Senior goalkeeper Maggie Grossman, Div. 859, fell in love with the game of soccer at age 12 when she joined Northwind Soccer Club, where she began developing into the player she is today.

“My big dream is to play college soccer and then go pro,” Grossman said.

After two years at Northwind SC, she joined a different club, this time Chicago City SC; around the same time, Grossman began playing for Lane Tech.

Lane’s soccer team was very different than club soccer, according to Grossman.

“We play way more games than a club soccer team in a much shorter amount of time,” Grossman said.

Grossman’s mental strength was put to the test her first year playing at the high school level as the workload along with games took a toll on her.

After one day of conditioning her freshman year, the coaches called her to train at the varsity level. This gave her a chance to skip freshman and junior varsity tryouts and tryout for varsity.

Grossman, now the starting goalkeeper for varsity, made the most of this opportunity.

Grossman was chosen as captain her sophomore year after proving her leadership skills had blossomed.

Kinuko Mrozik, Div. 861, has played with Grossman for about five years; the last three have been on Lane’s varsity team and prior to that also for a soccer club.

“It’s great to see any of your good friends grow and develop into an even more hardworking and dedicated athlete,” Mrozik said. “From the start, she’s always been one of the hardest workers on the field and her want and need to push herself to be the best she could be only grew as she got older.”

During the summer of 2016, Grossman moved to a new soccer club, FC United. The club is ranked top 20 in the nation, consisting of many soon to be division one athletes.

Grossman also took part in the US Youth Soccer Development program which assists a group of players in reaching the national level in order to gain recognition. There, she played for the the Olympic Development Program Region II Midwest team as well as Team Illinois.

This program gave Grossman the opportunity to build connections with US Soccer Coaches.

Aside from this, Grossman is also in the Drive Goalkeeping (DriveGK) program, a coaching organization which provides high quality training for the development of goalkeepers.

Founder and director of DriveGK, Tom Paparounis, has trained with Grossman for many years now.

“She wants to get the most out of every training which has given her the ability to develop into the goalkeeper and the student she is today,” Paparounis said in an email interview.

Taking part in these trainings has helped Grossman develop into the student athlete she is today.

Grossman has won a city championship each of her previous three seasons that she has played for Lane. She looks forward to making it four consecutive city championships this season.

Grossman will be playing soccer Fordham University next season.