Serving from the Sideline: Alabama soccer's Chloe Maize's road to recovery

After turning numerous injuries and setbacks into an opportunity to fully understand 'Servant Leadership,' Alabama forward Chloe Maize feels ready to make her impact on and off the field.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Tearing an anterior cruciate ligament is just about an athlete’s worst nightmare. 

Tearing two can leave you questioning whether to ever play again. 

For Alabama forward Chloe Maize, the latter was her reality, but her future was never in doubt.

To understand why, you really have to go back to the beginning. 

Maize’s soccer story began in Chattanooga, Tenn., at the age of four.

“I guess as early as you can get a kid into a rec league,” Maize recalled. She was inspired by her father, Brett Maize, who has been her coach from the very beginning, and still offers tips and insight after games to this day.

“He has such a great soccer mind and I respect his ideas so much,” Maize continued. “He’s probably been the biggest influence on me as a player. Even through injuries and stuff like that, he’s such a determined person. I feel like I get a lot of that from him. I might not still be playing today if I didn’t have the determination coming from my dad.”

Maize began her club career at Tophat Soccer Club, an Atlanta-based team where she played from sixth grade until her senior year. Still living in Chattanooga, Maize and her parents made the four-hour roundtrip drive to Atlanta every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for six years.

“I tell my parents all the time that I would never ever do that for my kid,” Maize said, “but I think they just saw how much I loved it. I had a dream of playing in college and I feel like they took on that dream with me. It was something the whole family went in for. I’ve really been super blessed.”

For many high school students, that long commute three times a week to practice would eventually take its toll on their desire to keep playing. For Maize, however, her love for the game never waned.

“I never got burnt out from driving,” Maize said. “I was always so excited for club practice. A lot of people were like ‘by your senior year you’re not going to feel like driving to Atlanta, you’ll have been doing it for 6 years’ and I just never got burnt out of it. I always looked forward to playing. I’ve always loved it, I still do.”

Maize’s passion and persistence in the game paid off. She accumulated a plethora of individual accolades in route to leading Tophat to four consecutive state championships between 2011 and 2015 and the 2015 National Quarterfinals. 

Nationally, Maize was a U.S. Soccer training invitee, the 2015 U-16 National League leading scorer and a member of the Olympic Development Program State teams from 2010-2015.

One of the biggest factors in Maize’s decision to come to Tuscaloosa, alongside family history with the university, was an opportunity to make an impact on the program from the beginning. 

Maize enrolled a semester early so that she could spend the spring with the team, get accustomed to college life, and be prepared to contribute early. In her final exhibition match against Troy before the season, Maize went down with a non-contact injury in her left knee in the opening 15 minutes.

“It was really difficult for her to swallow,” senior Nealy Martin said. “She came a semester earlier and she was ready to go in the fall. She was playing really well, and it was really hard on the whole team because we were counting on her. But she handled it well, she went to rehab every single day.”

Rehab can be an isolating experience for athletes. While the rest of their team takes the field for practice or remains in preparation for the next game, off you go with the trainer, enduring the pain and willing your body to regain the strength that it had lost. It takes a certain mentality to remain positive under those circumstances. 

Remaining involved within the team is a testament to her vibrant personality.

“It’s tough in season,” Martin said. “We’re focused on the next game and she’s focused on her knee getting better. When she was going through it, she kept herself engaged. At practice, she would cheer us on and just be the best teammate she could possibly be while still getting her stuff done.

"We would cheer her on while at practice during a water break or something. She would stay engaged, talk to people who needed help off the field and encourage us.”

After receiving a medical redshirt for her freshman year, Maize returned from her first ACL tear and had a successful redshirt freshman season. She played in all 21 games and recorded 15 starts, including her first career goal at Kennesaw State and the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Arkansas with a performance that earned her SEC Freshman of the Week.

Looking to build upon that successful start, Maize entered her sophomore year ready to increase her contributions. She started in all four of the games to start the season, recording an assist against North Texas and accumulating four shots on target. 

At home against Kennesaw State, in the opening 15 minutes, another non-contact injury, this time in her right knee, would cut her season short once again. 

For many, a second ACL tear, especially one occurring in the non-contact manner that Maize’s did, would mean the end of a career. Doubt would begin to creep in and the hope of playing again would drift away from the average player’s mind. 

Maize’s mentality, however, was far from average.

The Tide beat Mississippi State 3-1! The goals came from Lacey Clarida, Chloe Maize and Chatham DeProspo! #RollTide pic.twitter.com/ZiK9ewStep

— Alabama Soccer (@AlabamaSoccer) April 2, 2016

“She came in before surgery and was trying to do rehab before,” Martin said. “She had the surgery and was here the day of, she was like, ‘Alright we’re getting through this super quick.’ 

"Her attitude I think is what has helped her get through, just staying positive and having a good support system behind her has helped her a lot. I don’t know how she did it, but it was impressive.”

Though rehab has its good days and bad days, Maize’s positivity and hopeful outlook continued.

“She’s positive and cheerful, just a pleasure to be around,” Crimson Tide coach Wes Hart said. “Laughing and joking with teammates, with a big smile on her face as opposed to that kid coming in for rehab that’s just moping and pouting and feeling sorry for herself. I think that probably helps speed up the recovery, the way she approaches it and attacks it.”

Where many players would dwell on the negatives of their bad luck with injuries, Maize was determined to view the setback as an opportunity to get better in other areas of her game that had not been tested before.

“There are so many other ways to contribute without being one of the eleven on the field," she said. "I’ve never had to do that before because I was always fortunate enough to be one of those players. But really, just my own thinking during halftime, can you find someone who needs a little motivation or just be one of those behind the scenes people that can still be a driving force for the team?

"In a way, I’m super grateful for my injuries because I feel like at this point in life now, as a senior, I’m a much better leader and I understand servant-leadership. If I’m going to be a leader of any kind and have an impact, it was going to have to be from a servant role because I wasn’t one of the eleven players on the field. I had to transition my mindset a little.”

In this current season, with the leadership and experience that she has gained throughout the injuries, setbacks and hardships, Maize has set new goals for the impact she will have on this Crimson Tide team.

“At this point in the season I go into every game, whether I get 10 minutes a game or 90 minutes a game, I’m going to do everything I can to help my team win," Maize said. "I think a lot about my attitude and how can I lift my teammates up and also make friends while I’m out there.”

The on-field stats and accolades have their place in the legacy Maize will eventually leave on the Alabama soccer program. But where she's made her real mark is with her mentality, her positive outlook on life, and approach to the game that she still loves despite all her physical setbacks. 

“I can’t speak highly enough of Chloe,” Martin said. “I’ve known her for four years now and whatever I say will fall short of how great of a person she is. Seeing her go through that and still being a leader on the field and working as hard as she does in practice. It makes me almost emotional because I know how much she’s been through.

"I think that her character off the field is also just awesome, she’s hilarious, hardworking, and she gets her stuff done in the classroom. But she’s also going to be your best friend, if you need someone to talk to, she’s going to be there with you. That’s what I’ve always really appreciated from her.”