About Me
Hi! My name is McKenna McGonigle and this year I'm a senior at Redwood High School in Larkspur, CA. I'm a four year member of the varsity team and I play for the Marin FC 01 Girls Blue team. My team won the NPL State Cup in Northern CA this past season and we are ranked in the top 3 in the state. I was also a member of the NorCal Olympic Development Program (ODP).
I’m very proud of my recovery from my two ACL injuries. My physical and mental recovery was very difficult for me because soccer has been such a huge part of my life since I was about 4. I had to put in a ton of work to physically get back to playing soccer and I’m very proud of all the time and commitment it took. But the harder part was making sure that I didn’t let it affect the other important things in my life, such as my grades and my mental health. I temporarily lost the thing that had always been a constant in my life and something I love so I’m proud of the way I persevered.
Like many athletes, I’ve obviously spent a lot of my time outside of high school playing soccer. Athletics have been a huge part of my life since I was little and I’m working hard on continuing my playing career in college. I also love music and I played alto saxophone in the advanced band for all four years in middle school and sang in the advanced choir for three. Outside of school I took piano lessons for about five years and participated in a few minor performances. Music is definitely a passion that I hope to pursue again someday, but I decided to focus more on sports in high school. I also volunteer with animals at the Milo Foundation, which I’ve been doing since 8th grade. I help do pretty much everything regarding the care of the animals and I find it very rewarding because I know I’m making an impact on their lives until they find a good home. My junior and senior year I’ve been a part of the Girls Who Code Club. I think it’s a really awesome experience because not only am I learning and teaching basic technology skills, but we also work to help recruit more girls into the field of computer programming. I was selected to be a member of the Link Crew at school, which is a leadership organization that hosts important events like Freshmen Orientation. Throughout the year, we continue to assist freshman and new students with academic and social support to help them make a smooth transition to our school. It has helped me continue to build leadership and organization skills including time management, peer mentoring, team building, community building, communication and listening skills. I really enjoy mentoring fellow students and helping then acclimate to high school. This year I’ve also started working 2-3 days a week at the front desk at the Bay Club Marin and I really enjoy the camaraderie of working on a team and helping guests of the club. It's my first job and while it has been challenging to balance with everything else I do, it has been an important learning experience.
I have trouble talking about myself and it doesn't come naturally so I'll let my father help with that. Below is his parent recommendation for my College Counselor at school. It's a little embarrassing but at least I don't have to write more about myself!
"My daughter McKenna is my hero, really and truly, and I’m amazed by her pretty much every time I see her. She is so bright, intuitive, compassionate and charismatic. She sparkles. The way she has balanced excelling at school, sports, extracurricular activities like link crew and volunteer work, a part time job, helping take care of her younger brother, and her many deep and wonderful friendships is inspiring to me.
McKenna is a truly gifted athlete. She literally could have played five sports in High School if they would have let her! I remember in middle school in the early spring one year she had 4 club sports going at the same time, soccer, basketball, volleyball, and lacrosse. Needless to say that schedule wasn’t tenable in the long term! When she chose to focus on soccer, the sport I played in college and beyond, I felt honored. She worked so hard at the sport and showed such wonderful natural ability, it is one of my greatest joys in life to watch her play with a big smile and her quiet intensity. She runs like a gazelle and there’s almost nothing more entertaining to me than watching her coast past an unsuspecting defender who doesn’t quite understand that those long loping strides are carrying such incredible speed. I am so proud of her and her accomplishments of being chosen for the Olympic Development Pool, making the Redwood Varsity team as a freshmen, and scoring so many amazing goals for the best competitive club team in the area.
Her unbelievable resilience through her two ACL injuries, the surgeries, the self driven and self motivated rehabilitation and physical therapy, and the drive to come back to the game she loves and her dream of continuing to play in college is nothing short of awe inspiring. I played soccer at a very competitive level all my life and never had an injury anywhere near as serious as her ACL challenges. I’ve realized through McKenna that I was lucky and had it pretty easy as a player. She has taught me true grit and perseverance watching her fight this fight, and win. Her focus on learning from these challenges and finding the silver lining of helping other women in her sport avoid the injuries she has battled makes me very proud of her.
I coached McKenna for many years on her club soccer and basketball teams. It was my favorite thing in the world. I have always been incredibly proud of her selflessness and compassion as a player and teammate. I think it says a lot about her as a person. She was always ready with a smile on her face to do whatever I needed her to do on the team, zero entitlement because she was one of the best players or because her Dad was the Coach. She would play goalie if I asked or sacrifice playing time to help others gain confidence and develop as players, all to help make sure our teams had chemistry and success. She is always unselfish with the ball and with her time and attention, taking time to talk to younger players whenever they need her guidance. She is such a stellar teammate and friend, full of empathy and compassion, all her athletic life and in every other way with her friends and family as well. She sets a wonderful example for everyone around her and truly leads by example in everything she does.
I went to Colgate and was a scholar athlete for four years and a strong student but I have to say that I don’t actually understand most of what she is learning in high school in her chosen area of study in the STEM fields. I’m of no use at all if she is stuck on something so fortunately she is quite good at getting herself unstuck all on her own in her AP and Honors classes! I can’t wait to see what she does in college and beyond in her chosen fields of study. She has always been a wonderful student and able to balance such a busy schedule with barely a whiff of stress or strain. I hope I was as graceful a student in my high school and college days, but I sincerely doubt it!
Don’t play cards or board games with McKenna, unless you are a good loser. With her nimble mind and intuition, she immediately grasps the keys to any game and somehow just seems to naturally get it. With every new game of strategy that you teach her, she wins early and often! You’re lucky to beat her once in awhile, but still always happy to play the game with her because she is the perfect balance of hilariously saucy, gracefully competitive, and just happy to be with you.
When my extended family is all together in the summers or holidays, McKenna is the Pied Piper leading the parade of 7 cousins as they play sports and games, swim, share stories and bond as only family can. She shows her compassion, empathy, and leadership there as well, always making sure everyone is happy, inspired, connected and having fun. Her cousins are all awed by her and look up to her as a role model in ever way.
I have been struggling with something lately as it pertains to McKenna and college. Friends and colleagues whom I respect have been telling me that the best colleges are looking for students that have one thing that makes them exceptional and that “well rounded” is an overused descriptor that doesn’t mean much anymore. This sort of confuses and concerns me because McKenna is truly well rounded, she excels in many areas and balances them all. That to me is truly exceptional in and of itself and perhaps we just need new terminology to replace the threadbare term “well rounded” to describe the exceptionalism of multi faceted scholar athletes like McKenna. I hate to think some wonderful schools will miss out on having her because she has many talents instead of one. Renaissance woman might be a little dated I guess but I'd like the update and upgrade to that term for my daughter!
Like most fathers, I will admit that I was ill equipped to help with the challenges young women face in high school as they navigate adolescence. McKenna is my oldest and like all young women had moments when changes in emotions and related stress added an extra obstacle to her happiness and success. I read and shared information, tried to help based on what I'd Iearned, and worried about her all time. I felt a guilt and sadness that I’d never felt before when I read her beautiful KQED perspective about how to handle it when your parents get divorced. She is so strong, independent and intelligent that I knew deep down she’d be just fine and would find her graceful balance again and continue on her wonderful path...and she has done just that."