La Voz

Media Credit: Jan McDaniel Monica Macer holds up her 2007 Achievement Award.

Monica Macer is not only a soccer player for the Dons, but a woman who has overcome a twenty-year methamphetamine addiction and reshaped her life through academics and athletics. She has attracted the admiration of coaches and advisers, and was recently nominated and selected to win the 2007 3C4A Achievement Award, one of only two bestowed annually to deserving community college athletes who have triumphed over great odds. Macer will be honored, along with other De Anza College athletes, at a reception on Wednesday, at 1:30 p.m. in the Administration Building lobby.

Macer, a San Jose native and the daughter of a police officer, grew up amidst a long family tradition of athleticism. Her grandfather played baseball for the San Francisco Seals and her brother played baseball at De Anza. She began swimming at age 4, and started kicking a soccer ball when she was 6.

During high school she began using methamphetamines, and thus started a downward spiral that would eventually steal her youth and swallow twenty years of her life. "When you use drugs, you grow up fast and hard," Macer said recently. "But I have no regrets." She took classes briefly at De Anza during that painful time, and made three failed attempts at drug rehab. She got involved in a violent relationship. Macer finally hit bottom when she was arrested on a drug charge. A fourth stint in drug rehab followed, and this time it worked.

After rehab, Macer lived in a Sober Living Environment, similar to a halfway house, for a year, solidifying her resolve to bar substances from her life. She has now been clean and sober for four years and five months, a fact of which she is visibly proud.

She reentered De Anza and will com- plete her undergraduate degree next year. She joined the school's women's soccer team, the Dons, playing the back right position. The Dons have had a stellar season this year, taking part in the Final Four for the Coast Conference state championship and coming in third. On the field, Macer cheerfully admits, "I'm a little rowdy."

"The award is such a testament to her spirit and tenacity," said De Anza academic adviser Matt Trosper, who nominated Macer for the award. When she spoke at the ceremony where the award was bestowed, "she moved the whole room," he said. Macer's future appears equally spectacular. After she graduates from De Anza next year, she hopes to attend San Jose State University to earn a degree as a registered nurse. She wants to become a forensic nurse, specializing in treating victims of violent crimes.

When not studying, she lives with Emily, her cat, and enjoys hiking and surfing. Macer hasn't forgotten her dark past - rather she has used it to inspire and guide the years ahead.

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