“I don’t really have any individual goals, I just want to do the best that I can for the team,” Casey McCluskey said.
It is that attitude that has made McCluskey so well liked by her teammates, coaches, and classmates both on and off the field. It is also that same attitude that has helped bolster the women’s soccer program at Duke for the past three years.
“She’s a great leader, and I think she’s really done a lot to take our program to one that’s relatively competitive,” junior teammate Carolyn Riggs said. “She’s really done a great job of changing everyone’s mentality to take it the next level.”
Although she excelled personally in 2001, earning ACC Freshman of the Year honors, the team was a mediocre 8-10-1 with a losing record in the league. Since then, the Blue Devils have shown steady improvement, finishing last season with a 14-7-1 record and a final ranking of No. 14 in the country.
McCluskey’s individual statistics have contributed greatly to that progress. She ranks in Duke’s top-10 all-time in single season points and goals, as well as career goals, but McCluskey prefers to measure her success by that of the team.
“I guess my senior year I’m just going into it with a lot of pride for where I’ve seen Duke women’s soccer come, and I just want to go out with this team being the best that they can,” McCluskey said.
Her abilities and performances on the field have earned her first team All-ACC honors in each of her three years at Duke, but she has also applied her work ethic towards her studies, excelling as a sociology major, with a minor in Spanish and a certificate in markets and management.
“Casey is a very intellectual girl and a very intellectual soccer player,” head coach Robbie Church said. “She’s very smart and very witty. She analyzes a lot of things.”
The Springfield, Va., native enters her senior season as co-captain, an honor that Church was happy to bestow upon her after her teammates elected her in the spring.
“We just thought as a coaching staff, that was a great decision,” Church said. “Not only on the field, but off the field, Casey’s responsibility has increased and she’s ready for that.”
Despite the fact that this will be McCluskey’s first year with the official title, she feels as if she’s played an integral leadership role her whole since she started at Duke. She arrived in Durham the same year that Church took over for past coach Bill Hempen, and she marvels at the progress that the program has made.
“Robbie’s done an amazing job at recruiting.... I think the senior and junior classes both think we’ve had a hand in it too, we’ve seen a huge turnaround,” McCluskey said. “[We’re] so much better, so much more competitive, and so much more sophisticated.”
Her commitment to Duke’s soccer program is unwavering, especially considering the special relationship she has with her teammates.
One evening last spring when the girls were out socializing together, everyone was in a jovial and playful mood when Riggs noticed McCluskey off to the side crying.
The reason, Riggs explained, was because McCluskey could not believe she would be entering her final season at Duke, and thinking about the pressure to win that has resulted from their recent success brought her to tears.
“She wants it so bad,” Riggs said. “It comes out on the field, but it also comes out because it’s such a big aspect of our lives.”
She also conveyed her admiration and love for her teammates after spending time training at the United States’ Under-21 training facility last spring, where she had the chance to practice with the nation’s elite.
“It’s a great experience but it’s not nearly as good as playing with this team,” she said. “It’s so competitive, and I’d much rather play with my team than the U-21 national team.”
McCluskey is an incredibly competitive person not just in soccer—her fiery passion drives everything she does.
“I’m a pretty competitive person, maybe a little bit cutthroat on and off the field,” McCluskey said. “It’s really hard to separate being a competitive athlete and being a ‘female’ off of the field. A lot of times people are surprised at how aggressive we are as people off the field, how competitive we are, and how much we demand out of each other.”
Some may be swept away by the edge with which she plays, using her aggressiveness to score tough goals and beat her defenders with her dribble. McCluskey, however, could care less about where she finishes in the Duke record books—the rising success of the Blue Devil program is her lasting legacy.
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