By Kim J. Harmon

L

et’s get it out of the way, okay? Sure, Erin McDonald – two inches shy of five feet tall and weighing maybe 100 pounds – certainly does not cast an imposing shadow. But if you are an opponent of hers and you think her diminutive size gives you an advantage, then you have already lost.

Erin, 18, proved that on the soccer field in the fall.

She proved it on the lacrosse field in the spring.

And her success on both – a mixture of pure ability, unflagging desire, and a heart built for someone two feet taller – made her an easy choice as The Newtown Bee’s Newtown High School Female Athlete of the Year.

McDee

People just loved to see Erin with the ball, expecting – no, knowing – that something good was going to happen.

Whenever she got the soccer ball on her foot and started chugging down one of the wings, invariably someone started shouting, “McDee!” And when she cradled a lacrosse ball in her stick, people would hold their breath waiting for that inevitable moment when she took a shot on the cage.

Her lack of size never stopped her.

“With me,” she said, “it’s just instinct. People will look at me, maybe, but I just go hard.”

Erin played youth soccer for years (like hordes of athletes in this town), but only picked up lacrosse as a freshman at Newtown High School. And considering the type of lacrosse career Erin had, it was fortuitous for the Nighthawks that she had had an older sister go through the program first.

“I wanted to find something to keep me busy in the spring,” said Erin, the daughter of Robert and Diane McDonald. “Rebecca played lacrosse and I thought it looked like fun.”

Both sports were fun, for her, but Erin had differing roles in each.

One was a supporting role.

The other . . . a leading role.

On the soccer field, it wasn’t her job to score the goals (even though she did score six of them) but to feed the ball to the people who did. “There was a lot of running,” she said, “and it seemed like I had to be everywhere at once.”

Erin was a starting midfielder for the ‘Hawks, but whether or not she had to earn the job in the minds of her coaches, John and George Kostelis (“they probably believed in me the most,” she said), was not as important as earning the job in her own mind.

“I had some doubt,” she admitted, “about whether I would be playing. I felt I had to prove myself a little because I didn’t play much as a junior.”

She proved herself, all right, and was an important component in a team that finished 14-3-2 on the year. It would have been an even better season, though, had the ‘Hawks not lost a heartbreaker to Masuk in the South-West Conference tournament or lost a heartbreaker to Simsbury in the CIAC Class LL state tournament.

The lacrosse season, on the other hand, ended on a much better note – not in the CIAC Class L state tournament, where the ‘Hawks were beaten 11-8 by Avon, but in the SWC Tournament where the ‘Hawks avenged two regular season losses to New Milford and captured the first-ever conference title with a thrilling, 12-8 come-from-behind win.

Erin – like others – probably expected to be the main offensive threat on a young team. She scored quite a bit, that’s for sure, finishing with 53 goals (giving her 79 goals for her career, good for third on the all-time list), but the presence of Champagne (55 goals), Mary Bell (24) and Morgan Pacheco (18) made the ‘Hawks a much more balanced team.

“Megan (Anderson) and me were the only seniors on the team and Morgan was the only other varsity player returning,” said Erin, “and I wasn’t sure about everyone else. I knew it would be me or Ellie (scoring) and hopefully we would have our best games on the same day.”

Oh, it worked out better than that. The ‘Hawks finished 12-7 and brought home the conference championship.

 “Last year we beat every (SWC) team and I expected the teams to be the same this year,” Erin admitted. “New Milford was a surprise. But the first time they beat us (this year), I wasn’t there and the second time they beat us, Ellie (Champagne) wasn’t there. I knew if we played well at the same time, we could beat them.”

And, oh boy, it was a heck of a way to go out.

“That game,” said Erin, who will soon be on her way to the University of Delaware. “I think of that as our biggest challenge and that will stand out for a long, long time.”