The senior outside midfielder has helped Little Flower get on somewhat of a redemption tour this year.
Madeline Curran is very nice to officials.
After all, she knows they have a very hard job. She knows from experience.
Curran, a senior outside midfielder on the Little Flower High School soccer team, spends her free time as an official for younger soccer players. At times, it can be far more stressful than playing in big games. At least when some parents have their say.
“I like it, but you get yelled at a lot by parents,” Curran said. “No matter what, someone is unhappy. I don’t like that, but I do like doing it other than that.
“My friend signed up to take the test, so I decided to go with her, and I’ve been doing it since I was 15,” the 17-year-old continued. “It’s not something I love doing, but there are fun things about it and it’s a good job.
“I really like doing it when you have the real little kids. They’re so cute and they don’t know how to play at all. I spend most of my time coaching them. It’s a good way to get extra money.”
On the field, Curran is nothing but money and this year she helped Little Flower enjoy a redemption tour of sorts.
Last year, the Sentinels struggled and failed to win a playoff game, which is quite uncommon for the proud program.
It was a season most of the players and coaches wanted to forget.
This year, they recovered and spent most of the season atop the Catholic League standings before finishing the season 8–3–1 and advancing to the semifinals of the Catholic League playoffs. There, Little Flower suffered a 2–1 loss to Lansdale Catholic last Tuesday, ending its season. It wasn’t the way Curran and her teammates wanted to see their season come to a close, but it was head and shoulders above the campaign they enjoyed a season ago.
“I’m really proud of this team,” Curran said. “I knew we were going to be better this year because of all the work we put in. Last year, we were good, but we didn’t play the way we could. This team played its best all the time.
“We knew we could be good, but we played better than I think a lot of people thought we could. We didn’t play in a spring league or anything, but we worked really hard this summer and then we were in first place for most of the season. It was a pretty good year.
“I think all of the teams in the playoffs were really good. We wanted to win, but we still had a really good season. I’m proud of the team.”
Normally after a season, especially her final one, Curran would be very emotional after the year. But she isn’t too upset because the end of soccer season doesn’t mean the end of hanging out with the girls on her team.
Not only are the girls friends off the field, but it won’t be long before they’re reunited, working together to win games.
“The good thing is most of us, and I think all of the starters, are playing lacrosse,” said Curran, who plays that we’ll all be together, but we’re together all the time any way. We are all really close. That’s one of the reasons we did so good, I think.
“My favorite part of soccer and even the school is the girls. We all have so many friends and love hanging out with each other.”
Her friends are her favorite part about the school, but it’s certainly not the only thing she enjoys. When she’s not playing sports, the Port Richmond native is also involved in activities in the school.
“I’m in a few activities, I am in the scrapbook club and the peace club,” Curran said. “They are groups where we get together for a few minutes and meet. They’re fun.”
As much as she loves Little Flower, Curran is starting to look to the future.
Next year, she wants to continue playing sports, and while she’s not against playing lacrosse, she’s leaning toward playing soccer.
She also has an idea on what she wants to major in.
“I want to study X-ray technology,” Curran said. “I really like science and it seems like something I would enjoy. We learned about it a little in school and it was really interesting, so I think it would be the perfect thing for me.”
Almost as perfect as Little Flower has been.
Curran still has most of her senior year left, which means she’ll still have a lot of memories to make, but she’ll never forget her days playing for the Sentinels soccer team.
“This was definitely the best year,” Curran said. “We had a great year, we played really well and we had a lot of fun. We really did better than a lot thought we would. It was a good year.”
