Kentucky girl is No. 1 junior wheelchair tennis player in U.S.

And she does it all from a wheelchair.

A 17-year-old senior at Christian Academy (Louisville, Ky.), Mackenzie is the No. 1-ranked junior wheelchair tennis player in the USA and is among the Top 5 in the world, according to her coach, Dan James, who is the national manager of wheelchair tennis for the United States Tennis Association.

In basketball, she is an outstanding point guard who is projected to make the two-time defending world champion USA team for the 2012 Paralympics in London. She is one of 20 invited to try out even though she has a Class 1 rating – meaning she has the most severe handicap on a scale of one to four.

"She never really was able to walk," according to her mother, Jannine Soldan. "As a baby (living in Michigan) she could go around furniture if she had support. She had surgery two days before she was 1 (for a tumor on her spinal cord) and lost all sensation.

"(Our church) really helped us through this thing. They had a lot of prayers for her. It was really hard. Mackenzie was probably one of the best patients they ever had. She never got down and was never told she couldn’t do anything. She was always mature at a young age and a happy child. I am always amazed that she doesn’t get frustrated with life."

Mackenzie Soldan, Christian Academy of Louisville

Photo courtesy of Jeremiah Yolkut, USTA

At age 12, she had another surgery. This time metal pins were placed in her back, running from the base of her neck to her pelvis. At this point she no longer could twist her body.

Mackenzie says simply, "I don’t look at myself as handicapped. I’ve had it my whole life and I’m used to it. I’m aware of it because others make me aware of it. I guess my personality is easy going. Whatever happens is OK. I just try to make the best of it."

However, Mackenzie also was born with a strong competitive nature and will to win. She is a dynamo on the athletic field and never willing to accept anything less than a victory.

She puts it this way: "Well, I don’t like to lose. I usually get angry with myself. The hatred of losing helps me to win sometimes. I have that fire within me. Winning is a good feeling, but more of a relief."

"In fourth grade, she did a mile in her racing chair," Jannine related. "On the third lap she started passing everybody (she was the lone wheelchair entry) and the crowd was going crazy, chanting her name. She won by the front of her wheel and almost flipped. I’ll never forget it."

At age 9, she competed in her first national track meet and won the 60-yard dash. "No one told her where the finish line was, so she just kept going and going until people flagged her down," Jannine recalled.

Mackenzie began playing tennis at an early age because her parents, Jannine and David, both played the sport. When she was 7 she discovered basketball, even though her parents had to drive two hours so she could attend a practice session with the coed Sterling Heights (Mich.) Challengers.

"I loved it!" she exclaimed. "I just felt natural doing it. I like the team aspect of it – the support system. If you fail, you have people to support you. I could play it all day, all week for the rest of my life and I wouldn’t get tired of it.

"Defense is one of my strong points. Also my court vision. I know where my teammates are without actually looking at the person."

She used to have a basket at her home, but it was damaged during a storm last year and has not yet been restored. "I keep bugging them (her parents), but they forget about it," Mackenzie said.

Though moving to Louisville in 2002, Mackenzie has continued to play for Sterling Heights, a coed team of players ages 14-18 which currently is ranked No. 5 in the country. Her parents either drive or put her on a plane so she can make most of their tournaments. In 2007 she helped the Challengers win the national JV championship.

Sterling Heights coach Carl Vereen, who met Mackenzie nine years ago, said, "You could see she had certain talent, but she was very shy. To get her to yell was a chore. Her play on the court was completely opposite. She was tenacious and smart. She is probably the most serious kid I’ve ever met.

"She’s not here for practices, but when she shows up (for tournaments) there is a certain gathering of the team around her. She fits right in. Her skill level and knowledge of the game bring confidence to the team. She brings order and knows how to direct. She’s extremely smart and driven to compete and succeed."

Mackenzie plays both point and shooting guard and "has one of the sweetest mid-range side shots you’ve ever seen," according to Vereen. "You put a screen in front of her and she’ll drop it (in the basket) all day long. Her range is 12 to 15 feet."

The games are college-style, with two 20-minute halves, and Mackenzie usually plays "35 to 40 minutes," Vereen said. "She does not like to come out of a game," he laughed.

Mackenzie always is at her best against an all-boys team from Canton, Mich., which currently is ranked No. 3 in the country. She is a particular nemesis to one of the team’s best shooters.

"He’s extremely strong, but she has shut him down his entire career," Vereen noted. "It’s frustrating to him, because he knows what is going to happen when he plays us. When he plays adult ball, he’s deadly from outside. If you leave him alone he will hurt you.

"His dad came to me at halftime (during one game) and asked, ‘Can you have her back off a little?’ ’’

At home Mackenzie plays for an adult team, Hill On Wheels, which has two other women and 13 men ranging in ages from 18 to 52. Assistant coach David Hartsek said she is one of the team’s first substitutes and capable of being a starter at point guard.

