Caroline Macey is a standout draw specialist and midfielder from the ADVNC North Bay & NDP 2027 teams, committed to playing at Niagara University, starting next Fall.
Caroline was born in Annapolis, MD to two parents who played and loved lacrosse. Her mom and dad, Leigh and Mike Macey, both played.
“When I was two or three years old, my parents gave me my first stick, and we played together, along with my older brother in the backyard,” Caroline recalled. “When I was five, I joined my first team, the Davidsonville Gators. I played a bunch of other sports, but lacrosse was always the most fun for me.”
“We had a big back yard in Maryland, and Caroline, her mother and I would pass the ball around between the three of us from longer and longer distances,” Mike Macey recalled. “She developed really good stick skills early on from that. I would rip passes to her when she was really little and she said initially it scared her, but she got to the point where she was 7 years old catching absolute laser beams that I would throw to her. I think it really helps at that age when both parents played the game and can help with development.”
The Macey family moved to Reno, NV when Caroline was nine years old. There were very few, if any options for her to play lacrosse at first.
“We were actually quite worried about the lacrosse programs in Reno compared to Annapolis,” Mike Macey said. “It’s just not nearly as dominant in this area. That said, my wife took a very active role in the programs out here coaching and recruiting players and helping to build the program.”
“None of my friends in Reno knew what lacrosse was back then,” Caroline said. “It still isn’t sanctioned and there was and still is only 1 local travel club, Avalanche. It just wasn’t a big thing at all.”
“It was tough,” said Caroline’s mom, Leigh Macey. “But Caroline recruited a bunch of her friends to start playing in a rec league and it has grown in popularity over the years.”
Slowly, some club teams became options to play for in the west, and Caroline played for a few. She also played tennis and did downhill skiing. She has been a member of the tennis, ski and lacrosse varsity teams at Galena High School in Reno since her freshman year.
Caroline is a draw specialist, a position she learned from her mom, originally. A unique position, played in the center of the field with all eyes on her, Caroline knows that the position comes with a degree of pressure. “I get really stressed when I’m walking out there at the beginning of every game,” she said. “But once I get out there, I’m just like, hey, it’s going one way or another. I just tell myself to try my best and make it go my way. All the nerves go away once I start getting set up for the draw.”
“Caroline puts a lot of work into taking draws outside of practice,” Leigh Macey said. “It has been rewarding to see how that has turned into success on the field. It’s been really fun to see her growth.”
Caroline became the starting draw specialist her freshman year at Galena High School. After just three seasons, she now holds the record in Northern Nevada for most draws won in a high school career.
As she approached her sophomore year of high school, she started seeking a new club team to help her get recruited for college in the summer of 2025. Along with several of her friends in the Reno area, Caroline joined ADVNC North Bay.
Despite a four hour drive each way to the North Bay of California, Caroline joined ADVNC.
“There was a lot less pressure on me once I came to ADVNC, and since joining ADVNC, I’ve felt like I could just play how I wanted to. So I think ADVNC is great, and I like the coaches and how the Program is run.”
“ADVNC has been really refreshing,” said Leigh Macey. “Coach Brooke Eubanks (ADVNC Girls Program Director) has been absolutely amazing and so easy to access, bounce ideas, and ask questions. Especially heading into and then during Caroline’s recruiting summer. She’s been incredibly helpful and transparent and made the process a lot easier.”
Eubanks helped Caroline prepare for her recruiting summer with ADVNC. Caroline made a list with all the schools she wanted to target and sent all the coaches emails. “Coach Brooke and I talked pretty much every week leading up to each tournament and then again after each tournament. She would send emails to all the college coaches asking for feedback on what they saw from me, and shared that with me.”
“I don’t think Caroline would have had the visibility for college recruitment without being with ADVNC,” Mike Macey said. “In fact, it was an East Coast tournament that ADVNC participated in where Caroline was scouted by Niagara. Simply put, the level of competition that Caroline was exposed to by playing with ADVNC going into that summer and the looks she was able to get from many college coaches led to multiple schools expressing interest in her.”
Playing in tournaments with ADVNC last summer, Caroline felt the pressure of the college recruiting process.
“Playing in front of so many college coaches, I thought every little mistake I made would affect my chances of playing in college,” Caroline said. “I thought I had to be perfect, and it was the most stressful time of my life.”
“It was so stressful, as a parent as well,” Leigh Macey said. “I was just hoping she could stay strong mentally as well as physically through a demanding summer schedule of clinics and tournaments. My job was to make sure she was having fun and to help get her mind off of lacrosse at certain points. Playing D1 in college was something that she really wanted and she pushed herself hard to make it happen.”
When September 1st came around, and college coaches could officially reach out to players, Caroline felt prepared by Brooke Eubanks on how to best handle the college coaches.
Caroline got a few emails from coaches right at midnight, and then got a text from the Niagara University coach the next morning. The fact that coaches reached out gave her a sense of relief, but, up to that point, Niagara wasn’t on her radar at all. “I had visited a ton of schools on the East Coast, but Niagara never even crossed my mind. But after they reached out, I set up a call with their coaches and they wanted me to come out for a visit. But I couldn’t get out there for another month or so. They said they would keep watching me play at my Fall Tournaments.”
Eventually, Caroline flew out to the east coast to visit Niagara and some other schools. “I loved it,” she said. “I loved the campus, the coaches and the team. I just like everything about it and it’s exactly what I wanted in a college and a lacrosse program.”
Niagara soon offered Caroline a spot on the team and Caroline couldn’t have been more excited. “I was about to go play in a tournament in a few more days, and I was still considering their offer. I wasn’t really looking forward to sending a hundred or so more emails to coaches, and then I made up my mind. I committed to Niagara. It was an amazing feeling. I was so relieved to not have to worry about going into that next tournament and thinking about all the pressure of playing in front of college coaches again. Niagara felt right from the time that we walked onto their campus and I’m so happy that it worked out for me to be able to play for them.”
“It was such a relief,” Leigh Macey said. “And then we got to meet a few of the other Niagara commits at an ADVNC tournament in Florida. Caroline hit it off with her future teammates immediately. She was so excited and I got to meet their parents. We all got along really well and we all had the same incredible experience when we visited Niagara.”
It has been quite a journey for Caroline and her parents. “Caroline told me when she was in 2nd grade, when we still lived in Maryland, that she wanted to play lacrosse in college,” Leigh Macey recalled. “We had no idea how difficult that goal would be to achieve after we moved to Nevada when she was in 3rd grade. And now, she gets to head back east for college where she will be closer to old friends and lots of family. We couldn’t be happier and more proud of her that she found the right home at Niagara.”
“Like Leigh said, it has been Caroline’s dream to play DI lacrosse since she was really young,” Mike Macey said. “She never really wavered from that so we committed as a family to invest the time and resources to best position her for success. It's a long journey from throwing in the back yard, to her now being committed to play D1 lacrosse. I don’t think there are many life lessons more valuable than setting goals and working hard to achieve them. There have been a lot of ups and downs for Caroline along the way and learning how to deal with both is such an important part of what team sports brings to the table. I am so excited for her and to watch this next phase of her growth as a person and a player.”
With the process behind her, Caroline has this advice for young players who want to play college lacrosse,
“Try to put everything in a positive perspective. Whether you’re traveling to tournaments, going to camps, or just playing wall ball, try to make everything as fun as possible. Don’t let the pressure get to you. No one plays a perfect game, but just learn from it all and make yourself better.”