How a decision helped Bellefonte’s Mallorie Smith become more than just ‘the soccer girl’
In this lifetime there have been many great athletes, and they’ve all described their journey in a similar vein. All of them will say that they worked hard, were disciplined, and didn’t let anything discourage them from reaching their goal. Once regarded as the fastest woman on Earth, Wilma Rudolph once said, “It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s all a matter of discipline.” But what if you had the talent and the discipline, but you gave it up to have a normal life?
Mallorie Smith, of Bellefonte, had the right qualities to become a Division I soccer player, but she decided that pursuing that goal wouldn’t be worth what she’d have to give up — making memories with the Lady Red Raiders softball and basketball teams, and living life as a normal high school student. Now, as she reflects on her four years of high school as she prepares to graduate and move on to Penn State Altoona, Smith still believes she made the right decision.
Smith started playing soccer when she was four years old. Like most children at that age, her parents used the sport as an excuse to have her blow off steam. From there she became enamored with sports, watching everything from NBA games to the Little League World Series in her home state.
“I just always had to be moving,” Smith said. “So sports was one of the only ways that I could do that.”
From there, Smith began what would be an illustrious career as a three-sport athlete in soccer, basketball and softball. By the time she hit middle school, she was on a club team for Pennsylvania, facing off against kids from all over the middle Atlantic region of the country. Her time in the club program allowed her to cultivate her leadership skills and gain a sense of who she was as a player and a person.
“There are just people in sports and life that people migrate towards and follow,” Smith said. “And I would say that I was one of those people. Sports just came naturally to me. I didn’t have to practice 24/7 to get something down … and I think everyone following my lead gave me the confidence to be the leader on the field. … I had always watched all the high school sports growing up and everyone was so vocal, so I thought I’d give it a try. And I think it worked.”
Yet, with the confidence of being a budding leader for her team, forming her own game as a player, and helping her teammates, Smith still wasn’t confident she would make her varsity squads in high school. With so much time being dedicated to all of her different activities, she wasn’t sure that would be enough to earn a roster spot.
“I honestly just wanted to make the team, that was my goal,” Smith said. “I mean everyone is good in club sports, so I didn’t think that I was ready for varsity. But when Coach Miller told me I had a starting spot on varsity as a freshman, I was ready to show them exactly what I could do.”
Her first time stepping onto the field would be a Saturday matchup against Penn Cambria High school. Donning No. 16 for the Lady Raiders, Smith notched two goals in the first half. At the end of 80 minutes, Smith was a hat-trick hero. From there, her freshman season was bevy riches for the team. Smith totaled 28 goals and two assists, making a statement to her teammates and opposition that she was a force on the field.
“I played with Mal since I was a kid, technically,” Smith’s former teammate Gabrielle Pighetti said. “She’s very dedicated and willing to make herself a better athlete constantly. She was the leader straight from the jump as a freshman, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Smith made all of the varsity squads her freshman year. Standing at 5 feet, 3 inches tall, Smith became the starting point guard for the varsity basketball team. And while she was able to muster seven points per contest during her freshman year, she showed flashes of potential. She found a home in the outfield for the Lady Raiders softball team and was a key factor to her team winning the PIAA District 6 championship, a title that the team would continue to win for the next two seasons.
“I had always had a soft spot for softball,” Smith said. “I grew up watching baseball with my dad, and I feel like the game of softball is much more well-rounded and fun than the other sports I play. It’s very clear what you can work on in softball, whereas with soccer and basketball, there might be a shot or move you just might never be able to do no matter how hard you practice. It’s a lot more in my comfort zone.”
However, after her freshman year, Smith became enamored with the idea of potentially becoming a Division I athlete. She had put together a historic freshman campaign and with her talent, she thought that she could get there. But that meant that she would have to drop everything and only focus on soccer, and that just wasn’t something she was ready to give up.
“I would have had to quit with all three sports,” Smith said. “If I would have wanted to do soccer I pretty much would have been home-schooled, going to Harrisburg, Philadelphia or Pittsburgh three days a week whenever the school season ended. That’s the dedication that I would have needed to just do soccer, and that wasn’t really what I was about. I wanted my social life. I wanted to accomplish things in other sports. I didn’t want to give up going to the district championship and winning it every year for softball. Those are the memories that I wouldn’t have been able to make and I stand by my decision I would not have wanted to do anything different.”
In the midst of a global pandemic, Smith is officially committed to continue her soccer career at Penn State Altoona, a Division III school in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. As she is starting to meet her new teammates, the ones she is leaving behind have a lot to live up to. Smith totaled 116 goals for the red and white, the most in school history. She holds the record for the most goals in a single season with 33 her junior year and has two Mountain League MVPs under her belt. In softball, she earned second-team all-state honors and has picked up two nods for the Mountain League first team.
Most people who are good at sports stick to what they are best at, and they never stray from that sport. For Smith, sports began as a way to blow off steam, a way to be connected to the world and to find herself. But she did not let her success overtake her own mind. She chose to not take the path of sticking to what she was good at. She chose to play for the love of the game, and just be a normal kid in high school.
As she awaits the date of her virtual graduation, she leaves behind the legacy of not just being “the soccer girl,” but a true athlete for Bellefonte High.
“Looking back on high school, it was just filled with truly memorable experiences,” Smith said. “When my kids ask me about high school, some of the first things that I’m going to tell them is that I scored X amount of goals or I would have got my 100 hits in softball had I not been a part of this nationwide pandemic. Sports are my life, so to have those awesome memories within it is just absolutely amazing. Those are things I’ll remember forever.”