Makenzie Terrell said her dream job would be as a high school counselor, where she could help students grow while steering them on the right path.

The Middleburgh Central School senior has already gotten plenty of practice doing such things in athletic circles and as a leading voice in several organizations.
“I just really like to give back to the school,” the 18-year-old said. “If I didn’t have those things in the first place, I wouldn’t have grown into who I am.”

The academic standout who is one of 10 high school honorees for the inaugural Capital District Sports Women of the Year awards, which also sees three college athletes recognized, is active in SADD, tutors at-risk students in the Liberty Partnership and also lends her skills to Youth as Leaders, the Middleburgh Athletic Association and the Rotary Interact Club. She is also the treasurer of the MCS National Honor Society.

Terrell finds her work with Middleburgh’s SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) organization particularly rewarding.

“I enjoy that because I get to influence a lot of students,” Terrell said.

Terrell made a difference this past basketball season, even after breaking a wrist on the first day of practice, which forced her to miss all but a handful of games.
“Obviously, she was disappointed,” Middleburgh co-athletic director Melinda Narzymski said of Terrell, whose basketball marksmanship helped her reach an Elks Hoop Shoot Foul Shooting regional final a few years back. “Basketball is her thing, and even though she couldn’t play, she was there at every practice helping out every way she could.”

Terrell was one of only two seniors on a young Middleburgh squad.

“I went to all of the practices and encouraged the other players, and at the same time I got an opportunity to see the game differently,” Terrell said. “That helped me understand the dynamics of the team, and I was able to see what we needed to do collectively to be better.”
Getting better is a trademark of Terrell’s. She won the basketball team’s most improved award in 2017 to go along with the defensive most valuable player award she received in 2019.

“Makenzie not only perseveres, but takes on a leadership role in all she does,” Narzymski said.
Terrell plays softball as well as basketball, and competes despite an autoimmune disorder and circulatory issues.

“I have to be careful,” Terrell said. “It makes playing both basketball and softball a little difficult, but I want to play.”

“She plays it down and doesn’t want extra attention,” Narzymski said. “That’s her way, but it’s commendable how she’s overcome so much.”

Down the road, her goal is to see others overcome obstacles, too.

“I want to help,” Terrell said.

Terrell is already taking college-level courses and will study psychology at SUNY Cobleskill.

“Makenzie demonstrates the qualities we encourage all of our young female athletes to aspire to,” Narzymski said. “Makenzie is an exemplary student and excellent role model.”

Terrell ranks fourth overall in her MCS Class of 2020, and has been recognized numerous times as a New York State Public High School Athletic Association and Western Athletic Conference scholar-athlete. She received the MCS Class of 2020 Award of Health Science Achievement, and has received the High Honor Certificate of Achievement in each of her high school years.

This article appeared in the 2020 CDSWOY Awards Program on August 18, 2020.

Schuylerville High School girls’ lacrosse and field hockey coach Erin Lloyd said Sadie Tavares “has always been a bull. She is the girl that will go through a brick wall to get the ball.”

“That’s a fair assessment,” Tavares admitted, with a laugh. “In basketball, I once ran through a door, and I didn’t know it was unlocked, and I fell right outside and almost got locked out of the building.”

One of 10 high school honorees for the third-annual Capital District Sports Women of the Year awards, Tavares surrounds herself with doors, and welcomes the opportunity to step through all of them, perhaps not so loudly as the one in the gym, but forcefully enough. A hard-hustling three-sport star who helped the Black Horses win the Section II Class D championship in girls’ lacrosse the last two seasons, Tavares has immersed herself in a variety of outside activities while maintaining an academic record that ranked No. 1 in her class.

An imposing presence as a defensive midfielder in lacrosse and field hockey, Tavares has been a co-captain in all three sports and was a Foothills Council first-team all-star in lacrosse.

She has shown an equally wide range academically, as the National Honor Society student has been involved in Math League, Spanish Club and Environmental Club, and has received awards such as the Rensselaer Medal & Scholarship for outstanding achievement in math and science, among others.

That speaks to her aspiration to study biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University in the fall of 2022 as a path to a career in neuroscience. Tavares has already served an internship at the Neural Stem Cell Institute in Rensselaer.

“I knew I loved biology and wanted to help people,” Tavares said. “I went there all this year to intern with Dr. David Butler, studied things like Huntington’s Disease and how horrible all these neurodegenerative diseases are, like Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. So I wanted to improve the lives of those people if I could.”

Tavares’ community service spans such organizations as Students Against Destructive Behavior (SADD) and has included coaching young kids, but she said her favorite is peer mentoring with special education students her age.

“I work with the life skills class at my high school, and every single week I go into the classroom, and we talk and play different games, and it’s really fun to interact with those students,” she said. “It’s very relaxing for me, as it is for them, to just unplug from all the honors courses that I’m taking and just talk to people who want to talk about things other than school.

If it doesn’t appear there are enough hours in a day to participate in the various activities and organizations she does while maintaining excellent academic and athletic careers, Tavares said that’s the way she prefers it.

“This is actually a question I get a lot,” she said. “The thing is, I really like to be busy. If I’m sitting down and on my phone, I feel like I’m not being productive. So I love to be out talking to people. I’m extremely extroverted, so I love to talk to people and interact with people and play sports against people. I like to give back to my community, so it’s not so much of a burden to me as it is something that I really want to do, something I want to incorporate into my everyday life.”

Tavares had played soccer for seven years before being convinced by Lloyd to switch to field hockey as her fall sport two years ago, especially since the workouts and weight training had much more carryover into spring lacrosse, Tavares’ favorite sport.

The Black Horses won their second straight Section II championship by beating Cohoes 18-4 this spring.

“Winning the sectional championship this year and last year for lacrosse, it was just really nice to see all your hard work pay off with the people you spend the whole year conditioning with and training with,” Tavares said. “‘Oh, we’re going to get that white patch,’ and it’s so nice to finally be validated and get it.”

“Her presence in the halls and on the fields of Schuylerville High School will be greatly missed next year,” Lloyd said. “We are proud of her as a school community, and cannot wait to see what her future holds.”

After all her accolades and achievements, Tavares said she was especially gratified to be nominated for the Capital District Sports Women of the Year award.

“I just found out about this award this year, but once I saw it, I was immediately drawn to it, because you don’t see a lot of women in sports coverage, and it was really nice to see that, with the 50th anniversary of Title IX and everything,” she said. “I was so overjoyed and not expecting it at all. But it’s so awesome to be a part of this amazing group of people that I’m going to be joining.”