"She can hang with the best of our athletes," Hartsek said. "She has youth on her side and can recover. She has a lot of determination and will that you don’t teach. She never backs down from bigger, stronger players. Her mindset doesn’t allow her to give up.

"She put on a clinic last year against a team from Dayton (Ohio). They were all bigger and stronger than her. She came off the bench and schooled them. We were amazed.

"I think we will see her in the Paralympics some day in basketball and tennis. She has the mentality it takes to be there."

Still, she has had the most international success in tennis. Over the past three years she has represented the USA in the World Team Cup, sending her to Sweden, Italy, England and this coming May to Turkey. This year she competed in the Junior Masters in Tarbes, France where she won doubles with a girl from Japan and placed third in singles.

"It’s cool to see the places," she conceded, "but I’m not a big traveler. Once I get there I enjoy it. The long plane rides aren’t so pleasant."

Though the travel has cost her 26 school days during her senior year, Mackenzie is "always up on her school work," according to John Moore, director of ministry advancement, public relations and fundraising. "She’s never asked for any special favors."

Soldan (right)

Photo courtesy of Don Rose

When Mackenzie’s USTA coach, Dan James, met her, his first thought was "what a sweet, quiet, humble young lady. Then you see her athletic ability and your jaw drops. She is one of our smartest and toughest competitors.

"Her biggest strength is her serve and forehand, but she does not have a glaring weakness. Tactically, she is one of the best players on the team. She’s more physically impaired than her opponents, so her success is that much more impressive."

One of James’ favorite stories is "when she came out of her shell. At one of our camps she opened up and we found out that she is really funny."

James gives the lion’s share of credit for Mackenzie’s tennis game to William Hughes, head pro at the Tennis Club of Springhurst in Louisville. Hughes, who has worked with her for five years, said that when he first met her as a youngster, "I was surprised at how good she already was. Her movement and strategy on the court have grown by leaps and bounds. She’s 10 times stronger than she was, and faster because of her strength. She has an undying will to succeed."

Hughes added, "One of the neatest things was in France last year. Watching all the kids come around. She got ‘autograph-hounded’ by kids and adults. It happened all over the place."

Probably not surprisingly, the perpetual-motion teenager also plays for her high school team, which, of course, faces only able-bodied competition. Coach Jeff Mallory said he had to cut her as an eighth-grader, "but as disappointed as she was, she came out the next year and made the JV team. She has been on the varsity for the last three years.

"She hits a really good ball. She has a nice forehand and a slicing serve with a lot of spin. She also has a one-handed backhand. She does win some matches against able-bodied players."

Mallory said he moves her around, but she usually plays No. 2 or 3 doubles. The only break she gets in her prep matches, Mallory revealed, is that when an opponent hits to her, she is allowed two bounces (instead of one) before she must make a return.

One of Mallory’s favorite moments is "that constant look of surprise, and even a little bit of passiveness, from her opponent. That quickly goes away when she starts hitting the ball. When the opponent starts losing, the whole dynamic changes."

A lifetime in a wheelchair has forced Mackenzie to develop a very strong upper body. Because of that strength, her favorite stroke is her forehand "because I can just smash it," she said.

That strength continues to grow because for the last three months she has been working out twice a week (45-minute sessions) with Greg Fredrick from Velocity Sports Performance Training Center in Louisville.

"We’re improving the quickness in her arms and doing some shoulder therapy," Fredrick said. "Speed and quickness in a chair, it’s like improving an engine in a car. It helps endurance as well as explosiveness. She wants to get challenged and get better."

From time to time, Fredrick challenges Mackenzie in a game of H-O-R-S-E or Around The World.

"She talks a lot of smack," he revealed. "She hates to lose. We were playing Around The World. I just was getting ready to shoot and she yells, ‘Miss it!’ I did miss the shot, but I won (the game)."

Dan James calls Mackenzie a "very hot commodity" and he wasn’t kidding. Five colleges – Arizona, Illinois, Wisconsin, Alabama and Edinboro (Pa.) – offer scholarships for women’s wheelchair basketball. All of them wanted her, but defending national champion Alabama won the sweepstakes.

Alabama’s women play a 40-game schedule and travel throughout the country, according to Brent Hardin, who is the founder and director of wheelchair athletics and also the head women’s basketball coach.

Hardin says, "What’s attractive, No. 1, is that she’s a great person. All the players and coaches like her. She is a hard worker and knows what it takes to be good.

"She is a great passer, has a nice soft shot and good hands. She can guard most of the players on the court. She has incredible muscle and endurance in her upper body. She’s very good now, but once she gets in our program, she’ll get even stronger and faster."

Mackenzie, who has a 3.7 GPA, is looking at a possible marketing major in college.

"It’s a really cool campus," she said enthusiastically. "I know some people there already. I’m excited because I want to get better."