Authored by Maeve Hogan
Knocking from door to door a little blonde girl raced around the neighborhood rallying the troops to help her execute her first ever business plan; a lemonade stand. This was to be no ordinary lemonade stand, it had to be the best lemonade stand in neighborhood history. The girls were divided into groups with there own tasks: find the optimal location, create the perfect recipe, and advertise. Within an hour, the perfect lemonade stand was up and running and making bank.
The young girl whose competitive nature drove this ambitious business plan was no other than Gabi Mclaughlin.
“Ever since I was little I have been extremely independant and competitive. I’ve always wanted to be the boss of my own business”.
The lemonade stand was just the first of Gabi’s intricate business plans she would lead in her childhood, always striving to be the best. These schemes would fuel her desire at 18 years old to pursue a career in business in college, holding onto the dream of someday being the leader of a big company.
“I have a lot of confidence and my favorite situations to be in are presenting to a class or leading a group of people. I can’t see myself in a job where someone else is the boss of me”.
Gabi is viewed by others as a natural born leader. Gabi is a 5 time captain, voted by both her teammates and coaches. As a junior, she had two captainships and three as a senior. Although she does have a high level of athletic talent, she attributes her outgoing and inclusive personality combined with her competitive nature as the reason others look up to her as a leader.
“I think what makes people see me as a leader is my willing to listen to other people’s ideas and build relationships with new people. Willingness to talk to anybody opens up a whole new world of people you would never have known”.
Gabi is a hockomock All Star for soccer as a senior and spring track as a junior. She won honorable mention for soccer and winter track junior year. She also was awarded all scholastic for spring track junior year and soccer senior year.
“I love both track and soccer but what makes soccer my favorite is the team nature of the sport. We all support each other and win or loose as a team”.
With a long pause of contemplation, Gabi reflects that her club soccer team was her favorite team she ever was a part of. What makes one of the biggest differences for her is the coaching style and attitude of the team as a whole.
“The best coaching style is respect not fear. My favorite coach was one who treated us with respect and pushed us to be our best. I wanted to work hard and do well for him because I respected him and his opinion. Coaches who are mean and ruthless make players want to work even less hard and take away from the team aspect”.
Gabi claims with an excited smile that Tom Brady is her idol and the type of leader she strives to be on and off the field.
“His teammates look up to him and he is always putting in the extra work to win and that’s what I want in my life”.
In addition to leading her team on the field, Gabi is Vice president of the DECA club. This year she started a school wide campaign to raise awareness of ACL risk to young athletes in high school.
“We have a deep personal connection to the subject because it has had a large impact on our soccer team and I think the campaign will be beneficial to a lot of athletes”.
The aim of her campaign is to help reduce ACL injuries at the highschool level by calling to attention the risks athletes face. With a fleeting look of disdain, Gabi notes she has seen first hand that coaches will ignore the chances to incorporate injury prevention into practice schedules. This lead her to develop the goal of convincing the athletic trainer to mandate incorporation of prevention programs into sports such as soccer, basketball, and football which are high risk.
“I We wish we had these Prehab options and think it will make a difference for years to come”.
Glancing at her phone time, Gabi antsily notes her 20 mins of free time are up. Coming straight from a track workout she now is on her way to help out at a fundraiser for her class. Bright eyed and full of energy, Gabi is always looking for the next task and is incapable of doing nothing. In constant competition with herself, she is always looking for the next step.
“I’m so excited to start a whole new part of my life and see where it takes me. I just want to have a positive impact and good influence on the world”.