Why Division I commit chose one last high school soccer run with Maize South
Before the season started, Rey Ramirez found himself worrying about something that would have sounded strange a decade ago.
Would one of the best players in Wichita still want to play high school soccer?
Maize South senior Caroline Giroux already had the Division I scholarship secured with a commitment to Central Arkansas. She already had club soccer with FC Wichita. She had even stayed sharp in the offseason by playing with Wichita Luck, a women’s indoor soccer team.
In an era when more elite players are choosing to specialize, train elsewhere or skip the high school season entirely, Ramirez wondered if Giroux might decide she had outgrown this stage.
Then the first day of summer conditioning arrived.
Giroux was there first.
“The fact that I even had to wonder was a change from where we were 10 years ago when every Division I athlete and all of the best players in Wichita played high school soccer, no questions asked,” Ramirez said. “Her finishing out her high school career, even with all of her accomplishments and accolades, is the thing that I admire the most about her.”
For Giroux, the decision never became complicated.
“I feel like I just really needed to be there for my team, honestly,” Giroux said. “I didn’t want to miss out on my senior year of high school soccer.”
That choice has helped keep Maize South’s postseason standard intact.
The Mavericks improved to 14-3 with an 8-0 win over Goddard in Monday’s Class 5A regional opener. They will host Andover (13-4) at 6 p.m. Thursday in a regional championship game, looking to extend a streak of five straight regional titles.
It is also a rematch of one of Maize South’s most dramatic regular-season games. The Mavericks beat Andover 4-3 on April 14 after building a 3-0 lead, watching Andover claw back within one goal, then surviving after senior forward Sydney Hansen helped ice the match.
For a program that reached the state semifinals four straight years from 2021-24, Thursday is another chance to prove Maize South’s championship window is still open.
Giroux is a major reason why.
She is the central figure in Maize South’s three-player back line, joined by junior outside backs Cora Bruce and Brooke Tholen in front of junior goalkeeper Paige Kelly. From her spot at centerback, Giroux is part traffic director, part safety net and part wrecking ball.
“What stands out about Caroline is the tenacity in which she defends,” Ramirez said. “She is always in attack mode. She doesn’t defend the ball, she attacks the ball. She doesn’t defend the forward, she attacks the forward. That’s what makes her different.”
Giroux has always been drawn to that part of the game.
While most kids wanted to score goals, Giroux gravitated toward stopping them. She credits some of that to her father, Dan, who played college soccer at Newman University. Defense came naturally to her, but the joy came from the challenge.
“I think it’s just always come natural to me,” Giroux said. “It’s always been really easy for me to understand.”
That does not mean Giroux is limited to emergency tackles and clearances.
Ramirez believes her technical ability is what separates her from many defenders. Giroux’s first touch allows Maize South to do more than simply survive pressure. She can dribble into open space, find the advantage and turn a defensive sequence into the beginning of an attack.
“It’s very satisfying watching us build and be so smooth passing the ball and watch it go all the way up, especially when we score a goal,” Giroux said.
She even gets her own chances to score.
Giroux scored twice in the regional win over Goddard and has been especially dangerous on set pieces this season, both as the player serving the ball and as a target in the box. Those moments give her the outlet she usually denies everyone else.
She can attack the goal for a few seconds, then go back to protecting her own goal.
Her value, though, goes beyond the stat sheet.
Ramirez said Giroux has become one of the program’s most reliable leaders. She leads by example, but has also grown into a more vocal presence. She enjoys pulling younger players aside, giving them small pointers and then watching them use those tips in a game.
“She’s been as committed, as focused, as hard working as anybody,” Ramirez said. “Sometimes the very talented kids can get lazy and not want to pick up cones and pennies after practice. But Caroline, she’s the first one to pick up, the first one to practice, the first one to remind the girls about conditioning. She has been such a good teammate and such a good leader for us.”
That is the part Giroux says she would have missed most if she had stepped away.
The bonds. The daily routine. The post-practice snow cone trips. The chemistry. The feeling of playing beside teammates she knows well enough to organize a back line with a word, a point or sometimes just a glance.
Maize South still has firepower with Hansen, a Johnson County commit who ranks fourth in program history in goals and second in assists. Senior Avery Fellows is back in the midfield, while sophomore Alexis Polzin has become one of the breakout players of the season after thriving in a new defensive midfield role.
But Ramirez believes another deep postseason run will depend on the Mavericks’ defensive commitment. He wants Maize South to score first and never let opponents gain belief.
With Giroux still anchoring the back line, that formula feels familiar.
“I think the girls in our program have learned through history and learned through past experiences in the playoffs,” Ramirez said. “I think we’re really going to benefit from those experiences.”
For Giroux, the postseason is one last run with the team she chose not to leave behind.
Central Arkansas can wait.
Maize South still has something to chase.
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