For Madeleine Rattray, a senior on the Plattsburgh State women’s soccer team, playing soccer and applying a tenacious work ethic on and off the pitch has allowed her to chase her dreams and know anything is possible.
Rattray came to PSUC four years ago knowing she knew she wanted to play soccer and become a nurse.
“Nursing is my absolute passion, aside from athletics,” Rattray said. “I want to help people, and that’s why I chose to become a nurse.”
Rattray’s inspiration to be a nursing major and student athlete traces back to her parents David and Carol. Her mother graduated from PSUC’s nursing program and is now a successful nurse practitioner, and her father played on PSUC’s hockey team in the early 1980s.
She has always been very close with her parents.
“I am an only child, so my parents are my best friends and biggest support system,” she said. “They come to every soccer game no matter where I am. We could go to Switzerland and they would be there.”
To view more videos, visit our Multimedia page.While Rattray credits her parents for teaching many life lessons, she also acknowledged that playing soccer has taught her skills such as teamwork, time management and how to deal with adversity.Rattray began playing soccer when she was four. By the age of 15, she knew she wanted to play in college, which she has done during her past four seasons as a Cardinal, but it wasn’t simple initially.
Just a week before freshman year, Rattray suffered an injury that kept her off the field at the beginning of the season, which wasn’t easy since she had played soccer her entire life.
“Coming in freshman year injured was really hard,” she said. “Being on crutches and not being able to play soccer, which was supposed to be my easy transition to college, was difficult. Looking back now, I don’t know how I was so calm about it.”
In her junior year Rattray emerged as a key component to PSUC’s defense and captured one of the team’s season highlights by scoring the winning penalty kick against Oneonta in the SUNYAC quarterfinals.
Now in her senior year, Rattray continues to thrive playing defense, and head coach Tania Armellino praises her work ethic and knows she can be counted on as a leader.
“With Madeleine, if you ask her to do something, she will do it in a heartbeat,” Armellino said. “When you are playing a defensive role, you need someone to be the vocal presence, and she is amazing at organizing everyone around her.”
Similar to Armellino, Rattray’s teammates value what she brings to the squad and know she will do anything for them.
“I have known Maddy as long as I can remember because we went to high school and middle school together,” teammate Cassidy Clavet said. “She is someone that is very goal oriented, and she is going to do whatever it takes for the success of the team.”
Like Clavet, Rattray’s friend, fellow nursing major and defensive counterpart Hannah Saccocio admires what she does academically and athletically.
“I envy her work ethic,” Saccocio said. “She fights through a lot, has a really strong head on her shoulders and just loves soccer, and you can tell. Everyday in practice, she’s always working to be better.”
As her final year at PSUC comes to an end, Rattray wants to capture a SUNYAC championship, but she is also absorbing all her experiences as a Card, which she knows will assist her throughout life.
“Soccer has taught me you can really accomplish anything,” Rattray said. “If you maintain calmness and just take it one step at a time, you can pretty much get through anything in life.”
Email Joey LaFranca at joseph.lafranca@cardinalpointsonline.com
