Female Athlete of the Year: Maddie Price

Eventually though, Price said, they’re going up on her wall. And if you’re a nail, that’s the gig you want.

But be forewarned, nails, if 2012-2013 is any indication, you’ll have company very soon because for a competitor the quality of Price, once you get a taste of the top, nothing else can top it. And that spells trouble for the rest of the athletic world.

If Price’s sophomore year was a coming-out party, then her junior year was a long statement. No female athlete in San Mateo county won more when the lights shined the brightest than Price. And of course you’ll read a lot of great numbers in this story, but really the only one that counts is three — as in three Central Coast Sections championships. While it’s perfectly fine to define great athleticism with statistics, winning is the ultimate stat.

And it’s for her championship efforts that Price is the 2013 San Mateo Daily Journal Female Athlete of the Year.

“I feel this year in athletics was everything I could have asked for and more,” Price said. “Winning CCS basketball, first off, was insane ... and then getting a double-win in track was so amazing. It was definitely the highlight of my year.”

Like all great athlete who come out of nowhere early on in their prep careers, Price’s first two years at Menlo School were the kind that saw the word potential thrown around a lot. Insanely fast, Price dabbled in cross country, played basketball and hit the track. But an injury here and there sidetracked her from reaching championship potential.

So the expectation coming into her junior year was already high. She sat out the fall in preparation for a winter and spring when she would go all out to try and reach her goals. But once again, an early concussion served as a bump in the road. Her basketball coach, John Paye, said Price spent everyday post-concussion in the training room rehabbing.

Once the month mark was reached, Price hit the basketball court, along with a couple of other superstars, and the Knights really took off.

“To do what she did in sport like running which is very intense and then do all the work she was to do for a skilled sport like basketball, that’s a lot of work on her part,” Paye said. “And I know we wouldn’t have made it as far as we did with the girls’ basketball team [without her].”

Price set an unreal pace on the basketball court that most of Menlo’s competition had a really hard time matching. So much so, that the Knights went 22-10 and really found a remarkable stride as the calendar turned to the CCS playoffs.

“We had a super balanced team,” Price said. “As the season kept going, I realized that because of my speed on defense and because the way our team can pass the ball around, I felt because of that I was able to contribute and put some teams away early. It was a team effort. We were all working to shut them down on defense so they couldn’t score, turn it around it and hit some early shots. That was big.”

Price appeared in 25 games for Menlo and averaged just a hair under 10 points per game. She shot 41 percent from the floor and 62 percent from the charity stripe. She was first on the team in steals, second on the team in rebounds (7.7 per game), blocks, assists and double-doubles (5).

“I felt it was her multi-sport background that helped our team,” Paye said. “Drew (Edelman) and Lauren Lete were leaders, but Maddie Price was a leader as well and she brought something more to the team She was just able to will us to victory there late in the season. She was remarkable. She really turned up our defensive intensity with her athleticism and her competitiveness.”

For her efforts, Price was named to the West Bay Athletic League All-Foothill Division First Team and it was that furious pace that fueled Menlo in a roughshod tear through the CCS playoffs en route to a title. The Knights also reached the semifinals of the CIF NorCal playoffs — the farthest any Menlo team had reached since the 1991 season.

Price’s contributions on the court can not be overlooked, but the truth is, once February rolled around and the basketball team kept shining, the questions revolved around getting Price onto the track.

“Every since I was little playing in multiple sports I’ve always felt like I’ve been a competitor,” Price said. “So, while in the back of my mind and my coach’s mind we were like, ‘OK, track is coming up. You should probably get some technique down,’ I feel like I was so involved in the basketball team, I wanted to get so far with the team and wanted to compete in that arena, and that moment in time, I wasn’t really focusing on the future of track. ... Because basketball was getting intense, everyone was clicking, we were going so far, I think I was just having a great time competing in basketball.”

But once the final ball bounced, Price transitioned onto the track where the 200 and 400-meter races awaited. A year after successful runs at CCS, Price’s junior campaign began late (in March), but all she did was dial up her training and intensity. With only two weeks of track under her belt, Price finished fifth in the 400 at the Stanford Invitational and then a week later went on to finish seventh at the Arcadia in a race that involved five state champions — those two meets served as moral victories and helped Price turn on that competitive switch. The rest of the WBAL and subsequently all of CCS didn’t stand a chance.

At the CCS Top 8, Price set a meet record in the 400, shaving a whole minute off her time from a week before. She also won the 200 (24.50) and was named Athlete of the Meet — her coach Jorge Chen called it her breakout meet.

“That’s when she finally realized I could do this,” Chen said. “She was capable of running these fast times. We’re training Maddie and by CCS she did really awesome. She was actually running on schedule, hitting her goal marks on schedule. My whole plan was to her to peak at state.”

Price took no prisoners at the WBAL league championships. In a sign of things to come, she won the 200, the 400 and even took second in the shot put with a 29-8’5. Her efforts landed her the WBAL MVP and earned Menlo a team title.

And if the CCS wasn’t worried about what she would do at its meet, they were mistaken. In two remarkable races, Price took the 200 and 400 — she was the county’s lone female double-gold winner with a 54.78 and 24.30 respectively.

“The 200 was a race that showed my true competitiveness and really showed how I can finish a race,” Price said. “I’d been dreaming about that moment of winning the 200 at CCS and had been constantly visualizing it leading up to the race and knew I could beat those other girls. I think it’s because of that I was able to come off that curve and get them at the end.”

After qualifying third at the state meet for the 400, Price went on to finish sixth —disappointing? Sure, by Price standards. But the truth is, the 2012-13 school year turned out to be than just about winning medals — the talk now with an athlete of Price’s caliber turns to the word “legacy.”

“She’s the greatest female runner I’ve seen in my 11 years at Menlo,” Chen said.

“I’d have to do more research, but Maddie has to be up there as one of the best females athletes at Menlo,” Paye said.

And with a year to go in her prep career, the girl with the unbelievable competitive spirit has set her sights on being one of the all-time Knight greats.

“I just want to make sure I can kind of add to that list [of great Menlo athletes],” Price said. “I want to be remembered for more than just the times, more than just the CCS titles, be known as this competitive and passionate force.”