Senior Captain Jaci Maze played her first and last collegiate soccer game in her hometown during last week’s season opener against Fresno Pacific.
Take it from me, another Central Valley kid through and through, you do not want to return home once you get out. While this might be the mindset of some kids raised in the 559, it truly requires getting out to realize how grateful you are to call the Central Valley home.
The 100-degree weather in October/ November may not be the reason a Central Valley kid may miss home; however, it builds a great backstory for grit and hard work and forces one to acquire a “whatever it takes mentality subconsciously.”
From forcing yourself to wake up at 5 a.m. to run 10 miles before the sun comes up, to kicking a ball around a field of dead grass (from the years-long drought of course); or how under the dim lights of a soccer field you had to hop the fence to get over— this was what summers back home looked like for me and senior captain of the women’s soccer team and Tulare-native Jaci Maze.
Maze and I, long-time friends who grew up in Sunday school at Grace Community Church and family BBQs within our church community, sat down last week to share stories about the rough conditions we grew up playing sports in.
However, this wasn’t the first thing Maze and I talked about following her trip home to play in the season’s Conference opener. Her two goals, to seal the comeback win at Fresno Pacific and remain unbeaten this season weren’t the first thing we talked about either.
It was the image of her and the team standing in front of stands filled with the family and loved ones she grew up with. For Maze, the game against Fresno Pacific was one she had “circled for years,” even before joining APU.
Maze’s family and friends posing behind the Azusa Pacific Women’s Soccer team following their 2-1 win over Fresno Pacific
The grad senior’s five years at Azusa Pacific have been what one might consider a “rollercoaster” of a collegiate career.
She didn’t even suit up once during her freshman year as COVID canceled the 2020 season. Then, in her sophomore year, she appeared in just three games before tearing her ACL. Going into the following year, she worked hard to recover and bounce back, playing in four games before re-tearing her ACL just two weeks before the team’s game at Fresno Pacific.
After 12 months of recovery and strength-building from the two knee surgeries, she returned to the field in 2023, playing in nine games and recording one goal and two assists over 179 minutes. Now, she has kicked off the 2024 season with four goals in just seven games of play.
Diving into the game at Fresno Pacific, I asked Jaci about the game itself and all the feelings around it, especially with an undefeated 4-0-1 record on the line in front of her home crowd.
“I was pretty nervous. It was the first game of conference, I had so many people there and we were down 1-0. We hadn’t trailed all season,” Maze said.
She told me it was vital that they didn’t have a “silent halftime” knowing that if no one addressed the nerves and built up morale, it wouldn’t end in their favor. “I just took a second. I was like ‘I’ve been down one zero here in the valley, and we’ve come back.’ And it was weird because it’s not like it was the same team but I just sat and thought, ‘ [But] this is my home, I’ve fought on this field before, in this air…”
(Side note, for those who don’t know, by air quality she is referring to the abnormally high air quality that we Valley kids are just “used to” due to the constant wildfires in the Sequoia National Park).
“Coach came in and said ‘You wanted a ring, did you think it would be easy? Did you think it would be handed to you? All of us kind of looked around and when we stepped on the field, there was peace,” said Maze.
The halftime talk and confidence boost clearly paid off as she came out of the break, guns a blazing, scoring back-to-back goals in the first ten minutes of the second half to lift the Cougars to the 2-1 win in front of her home crowd. Her brace in the team’s PacWest Conference Opener recently earned her Player of the Week distinction.
When I asked her about the feeling of turning around to see a whole stand full of people from her 23 years of life she said “Those are all the same people who were praying for me during my injury and praying for my recovery,” said Maze. “They’d been talking about coming to support me when I played in the Valley for a long time, multiple years.
From gift baskets to small texts asking “How’s the knee,” Maze looked at each person there in the stands (and even those who weren’t able to attend) with such a fond love and remembrance of how their support brought her to where she is now.
“They were the people who have been so faithful and I feel like I didn’t realize when I was there [in the Valley] how lucky I was and how blessed I am to have that family like that. Both my blood family, but also my church family. And to see them all there was just so special.”
As she sat with me on Monday morning reflecting on her weekend home with both her long-time family and the new friends who have become family, she talked about how her time growing up in the Valley has impacted her playing career in college, particularly with this team.
“I feel like this season in particular, we have a whatever it takes mentality…I truly believe that’s what’s gonna take this team to go all the way. Because it is whatever it takes for each other, it’s not individual, and it’s not for the fame or for the goals or for the article. It’s for this team, and that is what sets us apart…and I feel like I know how to embody that because of my time in the valley,” she said, referring to the field and playing conditions you just “get used to” after years and years in the Valley.
Maze summed it up best when she reflected on those rough childhood conditions, saying, “Playing on horrible fields with stickers that get stuck on you when you slide, the bad air quality, the heat, all the different teams I played on, I don’t think I played for a team for more than two or three years, because they just weren’t really reliable.”
However, despite the terrible playing conditions, she does recall “rain games” being some of her favorite memories because they only happened once in a blue moon. On average, Visalia gets about 30 rainy days a calendar year.
She also remembers the beautiful sunsets (mostly caused by the poor air quality), similar to the one she saw on Friday in Fresno just before the game.
“It was a huge memory with the sunset and all the family there,” said Maze. “I feel so grateful to have such a supportive family, and seeing them all on the stands for one of the last times probably was so special because that’s how I remember all of my high school games and all the games before that.”
For Maze, who will be finishing her final soccer season this fall, this year has been one of reflection—not just on her journey as an athlete, but on where she’s come from and what the future holds.
“I think the Lord has just been really faithful in showing me that no matter where he plants Me, he will allow me to have a harvest of joy and that he will really just show up with community,” Maze said.
“I think I wouldn’t be able to do any of the things I did without the community around me, and that started in the valley. Without that [support], I wouldn’t have been able to come to college, and then, without all the support in college, coming back from the injuries, I wouldn’t be able to continue playing now…Every single step has been supported and also planned by God.”
Reflecting on the challenges of her college career, from the canceled 2020 season to two ACL surgeries, Maze sees now how those hardships have shaped her—and deepened her understanding of community. “If my path had been straight, I wouldn’t have needed to lean on my community, find out what I was made of, and grow even more because of it.”
That growth over the last five years has fundamentally altered her view of the Valley, the place she once couldn’t wait to leave just like the rest of us.
“A lot of people look at the valley and they think, ‘Oh, why would you ever go back?’ ‘Why did your family ever settle there?’ But now I realize, we settled there and we stayed there because of family and community. That’s what makes it so special, and not just that. I mean, the area is gorgeous when you get to know it. I love the agriculture. I love the open land. So going back is just always something like a dream. It’s so nostalgic and so beautiful. And I enjoy it every single time. It’s where my home is and it’s where my family is.”
Now, as Maze enters the final chapter of this season of her life, she carries with her the lessons rooted in the Valley—from grit and hard work to the importance of community. It’s a bit radical to think of the place you once tried to escape to beautiful Los Angeles (okay, Azusa) has allowed her to gain a deeper appreciation for the place she was raised.
But no matter what comes next—whether it’s trail running, indoor soccer, or diving into medical school—Jaci knows one thing for sure: the Valley will always be home. It’s where her roots are, and where the community that helped shape her will continue to guide her.