{"id":967,"date":"2025-01-29T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T14:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/?p=967"},"modified":"2025-03-06T14:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T20:21:11","slug":"national-player-of-the-year-maya-wallace-continues-family-soccer-legacy-at-jccc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/2025\/01\/29\/national-player-of-the-year-maya-wallace-continues-family-soccer-legacy-at-jccc\/","title":{"rendered":"National Player of the Year, Maya Wallace, Continues Family Soccer Legacy at JCCC"},"content":{"rendered":"

In December, JCCC\u2019s very own Maya Wallace respectively earned the United Soccer Coaches NJCAA Division II National Player of the Year Award, making herself the first women\u2019s soccer player in the history of her conference (JCCC and KJCCC) to earn the award. What did it take to achieve this outstanding feat, and what can we expect to see from #2 in the future?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to want to put in the work [for] something you don\u2019t like,\u201d Wallace said when asked what she credits her performance to. For her, it\u2019s all about the love of the game, but what else does it take to perform at her level?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy coaches let me do what I wanted, but also pushed me to make me a better player,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s competitive spirit has also been a driving force for her on the field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to win our conference. There was a girl ahead of me, [and] just seeing her numbers go up made my numbers go up and have a great season,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s incredible career at JCCC is one of many examples of our school\u2019s impact on student athletes and what it does for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy highschool season was rough, but then I came here and I had a whole different perspective on everything,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cI hope that other people [coming in] can feel like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout all the joy, tears, and triumph, there is one person who Wallace will have at her side no matter what.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more special than having your daughter decide on her own that she wants to follow her mother\u2019s footsteps,\u201d Sarah Wallace, Maya\u2019s mother, and JCCC Women\u2019s Soccer alumni said. \u201cFor her to have the year that she\u2019s had under the coach that coached me\u2026 nobody else will ever have something like that between me and her.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking in from the outside at her daughter\u2019s performance, Wallace\u2019s parents have been nothing but ecstatic and mind blown at the year she has had.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing her mom and a soccer coach, I knew that she always had it in her,\u201d S. Wallace said. \u201cThe difference is your child actually believing in themselves versus being told how awesome they are. [Coaches] Alex and Shwabb were able to give her that confidence and encouragement that really helped her shine.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Sarah has only been able to coach her daughter for one year of her soccer career, she prefers the mother-daughter connection. A connection that sets itself apart from any other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to coach her, but to have that relationship to just be <\/span>mom<\/span><\/i>, supporting her, encouraging her\u2026 it\u2019s pretty special,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite being recruited by four other larger schools, Maya decided to grace JCCC with her talent and attributes, leading the Cavs to win the KJCCC D-II conference, a NJCAA Region 6 title, and finish runner-up at the NJCAA Division II tournament both her freshman and sophomore year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for her legacy, Wallace isn\u2019t worried about holding onto her record.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want someone else to beat the record now so they can work hard, too,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next fall, Wallace will be hanging up her Cavalier jersey, but will still be wearing blue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to Rockhurst, so I\u2019m really excited,\u201d she said. \u201cI think what I\u2019m taking away from Johnson County is the positivity, so if I can bring that with me [to Rockhurst] that would be nice.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately, we will get one more season out of Wallace before she moves on from JCCC. She will be using this last semester to wear her flowers, and reflect on a brilliant career as a Cavalier athlete.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to have a fun semester with the team and end my time at JCCC happy.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By Seth Lampton<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In December, JCCC\u2019s very own Maya Wallace respectively earned the United Soccer Coaches NJCAA Division II National Player of the Year Award, making herself the first women\u2019s soccer player in the history of her conference (JCCC and KJCCC) to earn the award. What did it take to achieve this outstanding feat, and what can we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1008,"featured_media":968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,8],"tags":[15,16],"ppma_author":[126],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-jccc-sports","tag-womens-soccer"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Seth Lampton","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/slampto1\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/01\/1-29-25-Maya-Wallace-article-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[{"link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/slampto1\/","display_name":"Seth Lampton"}],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Featured<\/a>","Sports<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Featured<\/span>","Sports<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["JCCC Sports<\/a>","Women's Soccer<\/a>"],"unlinked":["JCCC Sports<\/span>","Women's Soccer<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on January 29, 2025","modified":"Updated on March 6, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on January 29, 2025 8:00 am","modified":"Updated on March 6, 2025 2:21 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":126,"user_id":1008,"is_guest":0,"slug":"slampto1","display_name":"Seth Lampton","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f2e586f19d0db2ca6e0f54eba249df3470c40ec567565bda6e765754ffc14994?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Seth","last_name":"Lampton","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/01\/1-29-25-Maya-Wallace-article.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1047,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/1047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}