If it hadn't been for older sister Abby, Auburn goalkeeper Maddie Prohaska might not have taken up soccer.
Maddie's always looked up to her big sister. Whatever Abby has done, Maddie has wanted to do. So as early as she could walk, Maddie Prohaska followed in her sister's footsteps and began playing soccer.
While she started playing soccer because of her sister, her goalkeeping career didn't begin until she started playing with her childhood best friend, Kailyn Dudukovich.
"Growing up, my best friend was always so good at playing forward," Prohaska said. "I was always kinda like, 'Man, I will never be as good as her at this, like I can't do this.' And she's actually going to play soccer at Ohio State now, so figures she's one of the best. So it was always kinda like, 'Man, I shouldn't be a forward,' and she needed someone to shoot on growing up."
While Prohaska just switched at first to help her friend, both of them ended up improving their skills.
"So I was like, 'Well, I guess I can stand in the goal for a little bit,'" Prohaska said. "Eventually, we just worked so well together with that chemistry that I just ended up loving it, and she became such a good shooter, and it pushed me to become a better goalkeeper."
She might have started playing soccer because of friends and family, but the freshman goalkeeper has made the sport her own.
The 18-year-old was named to the SEC's All-Freshman team after the fall season and currently leads the conference in shutouts with six. Prohaska also has the conference's best save percentage at 84.2.
In a typical year, the NCAA soccer season starts and finishes in the fall. This year, the NCAA has split the season into fall and spring portions.
During the fall portion of the season, Prohaska started nine games for the Tigers when she was only 17 — she graduated high school a year early. That wasn't her plan initially.
Prohaska was originally a member of Auburn's 2021 recruiting class, but things soon changed for her.
During a high school tournament in December 2019, Makenna Garcia, the goalkeeper in Auburn's 2020 recruiting class, suffered a knee injury. Prohaska, who was at the same event, checked on her and later made sure her recovery was going OK. On the flight home, though, Prohaska wondered what the Tigers were going to do at goalkeeper.
Goalkeeper Kate Hart was graduating, and the only active goalkeeper at the time was Maggie Van Thullenar.
Prohaska later had a phone call with head coach Karen Hoppa about her play that weekend, and Hoppa jokingly brought up the idea of Prohaska coming to Auburn early.
While it was a joke, the now-18-year-old has been a grade ahead since eighth grade and had already figured out that she could graduate early. On that same phone call, she told Hoppa that she could come to Auburn early.
"So I was on the phone with coach, and she's talking to me about how they joked about how if I could come early," Prohaska said. "And I go, 'Well, I talked to my counselor, and I can.' You could feel the pause like, are you joking with me right now, or what's going on?"
Prohaska assured her head coach that it wasn't a joke, but Hoppa wanted her to think about the decision some more before giving her an answer set in stone.
A month and a half of conversations later, and Prohaska decided to come to Auburn.
While Prohaska decided to give up a year of high school for Auburn, she knew nothing was guaranteed in terms of playing time. Her goal coming in was to prove herself and make herself proud.
"There's always amazing goalkeepers at Auburn," Prohaska said. "And I know that's something that Coach Hoppa and Ben [Madsen] pride themselves on. So I knew I was going to step into an environment of being pushed and being against someone that's better than me or equally as good as me."
For most freshmen, that first year in college is full of challenges and adjustments. For Prohaska, her first year was no exception.
"Academically, I think the biggest thing is in high school, you sometimes don't have to study as hard or you don't have to work as hard," Prohaska said. "When you kinda get to college, it's like a little rude awakening because you have to figure out how to study and how to manage everything."
While she not only had to adjust to college academically, she also had to adjust to college athletics. The biggest thing for Prohaska has been trying to learn from the people around her.
"We have such an amazing team with great chemistry and such amazing knowledge like Sara Houchin and Alyssa Malonson," Prohaska said. "Those people that you get to look up to, and I think especially my first semester, I just wanted to lean on to all that knowledge and kinda learn from them and grow from them."
Auburn has three regular-season games remaining before they'll learn if they earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers are 7-5-3 on the season.
Prohaska was also not the only freshman from Auburn named to the SEC All-Freshman team after the fall, as teammate Anna Haddock was as well.
"I think between Anna Haddock and I, who also got named to that freshman team, we're gonna keep pushing each other, and it's just the beginning," Prohaska said.
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Jake Weese, senior in journalism with a minor in history, is The Plainsman's sports editor.
