Hamilton West girls’ soccer goalie Tracey Mraw extends to make a save during a 3-0 home loss to Hopewell on Oct. 13. Mraw racked up 10 saves on the day. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
Looking at the slightly built, 5-foot-4 frame of Hamilton West senior Tracey Mraw, one might have a number of thoughts as to what it is she does. Two things that would probably not make that list might be soccer goalie and softball catcher.
Surprise!
“I like surprising people with that,” said Mraw, who is indeed the Hornets varsity keeper and catcher. “It keeps them confused.”
And why shouldn’t it? Catchers are often a little bigger than Mraw, and keepers are definitely taller and have more range. But this fall, there may not be a more important player on Hamilton than the girl in goal.
“Oh God, she is the greatest player by far, at this point,” coach Staci Adams said in early October, after Mraw and the Hornets endured their fourth 1-0 loss in a span of five games. “She is the most consistent player out there, no matter what. I’m sure it’s frustrating for her to lose 1-0, 2-0 every game.”
Yet Mraw keeps on plugging, no matter what the score or what the situation.
“She’s doing a phenomenal job for us,” Adams continued. “She’s constantly taking control back there, constantly talking to them, keeping them marked up, keeping them composed and basically taking control of everything that’s happening in the defensive third back there. She’s been a savior for us.”
In more ways than just making saves, but with morale as well. It is Mraw’s sometimes astounding saves that have kept Hamilton in games. By keeping the score close with her play, it keeps her teammates from wanting to give up because the match is out of reach.
But with injuries taking a big toll on the Hornets this year, scoring has been down and the pressure has been turned up on the last line of the defense.
“It definitely does add pressure because after we give up a goal, it’s like the whole attitude changes,” Mraw said. “You’re not just playing, you’re playing from behind, you have to come back. It’s even more work. And I know that changes the whole game for us. Between that and not scoring, it’s a lot of pressure.”
It was because of Mraw’s twin brother Robert that she developed the tenacity she has for the positions that she plays. Robert plays for the Hornets’ golf team.
“I grew up not doing dance and all that kind of stuff,” Mraw said. “I was always doing sports with Robert. We would always go at each other. When we were young we used to always play co-ed, I was usually one of the only girls there so I was playing against all the guys. And we just battled it out. I don’t let Robert win, so it all just comes from that.”
She actually started as a striker in Hamilton Rec soccer, but one day her team was without a goalie. The coach decided on Mraw.
“I don’t know why they put the shortest person in there, but I liked it and I’ve been in goal ever since,” she said. “Same thing with catcher. For some reason I volunteered to do it, and I’ve been there ever since. I like being in the back, being in control.”
Which is actually what she is while playing goal.
When someone is the size of Mraw, they need to seriously control the box and make sure the defense is in the right spots. That got a little tougher when standout defender Christine Baum went out for the season with an ACL injury, but Mraw continued to take charge.
“Before high school I never really had to do that,” said Mraw, who credited Concetta Scordato for playing well in Baum’s absence. “People just played their position, we let the game play out. But coming to high school I started working with the defenders, getting them where I wanted them and marking them with whoever I wanted them to cover.”
Mraw played JV as a freshman and moved up to varsity as a sophomore, where she watched and learned from incumbent Erin Septer. When she started as a junior, she and Baum teamed up to position defenders. With Baum missing most of this year, it was left mainly to the keeper and she held up her end.
But opponents have still launched plenty of shots on Mraw. That’s where she has to combine her toughness with agility and smarts.
“No matter what her height is she doesn’t let that bother her,” Adams said. “She constantly keeps working on high balls to her, constantly has no problem running to the ball, getting above everybody else and somehow some way I see her fly above everyone else taller than her and clear the ball out. She is not intimidated by anybody and she comes out strong and gives everything she has.”
She also soaks up knowledge and quickly puts it to use.
“She’s very smart,” Adams said. “As soon as you teach her something she catches on very quickly. There’s a lot of things that she wasn’t taught as a goalie in years past and she’s just caught on so quickly to any new things we’ve taught her. She did really well before, but her improvement since August is a dramatic change to what she was.”
Another strength is her ability to short-circuit possible dangerous situations by grabbing corner kicks before opponents get feet or heads on them.
“We work a lot with positioning and angles,” Mraw said. “I try to get in the best positions that I can cover all the corners. Sometimes it doesn’t work but for the most part I can cover most of it. The high ones are the issue. I just have to track them and try to get under and go straight up for it and I can just barely cover it. It’s a lot of practice and repetition to get it down.”
Mraw figures this will be her last season of interscholastic soccer and softball. She hopes to attend NJIT and major in biomedical engineering.
“I want to find a club team,” and I don’t think they have that where I’m going,” she said. “But I’ll look around locally and try to keep playing.”
And keep surprising people.
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