Lakewood Ranch soccer star attacks with grace and power

In the summer of 2013, just before she started ninth grade, Maddison “Gi” Krstec broke her leg.

The soccer player’s biggest worry wasn’t the pain, but not being able to train. She had to get creative. She borrowed a wheelchair, not for all-day use, but for exercise.

Krstec spent the summer using the wheelchair on her old middle school track, racing around and building up strength in her arms. She would also stop and do other exercises like sit-ups that did not put much stress on her leg.

Now a senior at Lakewood Ranch High School, Krstec is proof sometimes dedication does pay off. She has combined her natural talent with her need to improve. On April 1, the attacking midfielder announced her commitment to the University of Maryland.

Krstec’s skill set is a combination of grace and power. Her feet become blurs when she gets the ball in open space, leaving defenders looking foolish. She ran cross country while at North Port in 2013, her only year at the school before transferring, and finished 21st at the 4A state championship meet with a time of 19:25.73.

She doesn't run cross country at Lakewood Ranch, but she has shown her speed and stamina on the pitch. Krstec believes she could have won the cross country state championship by now if she had kept running. 

Right-footed, Krstec usually shoots with her left, firing powerful rockets on net. She’s also comfortable crashing the net for headers, thanks to some family-friendly roughhousing. Krstec’s older brothers, Adam Krstec and Dustin Rafeld, would invite her out to play sports with them and their friends, and treated her like one of the boys.

“They trained me to be a tough person,” Gi Krstec said.

Krstec is thankful for the help. She knows soccer at the college level will be much more physical than it is in high school.

She got a taste of top competition earlier this year. On June 5, Krstec traveled with her U.S. Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program Region III team to Argentina for nine days of games against international competition. For someone whose goal is to play in a World Cup with the U.S. Women’s National Team, the trip was unforgettable.

“In Argentina, I wasn’t a starter (at first),” Krstec said. “But when they did put me in, I scored three goals in the first couple minutes I played. I was so excited. Every other game, I started.”

Krstec is a senior captain on the Mustangs, and that is not a title she takes lightly. After the team’s 3-0 home win over Cardinal Mooney on Nov. 5, in which Krstec score twice, players were chatting and laughing during cool-down stretches. Krstec thought the team should take the stretches more seriously.

“Settle down on the talking!” Krstec said to her teammates, before coach Guy Virgilio made similar remarks.

Krstec said she enjoys getting the team hyped up before games and is thankful Virgilio entrusted her with the honor.

The future Terrapin is confident in her abilities, but isn’t a show-off. She’s been that way ever since her youth soccer coaches would tell her, “you’re going to go somewhere.” While Krstec admits scoring goals is her favorite part of soccer, she rarely celebrates them, other than giving high-fives to teammates.

She spent nearly a year deciding among her multitude of NCAA D1 offers, according to her mother, Natalie Krstec. She landed on Maryland in large part because of their coach, Ray Leone, who has been named conference coach of the year at two previous stops, Clemson and Harvard. Gi Krstic lauded Leone’s ability to construct a team and is happy to play for him.

Natalie Krstec said she is proud of her daughter for making the best decision for herself, even though Maryland is farther away than she thought she would go.

Perhaps most telling about Krstec is this: When asked which professional soccer players she shapes her game after, Krstec just shook her head and said none. She has no favorites. She doesn’t want to be like anyone else.

She wants to be Gi Krstec. So far, that strategy has worked.