Maura Sullivan is always doing whatever she can to lift up her teammates.
During the Public League championship game, as she always does, the Franklin Towne Charter High School senior helped one of her favorite teammates Mairead.
This time, it wasn’t a metaphor for being a great leader.
“When she scored, I was 5 feet away from her, I just went over, hugged her and lifted her up,“ Sullivan said while laughing. “It was the first goal of the game, she’s such a good player, I knew she’d do it, but in the heat of the moment, I was just so excited. I was so happy I probably squeezed her too hard.”
That goal ended up being the winner in a 2-0 win over Masterman, giving the Franklin Towne Charter girls soccer team its first championship since 2019, and allowed the sisters to become champions in their one season together.
That meant everything to a family where soccer is everything.
“Soccer is huge in my family, my cousins play for the Union,” she said of her cousins Quinn and Cavan. “And my other cousin, their sister, plays for Drexel. It’s a huge family thing. I think we all find it really special because we’ve all grown up soccer players. I feel like we’ve all had our parents and our aunt coach us. That builds the bonds stronger. My little sister was coached by our aunt. It’s a huge family thing.”
“Soccer is very important to all of us,” Mairead said. “We played our whole lives, everyone in my family, really. I played my whole life, my siblings, my cousins. My grandpop introduced us to it. I’ve been coached by my dad and aunt. It can get hard because he’s my dad, but I’ve learned a lot from both of them. It’s fun to learn from them because they’re my family. We connect more.”
The sisters were happy they won together. But it also meant a lot to represent the Warriors.
Franklin Towne is special to the girls for many reasons, but nothing means more than playing with their soccer teammates.
That’s not unique to this year, but winning a championship sure does mean a lot.
“It means a lot, especially the four years of high school,” Maura said. “My older sister (Cassie), her senior year was my freshman year. It was so hard not winning because she wanted to win. She wanted to win with me. I know now from experience, having a bond when you win together it would have been great.
“But it means so much to win here. I love Franklin Towne. I went to the elementary school. I love the environment. It’s not hard, I can follow rules and not get detentions. I love the teachers, they’re very uplifting and supportive. Especially with the soccer girls. And the team. The chemistry. Everything. This team means everything.”
“It was definitely fun and memorable,” the younger sister said. “Only time in our lives we really played. It’s sad it’s over, but very fun. I enjoyed it so much. We really wanted to win it for the seniors, but we wanted to win together as a team. That was our main goal.
“My team impacted me and Maura so much. They encouraged us a lot, pushed us to be our best selves, especially our coach. We learned so much, so many new things. We won it for our coaches, our team. Everything we did was for each other.”
A championship was the perfect ending for the one season the two sisters played together.
Mairead will return next year. The midfielder returns to the Warriors with a year of experience of championship soccer under her belt. She learned leadership from her older siblings (the family includes the three girls and brother Dennis) and soccer from just about everyone in the family.
“She’s hard working on the field, she gets around the field so fast,” Maura said about Mairead. “We’ll be on defense and next thing she’ll be on the 18. She’s faster than me. And she’s so smart with the ball at her feet. For a young player, she played very well. It can be nerve wracking. She was a great asset to the team. She’s going to be great.”
“She’s my built-in best friend, I say that about all of them. I don’t want to sound cliche, but we’re all best friends, all of us. I have friends, but I know I always have them if I need anything, advice. I can go to any of them for different things.”
Maura also has exciting things ahead.
She plans on going to college and will likely play soccer.
While that’s up in the air, she does know what she wants to do in the future.
“I want to be a teacher, right now that’s my main goal,” Maura said. “I’m still deciding. I also thought if I wanted to coach soccer, if you go to high school, you could also coach. Like my aunt is at Nazareth, she’s the AD there. I always wanted to be a teacher, it was one of my goals.
“I’d love to do one thing I love, teach and build bonds with students, and also coach kids. I have a lot of bonds with my coaches, some have really helped me a lot and we have really strong bonds. I would love to do that.”
