, giving her the push to become a champion.
Intelligent as well as athletic, Maxwell was a member of the National Honor Society and the math club while at QMHS and earned an academic scholarship to Lynchburg. She was selected for the dean’s list at the end of her first semester. Maxwell is majoring in exercise physiology, and while she isn’t sure what she wants to do for a career, she is interested in physical therapy or possibly full-time soccer coaching.
Becoming a professional soccer player is not out of the question either, however, and Maxwell said she would love to play in Germany. For now, her goal is to play all four years of college.
Her advice to young athletes and budding champions is to “never give up. When you least expect it, things like this [her national honors] do happen. Embrace every opportunity you have.”