Lake Forest’s Stanley
has all the right moves
By Bill McLean
Elise Stanley’s slick soccer moves outnumber two seasons’ worth of grand moves executed on the television show “Dancing with the Stars.”
At least.
Her Cruyff Turn, named after late Dutch star forward/attacking midfielder Johan Cruyff, bewilders defenders, turning most of them into rotating, burrowing gophers in cleats. The 2020 Lake Forest graduate also cuts to the chase via her array of scissors moves.
“She’s magic with the ball,” Scouts coach Ty Stuckslager marveled. “Her footwork, it’s dynamic, the best; she worked hard on that part of her game. Driven and focused — that’s Elise. It was a joy to see her spin players around. Five years ago kids called that ‘breaking ankles,’ right?
“You’ve seen those magicians, the ones who do the cups-and-balls trick,” he added. “You wonder, ‘Wait, where did that ball go?’ Elise makes you wonder the same thing when she’s dribbling a soccer ball.”
The pandemic, sadly, kept Stanley from entertaining hopeful witnesses this spring, but the Johns Hopkins (Md.) -bound forward developed one more move during her ample stay-at-home time.
And — surprise, surprise — it did not involve a soccer ball.
“I turned on my mom’s [Jennifer’s] sewing machine for the first time,” said Stanley, also a fearless, highly effective tackler. “She showed me how to do that. I’d like to give a shout-out to her for also teaching me how to sew.”
Stanley has stitched a few bucket hats and plans to gift them to her friends, as soon as she adds college logos of her friends’ college picks to the floppy lids.
Her combined goal total in two varsity seasons with the Scouts was only two more than a hat-trick, but you’re not going to find a more deceptive stat than that. Stanley’s wizardly ways created a wealth of scoring opportunities, reeling worried defenders in front of trembling goalkeepers.
One of Stanley’s five career assists came during Lake Forest’s Senior Night match last spring against Mundelein. Current Wisconsin-La Crosse forward and sophomore-to-be Ainsley Allan tallied a goal off the dish.
“That night wasn’t my favorite soccer memory; it was my favorite ‘people’ memory in soccer,” Stanley recalled. “Everybody was happy, from beginning to end. Everybody was celebrating.”
Three springs ago, at the end of Lake Forest’s varsity tryouts, Stanley stood in a gymnasium, grappling with disappointment. It was where she found out she’d been cut.
“Five of us were left,” Stanley said. “I got sent home. Rough.
“Big motivator, though,” she added. “I went right to club soccer [Oak Brook-based Eclipse] and upped my training. I worked harder. I juggled a lot, whenever I could, and set up cones in my back yard for other drills. My parents [Chris and Jennifer] were great and super supportive after I was cut. They’re down-to-earth, and they told me not making varsity was not the be-all and end-all.”
Stanley made Stuckslager’s varsity in each of the next two seasons in slam-dunk fashion and was beyond hyped up to suit up for one more spring of prep soccer.
COVID-19, alas, deep-sixed that fervor for her and 13 other senior booters.
“Bummed,” Stanley, an FC United club player last fall, said. “I was bummed. We were excited about the players we had back and our preseason ranking [Chicagoland Soccer’s no. 7 team].
“We would’ve been able to go on a deep [postseason] run.”
Also a two-year member of the Scouts’ varsity girls basketball squad, Stanley served as a reserve shooting guard for the program’s first gallop to the supersectional round in 2019. Lake Forest’s hoopsters reached a Class 4A sectional final this past winter, falling to eventual state champion Fremd.
“What a fun journey, both seasons,” Stanley said.
Next up for Stanley is a fall soccer season with the reigning Centennial Conference Tournament champions. Johns Hopkins’ Blue Jays went 17-3-4 and appeared in an NCAA Division III Tournament quarterfinal in ’19; the program has earned a national tourney berth in each of the last 15 seasons and 18 times in the last 23 years.
The school named former Christopher Newport (Va.) University women’s soccer coach Dan Weiler — the 2018 d3soccer.com National Coach of the Year — its second women’s soccer boss in program history in February.
Stanley, fully healthy after having incurred a fractured foot (wear and tear) following the 2019-20 basketball season, trains three times a week at home. She aims to gain muscle mass and improve her speed and agility between now and when she’s scheduled to set foot on a JHU quad as an official freshman in mid-August.
Four weeks ago she worked her first day as a cashier at Buffo’s in Highwood. Her favorite fare there is Hawaiian thin crust pizza, and she probably needs to complete only one swift Cruyff Turn to burn off that intake.
In college Stanley will turn pages stuck to spines of science textbooks, if those still exist. The pre-med student intends to major in chemistry and maybe minor in neuroscience. With that education she plans to put a positive spin on peoples’ lives.
