Plainfield senior Maycee Woods on roster as four-year starter for girls basketball program
By Mike Beas
The canyon-width transition from middle school athletics to varsity competition was one Plainfield girls basketball player Maycee Woods found herself making.
Bypassing freshman and junior varsity experiences altogether, Woods had little choice but to grow up quickly.
“Maycee came in and didn’t think she would be a starter as a freshman, but that team had a desperate need for outside shooting,” said Quakers coach Curt Benge, now in his 26th season. “Those older kids on that team were really good for her, teaching her how to work and how to win and how to conduct yourself.
“It’s hard as a freshman at a school our size. I tell the players all of the time you have to play hard and you have to be coachable. With Maycee, that growth has continued.”
Now a senior, the 5-foot-10-inch shooting guard is in her fourth and final season as a starter for the Quakers. Plainfield started the season 5-1 as Woods averaged 12 points, four rebounds and 2.2 steals. She entered the 2020-21 season with 551 career points after chipping in 7.9 points per contest as a junior.
An excellent student, Woods carries a 4.3 grade point average and is in the top 50 academically in a class of more than 500 students.
Woods did a Q&A with ICON:
Q: How old were you when you started playing basketball competitively, and what do you love about the sport?
A: I actually started playing basketball pretty late, like when I was 12 or 13. Before that, I was a competitive cheerleader. My dad (Josh) was a basketball player at Cascade. I feel that’s why I became interested in it. It’s kind of a thing between the two of us. He was the boys junior varsity coach at Cascade for three years when I was really young and the varsity assistant for three or four years.
Q: Your team is off to a fast start this season, winning five of the first six games. What do you most attribute to this success?
A: Because of COVID, we’ve gone into every game like it’s our last game. Coach Benge motivates us to play hard every game. He drives me to be better. Right now, it’s as if we’re going to win as much as we can and have as much fun as we can.
Q: What are your plans after graduating from Plainfield High School?
A: I am actually going to play basketball at Taylor University. I am going to major in elementary education so that I can go into teaching, and I want to coach girls basketball. My freshman year I thought it was coach Benge’s goal to make me cry at every practice, but he’s made me a stronger person. It’s driven me to prove to him that I deserve what I’ve gotten.
Athlete of the Week