Xavier’s Dooley impresses with scoring, leadership
This must be the way defenders feel when trying to mark Phoenix Xavier Prep senior forward Michaela Dooley.
You might know what she’s going to do. But you can’t stop her. You can’t change her course.
Try to get her to talk about herself, her leadership on an injurydepleted team and her incredible performances in helping lift Xavier Prep to a somewhat surprising Division I championship. Good luck.
For Dooley, “I” is a pronoun that is as scarce as a failed dribbling move. “We” is always the subject of choice.
Sure, go ahead and tell her that her 25 goals,10 assists, impressive skills and remarkable influence earned her azcentral sports’ Big Schools Player of the Year award. Go ahead and attempt to get her to talk about herself.
She’ll just cut and leave you offbalanced in the dust.
“It’s a great honor for Xavier Prep and all the players to own that,” said Dooley, who signed with University of San Diego. “With an award like that, there’s always a great team behind it. I have great teammates who work hard every day and improve everyone around them. It’s great to knowthat honor gets bestowed not only on me but on Xavier as well.”
If you didn’t get the hint, you need other people to tell you how good Dooley is.
“You could see how dominant she is and how strong she is,” Xavier Prep coach Barb Chura said. “She puts anybody under pressure. Any back (defender) has a handful when she’s coming.” Ah, that’s better. But Dooley’s selflessness also allowed her to help Xavier Prep during a trying season.
She knew she had to step up after as many as 10 players were absent due to an injury or were transferring elsewhere. But try getting her to admit it. “Everyone on the team stepped up as leaders,” Dooley said. “We had a really young team and as seniors as a whole group stepped up their game. We realized this is our last year. We won state our freshman year and wanted to have that chance again and to share that experience with all of our teammates; how it felt.”
You see? Left in the dust. Afeeling many opposing defenders already know.