Marriotts Ridge’s Clevenger a battler on and off the field
Junior excels while supporting her mom’s fight with breast cancer
Marriotts Ridge girls lacrosse junior midfielder Maisy Clevenger has continued to thrive on the field for the Mustangs this season.
Clevenger, the 2021 Howard County Times girls lacrosse Player of the Year, has been the main initiator of the Mustangs’ offense, and she saved her best performance to date for a commanding 17-5 victory over Route 99 rival Mt. Hebron on April 5.
But that game was special for more than just her stats. A pregame ceremony was dedicated to Maisy’s mom, Elizabeth, who is battling breast cancer. Both the Mustangs and Vikings styled their hair in buns to support the Clevenger family.
Those buns signified Marriotts Ridge’s partnership with the Headstrong Foundation’s Game Hair Havoc Event, which is an online fundraising campaign in which teams style their game day hair to raise funds and awareness for families dealing with and affected by cancer. Established in 2007, the Headstrong Foundation has raised $23 million and assisted 20,175 families, according to its website.
“It was of nice of Mt. Hebron to focus on that, which I thought was pretty awesome,” Elizabeth Clevenger said. “It’s amazing to have all of that support from the community. It was pretty awesome to have the community know about it and the kids really taking interest in it and trying to understand everything.”
Playing with an added purpose with her mom watching from the stands, Clevenger excelled with a team-high eight points (five goals, three assists) against the Vikings. Maisy reflects fondly on that day as the community came together to support her family.
“Seeing pictures in the bows and stuff, talking to my mom after the game, it’s just awesome,” Clevenger said. “We also have the game film from it. Listening to the announcements before and just everybody cheering after I score a goal or when one of my teammates scored a goal. It was definitely a different vibe to the game. It was for her.”
Clevenger first learned about Headstrong through her older sister, Shay, a senior defender at Loyola Maryland. Shay and one of her college teammates began a partnership with the organization to raise awareness for her mom and other teammates’ families in similar circumstances.
While Maisy was interested in working with them, she was unsure if Headstrong worked with high school programs. After receiving a direct message from the foundation’s Instagram, she shared the information with Mustangs coach Amanda Brady, who helped to coordinate the fundraising effort.
“It’s had an effect on our girls to see how cancer can affect other people’s lives,” Brady said. “So, of course, we wanted to do that for not just Maisy and her family but for all the girls to recognize that this is such an important reason why we’re raising money. I went ahead and reached out to the founders and made sure high schoolers were allowed.”
The Mt. Hebron game worked out perfectly as the Vikings were supporting Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer. The teams joined efforts to raise awareness for both cancer-related charities. Thus far, Marriotts Ridge has raised $3,797.
In the past, Clevenger sometimes struggled to concentrate on lacrosse as she always wanted to be with her mom. However, as she’s gotten older, the junior has been able to compartmentalize to ensure that she and her teammates are playing their best on game days.
A key part of that has been the support Clevenger has received from teammates, including fellow junior and defender Camryn Fisher. The two have been close friends since freshman year and Fisher’s support since Elizabeth’s diagnosis in 2015 has remained constant. Before each game, Clevenger receives a good luck text from her mom or they’ll have a chance to talk before she heads back to school to board the bus.
Clevenger is playing some of her best lacrosse and leads the Mustangs through nine games with 41 points (30 goals, 11 assists). Marriotts Ridge is one of the highest-scoring offenses in Howard County, averaging 12.9 goals per game, and she has played an integral part, consistently showcasing not only her speed and dodging but also her field vision as a facilitator.
“She’s so fun to watch,” Brady said of Clevenger after the Mt. Hebron game. “She’s just a hustler all over the field. She’ll do whatever we ask her to do, but she’s also really smart. She has the ability to do things that a lot of players can’t do. [She’s] dynamic, every different type of shot. Goalies watching her, it’s different every single time it comes out of her stick sometimes and it’s fun to watch. She’s a workhorse and the girls look up to her.”
With five regular-season games remaining, the Mustangs are focused on capturing a second consecutive Class 3A state championship.
“I individually just want to grow and be there for everybody on my team,” Clevenger said. “I want to be a better teammate to everybody and just let them know I have their back. I just want to make it states again, I want to do it with the team. I just want to have fun.”