Teen Face: Santa Rosa soccer star’s goal is to help others

Maddie Batchelder, 16, has years of experience on the soccer pitch but recently was able to be coach for a day when she helped organize and run a Special Olympics soccer tournament.

The Santa Rosa High School junior already was a regular volunteer with Special Olympics. Coupled with her soccer skills, the fit to help with the event was perfect, said Danielle Taylor, an adaptive P.E. teacher who oversaw the first annual tournament as the agency’s school partnership coordinator.

“She’s so passionate about this. Her love for helping the community and working with people with disabilities is amazing,” Taylor said.

Batchelder began volunteering with Special Olympics in the summer after eighth grade. “I was looking for opportunities to volunteer, combining athletics and my passion for working with special needs. I found Special Olympics,” the teen said. “It’s really rewarding.”

“The people are what I look forward to seeing, they’re constantly happy no matter what. They don’t look at superficial things but all the positive aspects,” she said.

Born in Maryland, she spent five years in Mexico with her family, through her father’s job. They moved to Santa Rosa eight years ago.

Batchelder lives with her parents, Ken and Tracy Batchelder, and younger brothers Zack and Shea.

She plays club soccer with Santa Rosa United and since freshman year has played varsity soccer for Santa Rosa High.

Team captain, she’s a stand-out, said coach Nikki Kumasaka. “ She is definitely a leader. All the girls look up to Maddie. She brings something special out in the team and everyone.”

“After high school, I would love to play college soccer. It’s one of my goals,” said Batchelder, who has been looking at schools in Southern California and on the East Coast. “I’ve always been interested in public health … definitely in the medical field.”

As well as soccer, volunteering year-round for Special Olympics and working on keeping her grades up, she’s a member of the school’s History Club, which emphasizes community volunteering with a historic element. They’ve helped clean up around Santa Rosa’s historic Adobe and organized a Santa Rosa history hunt, for fun and to offer participants a little more knowledge about their town’s history.

She also volunteers with the Ceres Community Project, making healthy food for ill residents throughout the county.

When Taylor got the go-ahead to organize the Special Olympics soccer tournament in Santa Rosa, she turned to Batchelder.

Batchelder recruited soccer players to play and coach and helped Taylor set up the teams and practices. She also coached a team.

On a recent day in November, more than 100 teens with disabilities from Santa Rosa and Montgomery highs played several games of soccer, alongside some high school volunteers and coached by high school volunteers.

“It was actually pretty fun,” she said. “I got my friends involved.”

Taylor said she was impressed how Batchelder worked the effort into her life.

“That same day she had to fly out to Southern California for a look at a school and she was there to help run that whole day. That’s how dedicated she is,” Taylor said.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rossmannreport