By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

Delaney McMahon will forever be conflicted when she looks back on the 2024 high school girls soccer season.

Crestwood senior Delaney McMahon (top) was forced to sit out the entire 2024 season because of a torn ACL.

On one side, she experienced memories of a lifetime.

Memories she will carry with her as some of the greatest of her athletic career.

On the other side, as special as they were, the memories weren’t exactly what she envisioned they would be.

There were also memories that will always be some of the saddest of her athletic career.

Her senior season at Crestwood was set up for this stark contrast when she injured her knee during an indoor soccer game in March.

While attacking a defender one-on-one, McMahon attempted to pull the ball back and when she planted her foot, it stuck in the turf while her knee went in the opposite direction.

Immediately, McMahon knew this injury was different.

“I couldn’t move my leg and all I could feel was it burning. I knew it was something very serious,” she said.

The initial news was actually uplifting. While at the emergency room, she was told it was just a sprain.

Her MRI a couple days later, however, didn’t carry the same positive feedback.

Crestwood’s Delaney McMahon stands at center field for the opening game kickoff on Senior Night. Sheila Mathers/Special to Portage Sports

She had a complete tear of her ACL.

“My dad was the one who was going to get the call with the MRI results, and I told him that if I was in class when he got the call, I wanted him to pull me out of class to let me know,” McMahon said. “I wanted to know right away, but he waited until I got home.

“We were in the living room and as soon as he told me to sit down, I knew the news was not going to be good.”

It was an emotional moment because the impact was heavy.

McMahon’s senior soccer season was over before it truly started.

It was supposed to be a season McMahon shared on the field alongside her seven senior “sisters.” The same group that has played together since they were 7 years old.

Instead, in the blink of an eye, McMahon realized that her role with the team would be much different in the fall.

What that looked like and how she would handle it were real questions.

Eventually, though, things began to sort themselves out.

And with it, McMahon found her answers.

She found how she could share the season with her best friends without being stuck in the negativity of her injury.

She chose to step forward with a smile.

She chose leadership.

She chose to find enjoyment wherever she could find it.

Crestwood head coach Eric Sway shared in the determination.

“I immediately put Delaney to work,” he said. “I told her there would be no sobbing or pouting, and we’d get her involved in things as much as possible to get her mind off things and help speed the days up for her injury to heal.”

Soon McMahon was helping coach a youth team for Mantua Soccer Association, and she planned the organization’s youth camp.

She took over the graphic design work for the high school team and planned all of the team-bonding events.

On game days, she made sure she always had inhalers in her pocket in case Lilly Stoots or Dakota Renneker needed them. She made sure goalkeeper Alanna O’Bryant was warmed up properly, had her water and her gloves were sprayed.

“It felt good to feel like they needed me,” McMahon said.

Even though she could not lace up her cleats, there was no part of the team that McMahon was not connected to.

She even began coaching her peers from the sideline and provided halftime adjustments, as she was unable to keep her passion from the game to herself.

“Delaney was always talking to the girls on the sidelines as they came off the field during games,” Sway said. “She was at every practice and would speak up and help lead as she could. She’d set up the drills for me, she would see what I saw and she would lead and speak up if things were not done as well as they should.”

Coach Sway suddenly had an assistant in coach McMahon.

She did get one more chance to be a player, though.

On Senior Night, McMahon wore her No. 8 jersey one final time.

She went to the center of the field for the start of the game and did the opening kickoff.

“I was just supposed to pass it back, then we were going to kick it out of bounds and that was going to be it. But we talked about how special it would be if we could score while I was on the field,” McMahon said. “The girls tried, but, unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way. The ball went out of bounds at one point, and we all met at the center of the field. We hugged and it was an emotional moment, but it was a great feeling to be there with all of my sisters.”

Delaney McMahon and her fellow seniors share an emotional hug on Senior Night.
Sheila Mathers/Special to Portage Sports

She finished with her sisters, too.

“When I came off the field, I initially took off all of my stuff, but then 10 minutes later, I asked coach Sway if I could play the last 5 minutes of the game. He said, ‘Of course,’ so on Senior Night, I got to start the game and end the game.”

Not exactly the memories she thought she may have, but memories that were special in their own ways.

Moments that shaped McMahon’s season in different way that she could not have imagined. The pain of not being able to play may always linger, but the maturity to embrace her situation with positivity proved her impact on the team and the respect of her teammates carried far beyond the game itself.

What memory is better than that?