Alexa McKinley has been known for her skills on the basketball court during her high school athletic career, but over the summer, the Columbus North senior traded in her sneakers for cleats and the hardwood for a soccer pitch.
McKinley is convinced she made the right decision. She is not a stranger to the pitch by any means, and she has picked up her soccer skills right where she left them.
So far, McKinley has been a big key in the Bull Dogs’ successful 12-1-1 season, which has Class 3A No. 9 North as the favorite heading into next week’s Whiteland soccer sectional.
McKinley certainly has taken advantage of the opportunity she’s been given and returning to playing with the same girls she grew up with. She is the Bull Dogs’ second-leading goal scorer with nine, trailing only Jenna Lang.
“I probably played with them for about seven years before this year, so I really missed the close relationships I had with them,” McKinley said.
McKinley first started dribbling when she was 6 years old and played in the Columbus Express Soccer Club until she was about 12.
One of the teammates that McKinley was closest to during her time with CESC was Lang, now her North junior teammate. McKinley and Lang would ride together to a majority of the U-10 and U-12 tournaments. They both played in the midfield, with McKinley as the holding mid and Lang as the attacking mid.
Kenrick Ramirez, the girls director of coaching for Indy Premier and former CESC director of coaching, was the coach of those teams and gave McKinley the nickname “Lexatron” for the robotic ways of simply giving her instruction and then McKinley executing it right away.
“When you teach these kids at a very young age, it is something that you have to do over and over and over to help get them to understand things, but she was different,” Ramirez said. “It was like a robot. You could just press a switch, and she would turn into Optimus Prime.”
McKinley was named to the all-division team for three seasons.
Some of those other CESC teammates of McKinley’s include current North players Laney Moore, Kate Kolhouse and Samantha Crossman and Columbus East players Alana Dwenger, Hannah Hemmerlein and Chloe and Abby Miller.
McKinley’s mother Cristin was the manager of the Express team, helping arrange the hotel reservations and also assigning who was providing the drinks and snacks during practices and games.
When Alexa was playing soccer during the summer, she also was playing basketball. She first played in a basketball league at First Christian Church around the same time she started soccer. She then played travel ball for the Columbus Comets during the same time she played for the CESC. She excelled on the basketball court just as much as she did on the soccer pitch.
“She’s an athlete, and she’s a competitor,” Ramirez said. “She had a bit of tenaciousness with her. She always wanted to win no matter the activity. She’s a really good kid, a really good athlete and a really good player. I really enjoyed my time working with her.”
McKinley attended Taylorsville Elementary until the fourth grade, then went to CSA-Lincoln for fifth and sixth grades. By the time McKinley was getting ready to enter seventh grade at Central Middle School, she made the decision to give up soccer to focus more on her basketball career.
Not wanting to play only one sport, McKinley decided to give another sport a try in place of soccer — volleyball.
“It was hard to balance travel basketball and travel soccer. They both go on during the same time during the summer,” McKinley explained. “I mostly played it since it was a school sport because we didn’t have school soccer basically in middle school, so I just wanted to try volleyball.”
McKinley played volleyball through her sophomore year, but she missed all of the great bonds and friendships she made through nearly seven years of playing soccer.
“I was really sad that I wouldn’t be with my soccer friends all the time and probably wouldn’t talk to them that much because they didn’t end up going to Central, either,” McKinley said. “It was just hard to separate from them for a little bit, but I made new friends playing volleyball and track at Central, so that kind of helped me have different friendships.”
McKinley has been an exceptional all-around athlete, but it does help having it in her genes. McKinley’s parents were both athletes in high school at Blackford. Cristin was a swimmer and softball player, and her father J.R. was a baseball and basketball player.
Alexa’s older brother Patrick, a 2019 North graduate now attending Purdue, played on the Bull Dogs’ basketball team and also played baseball when he was younger. Her younger brother Phillip is a freshman at North and will play basketball for the Bull Dogs this winter; he played baseball and tennis when he was younger.
McKinley has also made contributions outside of sports, being involved with Student Assembly, National Honor Society and Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
After McKinley wrapped up travel basketball season for the Indiana Flight Silver Attack, she decided she wanted to pick up either volleyball or soccer this fall, but debated on which sport she wanted to pursue.
McKinley turned to her old childhood friends for some advice.
“She was asking how the coaching was or if I could help her train, or thought if she could actually play,” Lang said. “I told her and gave the honest truth.”
That was all it took for McKinley to go back to her roots and reunite with her old teammates for one last run together. She said she missed playing with all them and thought it would be fun to be with them again.
Being out of soccer for five years, it’s understandable for McKinley to admit she had a few nerves heading into the season.
“It was a little weird because I felt like our friendship was a while ago, so I wasn’t for sure if we were going to get back to where we were and stuff,” McKinley said. “It’s been good. I’ve been close with all of them again, so it’s really nice.”
One person who wasn’t surprised that McKinley went back to soccer? Her former club coach.
Ramirez was close with the McKinley family and kept in touch when Alexa transitioned to her basketball career. He said he texted Cristin when he heard that Alexa was going out for soccer this year, saying that he loved it and was more than happy for her.
“They’re all really great people,” Ramirez said. “They’re very down to earth and how they bring their kids up is really blue collar, which I really like, a real, real work ethic about them.”
Ramirez said if McKinley had chosen the soccer route, she could have gone very far.
Last year in basketball as a junior, McKinley was the Bull Dogs’ leading scorer and was named Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association first team All-State. She also earned All-Conference Indiana honors.
“Just to have an All-State player of any sport who has a history of playing soccer come out and help is big,” North coach David Young said. “She’s a leader. She’s a quiet, ‘I’m going to show you how to do it as opposed to telling you,’ but once she gets her confidence down, her leadership will come out even more, and she’s going to be a dangerous player.”
On Aug. 21, McKinley announced her commitment to pursue her basketball career at Olivet Nazarene. She believes playing soccer this season will benefit her on the hardwood.
“I think it is really good for training and endurance for basketball coming up, and honestly, I was afraid that we weren’t going to play basketball this year,” McKinley said. “I thought I would try to get one sport in all that I could.”
The one thing that has eluded McKinley her entire high school career is a sectional title. She’s fallen short in her three recent attempts in basketball, and if the COVID-19 pandemic takes a turn for the worse this winter season, this could possibly be her last chance to chase down the trophy.
“I think we can definitely go for a sectional win, go as far as we can get. I think we’re going to have a successful record this year, for sure,” McKinley said. “I think we do have a lot of offensive threats, and our defense is awesome.”
Regardless of how the season ends for McKinley, she’s glad to have gotten to play with her childhood friends.
“I’m really happy that I played,” McKinley said. “I’m really glad to be back with the girls, and I just think we’re going to make a really great run this year. I think so far, we’re all doing really well, and I think the team chemistry is really good, too, so I’m glad I played one last time.”
