In-depth with our sports seniors

After school, Kristean Kissel, would often find herself sitting in the gym waiting for her sisters basketball practice to get over. As she waited, she slowly started to enjoy the game and soon picked up on it.

"I found basketball through my sister," said Kissel. "I would have to wait after school for her to finish practice, so I slowly picked up the game. She was the one who taught me a lot of stuff about that sport early on."

Kissel's sister and father were her biggest influences. Her father excelled in baseball, but school was never his thing. It was Kissel's sister who influenced her to do well in sports and her education as well.

"In a weird way this taught me a lot," said Kissel. It made me strive to become a better student and do the school work that I loved to put off in high school and still do to this day. My sister would always try to find new things to introduce me to."

Although Kissel enjoyed basketball, she found her calling in soccer. It was something she had discovered on her own and that is what she cherishes about the game.

"I enjoy soccer more because it was something that I found on my own growing up," said Kissel. "I have made it my sport, and I will always enjoy it much more. Basketball would probably be here too, but it's more fun to analyze it, then to play it personally."

Growing up near the Canadian border in Champlain, NY, she had a lot of great coaching experiences early on in soccer that helped pave the path for her career in soccer.

One summer, Kissel had stumbled across a women's soccer league that was run in her area and she joined the team in the neighboring town. What she didn't know was that joining this league would lead to one of her fondest memories.

"My first year on that team we won the championship against a team that had blown us out the previous two times we played them," Kissel said. "The opposing team went up 2-0 early on, but we battled back to have it 2-1 at half time. For the overall game the opposing team out-shot us 19-10 in the game. I wound up with 17 saves, which to this day is the most I have had in a game. This is by far one of my most fondest memories of my sports career."

Kissel played both basketball and soccer in high school, but says she played the game her way then.

"I played soccer much different then I do now," said Kissel. "I did not get along with the coach so I was more there for the people I played with. I was still learning a lot about the game and got frustrated when the coaches could not answers the questions that I had since I was not always a keeper. So I picked up watching games when I could and found that I was learning more this way, than through the coaches I had."

Kissel found herself to be a goalie when one practice during junior high, she was stuck into goal. She had found this to be her position and her calling. Kissel can still remember when she got her nickname in Spanish class.

"I can remember when one of my high school teams called me 'a little crazy' in Spanish class and throughout high school that is what they called me," she said.

MCLA was her first choice of college, but she decided upon going to American International College instead for her first year. After one year at AIC, Kissel found that she regretted going there and wasting a year of eligibility in soccer. She soon transferred to her first choice of school.

"I transferred into MCLA even though it was my fist choice out of high school," said Kissel. "I regret not coming here from the start and the fact that I played one year of soccer at AIC. I wish I had one more year here to play, but I went with my second choice and to be honest I regret it. There is a lot more behind this situation that amounted, dealing with admissions and me missing my high school graduation, which I was not doing."

Kissel has no regrets of coming to MCLA to play both basketball and soccer. She has learned more than she could have ever expected playing with the players and coaches she has here.

"I have learned more then I could have ever expected," said Kissel. "I found myself through these two sports and the people and coaches here. Trust me when I say have changed, and I now can make saves that I wasn't able to and the list could go on. Most of all, I learned how to trust what a person is saying and try it. It might actually work. It might have taken Coach Raber 3 years, but it finally sunk in this preseason."

Kissel's senior year has been one special memory. There was something that clicked in her head this summer and made her play the way she did this year. Soccer was her hardest one to say goodbye to though because they had needed the win to make the MASCAC playoffs. The game ended in a 2-2 tie.

"I enjoyed the senior games, but I really don't like Fitchburg State anymore," said Kissel. "Both of my careers ended there for 7pm games. Soccer was hard to take, since we needed a win to get in to the MASCAC tournament and we tied in double overtime. I thought that the game was well played. We just liked ties too much this past year."

As Kissel graduates, she will look to further her education at graduate school, but she will not forget the memories she had here at MCLA. She looks forward to continuing playing sports, but not competitively, but to have fun.

"I will probably just play sports to have fun," said Kissel, "because that is what playing sports is all about. It's to have fun and that is what has made my time here so enjoyable."