“I want to be a surgeon,” said one of soccer’s smooth operators.
has all the right moves
By Bill McLean
Elise Stanley’s slick soccer moves outnumber two seasons’ worth of grand moves executed on the television show “Dancing with the Stars.”
At least.
Her Cruyff Turn, named after late Dutch star forward/attacking midfielder Johan Cruyff, bewilders defenders, turning most of them into rotating, burrowing gophers in cleats. The 2020 Lake Forest graduate also cuts to the chase via her array of scissors moves.
“She’s magic with the ball,” Scouts coach Ty Stuckslager marveled. “Her footwork, it’s dynamic, the best; she worked hard on that part of her game. Driven and focused — that’s Elise. It was a joy to see her spin players around. Five years ago kids called that ‘breaking ankles,’ right?
“You’ve seen those magicians, the ones who do the cups-and-balls trick,” he added. “You wonder, ‘Wait, where did that ball go?’ Elise makes you wonder the same thing when she’s dribbling a soccer ball.”
The pandemic, sadly, kept Stanley from entertaining hopeful witnesses this spring, but the Johns Hopkins (Md.) -bound forward developed one more move during her ample stay-at-home time.
And — surprise, surprise — it did not involve a soccer ball.
“I turned on my mom’s [Jennifer’s] sewing machine for the first time,” said Stanley, also a fearless, highly effective tackler. “She showed me how to do that. I’d like to give a shout-out to her for also teaching me how to sew.”
Stanley has stitched a few bucket hats and plans to gift them to her friends, as soon as she adds college logos of her friends’ college picks to the floppy lids.
Her combined goal total in two varsity seasons with the Scouts was only two more than a hat-trick, but you’re not going to find a more deceptive stat than that. Stanley’s wizardly ways created a wealth of scoring opportunities, reeling worried defenders in front of trembling goalkeepers.
One of Stanley’s five career assists came during Lake Forest’s Senior Night match last spring against Mundelein. Current Wisconsin-La Crosse forward and sophomore-to-be Ainsley Allan tallied a goal off the dish.
“That night wasn’t my favorite soccer memory; it was my favorite ‘people’ memory in soccer,” Stanley recalled. “Everybody was happy, from beginning to end. Everybody was celebrating.”
Three springs ago, at the end of Lake Forest’s varsity tryouts, Stanley stood in a gymnasium, grappling with disappointment. It was where she found out she’d been cut.
“Five of us were left,” Stanley said. “I got sent home. Rough.
“Big motivator, though,” she added. “I went right to club soccer [Oak Brook-based Eclipse] and upped my training. I worked harder. I juggled a lot, whenever I could, and set up cones in my back yard for other drills. My parents [Chris and Jennifer] were great and super supportive after I was cut. They’re down-to-earth, and they told me not making varsity was not the be-all and end-all.”
Stanley made Stuckslager’s varsity in each of the next two seasons in slam-dunk fashion and was beyond hyped up to suit up for one more spring of prep soccer.
COVID-19, alas, deep-sixed that fervor for her and 13 other senior booters.
“Bummed,” Stanley, an FC United club player last fall, said. “I was bummed. We were excited about the players we had back and our preseason ranking [Chicagoland Soccer’s no. 7 team].
“We would’ve been able to go on a deep [postseason] run.”
Also a two-year member of the Scouts’ varsity girls basketball squad, Stanley served as a reserve shooting guard for the program’s first gallop to the supersectional round in 2019. Lake Forest’s hoopsters reached a Class 4A sectional final this past winter, falling to eventual state champion Fremd.
“What a fun journey, both seasons,” Stanley said.
Next up for Stanley is a fall soccer season with the reigning Centennial Conference Tournament champions. Johns Hopkins’ Blue Jays went 17-3-4 and appeared in an NCAA Division III Tournament quarterfinal in ’19; the program has earned a national tourney berth in each of the last 15 seasons and 18 times in the last 23 years.
The school named former Christopher Newport (Va.) University women’s soccer coach Dan Weiler — the 2018 d3soccer.com National Coach of the Year — its second women’s soccer boss in program history in February.
Stanley, fully healthy after having incurred a fractured foot (wear and tear) following the 2019-20 basketball season, trains three times a week at home. She aims to gain muscle mass and improve her speed and agility between now and when she’s scheduled to set foot on a JHU quad as an official freshman in mid-August.
Four weeks ago she worked her first day as a cashier at Buffo’s in Highwood. Her favorite fare there is Hawaiian thin crust pizza, and she probably needs to complete only one swift Cruyff Turn to burn off that intake.
In college Stanley will turn pages stuck to spines of science textbooks, if those still exist. The pre-med student intends to major in chemistry and maybe minor in neuroscience. With that education she plans to put a positive spin on peoples’ lives.
“I want to be a surgeon,” said one of soccer’s smooth operators.