Dougherty returns home with Hornets | News, Sports, Jobs
Sacramento State midfielder Madee Dougherty (center) is shown in action during the Hornets’ 1-1 draw with Cal State Bakersfield last Thursday. Dougherty, a 2022 graduate of King Kekaulike High School, is back in the islands this week as the Hornets take on the University of Hawaii tonight and Hawaii Pacific on Saturday. Sacramento State Athletics photos
Madee Dougherty is back in her home state with her “second family,” the Sacramento State women’s soccer team. The Hornets will play the University of Hawaii tonight and Hawaii Pacific on Saturday, both at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.
It is a week that the 2022 King Kekaulike High School graduate has had circled on her calendar for several months, but it has obviously taken on added meaning with the wildfires that have ravaged West Maui and also taken a toll Upcountry where Dougherty grew up.
“It feels amazing, I’m so grateful to be here with, you know, my second family and that’s the Hornets,” Dougherty said after a practice on Wednesday. “Yeah, of course, with everything that’s been happening on Maui, the west side, Kula, all over the island, even more so just being back here, just in Hawaii in general, I’m just like representing Maui, representing my family here and it’s just nice being back in the Aloha State.
“It’s very … it feels like home.”
Her aunt and uncle on her mom Allison’s side of the family, and “a lot of family, coaches, friends are coming” to watch the matches this week for the Hornets, who like UH are off to an 0-1-1 start.
Madee Dougherty plays with “Maui Strong” written on her arm. Dougherty said she and members of her team — which includes six players from Hawaii — have been writing the phrase on their arms during their first two matches of the season “just to have a little bit of support” for those affected by the recent wildfires.
The Dougherty family and friends will be watching a team leader and standout player — Dougherty has started all 20 matches in her young career and was selected a team captain last spring when she was still in her true freshman academic year.
“She’s been a stud ever since she showed up on campus,” Hornets head coach Randy Dedini said. “She’s been fantastic, I mean it’s very rare that at the end of someone’s freshman year that they become captain. Madee became captain at the end of her first year and it was not just because of what she does on the field.
“She’s a fantastic box-to-box midfielder and is tireless with her work rate and just clean skills. And just a great person that everybody admires and respects.”
Mom Allison and dad Robert, the former head football coach at Maui High, did not make the trip.
Madee Dougherty knows that stepping on the pitch tonight at 7 against several players she knows well will be emotional. She has been relieved that all of her close family on Maui are safe and sound.
Madee Dougherty in action on Aug. 17.
“Yeah, pretty emotional, I think,” Dougherty said. “All my friends, all my teammates when we went out yesterday when we got in, they were kinda like: ‘Madee, are you OK?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, it’s a lot of mixed emotions for me because I’m so grateful to be back and excited to be here and be back at home. But it’s also a little heartbreaking for me because just thinking about all the things that my family and my friends are struggling with back on Maui.”
The team — which has six players from the 50th state, including Dougherty — has worn “Maui Strong” written on their bodies for their first two matche, a 1-1 tie with Cal State Bakersfield on Aug. 17 and a 3-0 loss to UC Davis on Sunday. Dougherty wears the message on her left forearm.
“I’m definitely going to be playing for them,” Dougherty said of her home island. “And I know a lot of the girls on my team, all my other local girls, too, are going to be playing for them. These past couple weeks we’ve been writing ‘Maui Strong’ on our arms.
“Every game that we’ve had … we’ve been writing ‘Maui Strong’ on our arms just to have a little bit of support for them, as much as we can.”
Dougherty laughed when asked about being named a team captain before classes start in her sophomore year.
“It means a lot, honestly,” Dougherty said. “And, you know, I love to do it anyways. Soccer is just a game I love, so I’m out here training, doing extra things and it’s so much better when you have people with you.”
Dedini said it was Dougherty who started staying after practice last spring, and it soon became a team-wide gathering.
“The biggest thing she’s brought to us is she’s raised our standard as to what it looks like to work hard, to train hard and to do the extra stuff that you need to do to be an elite soccer player,” Dedini said. “She’s raised that standard because in her first year with us she stayed after every single practice unless we had like a meeting or something right after practice. She stayed after practice every single day.
“It first started with her and then it was her and (junior) Erika (Tilford), a buddy of hers. And then it was her, Erika and two or three other girls. And then, by the end of the spring semester there were six or seven girls staying after practice every day because she started that and just setting the standard of: ‘This is what it looks like and this is how you’re going to get better.’ “
Dougherty said staying for extra work after practice comes easily to her.
“I think it’s been a very natural thing for everyone to come out because all of these girls loves to play soccer — yeah, I just love doing it,” she said. “It’s been great.”
The six pack of Hawaii girls “have a lot of fun,” Dougherty said. “I think we have three freshmen and they feel at home with the other three girls who have been here a little. And also just spreading aloha throughout the team. Yeah, it’s been great.”
Dougherty and company will know a lot of their Rainbow Wahine opposition tonight. Baldwin graduate Penny Noland and Kamehameha Maui graduate Kaiya Kapaku are two of eight players from Hawaii on the UH roster.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun, I’ll tell you that, it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Dougherty said. “It’s going to be very competitive. Yeah, it’s just going to be fun and I’m excited to play back in Waipio stadium where I played my sophomore year for Kekaulike in the state finals.
“So, it’s all coming full circle and a lot of these girls played there, too. So, it’s going to be high emotions, very competitive and a lot of fun.”
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.
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