Speed isn't the whole story

"I always try to make people comfortable. You don't know what somebody's dealing with."”

Marlee Cavitt

The first thing you notice about Marlee Cavitt isn't how fast she runs. It isn't the Conference USA championships, or that she has become one of New Mexico State's most dependable defenders, or even that she somehow manages to split a school year between two Division I sports without sounding overwhelmed by either.

It's that she's paying attention. She notices the child standing quietly by himself. She notices when a teammate seems a little withdrawn. She notices the details other people miss, and if someone seems uncomfortable, her instinct is rarely to fill the silence. It's to make the other person calm enough to fill it themselves.

"I always try to make people comfortable," she said. "You don't know what somebody's dealing with."

It isn't something she learned from athletics. It simply became part of who she is.

Growing up near Sacramento, California, life in the Cavitt family rarely slowed down. Soccer occupied nearly every corner of it. Her father, Brandon, starred at Sacramento State before playing professionally. Her mother, Melissa, played at the University of Portland under legendary coach Clive Charles before becoming both a teacher and coach herself.

Practices weren't events on the family calendar. They were simply where the family happened to be that day.

Before Marlee was old enough to play, she was already on the sidelines, running around with older players while her mother coached, soaking in a sport that seemed as natural as breathing.

"As soon as I could play," she said, "they threw me in."

Her father coached her exactly one season. The full story reveals that one year was enough.

"I made a mistake and he didn't put me back in," she said with a laugh. "My mom was like, 'Yeah ... that's not happening again.'"

The coaching, however, never really stopped. Instead, it moved home.

Evenings often meant watching Premier League matches together or replaying Marlee's own games, with Brandon pausing the video to point out positioning, decision-making and the little details most players never notice.

Years later, when Cavitt explains what makes her successful as a defender, she doesn't begin with speed. She talks about understanding the game.

"I know what every position is supposed to be doing," she said. "If I get thrown somewhere else, I know exactly what to do because I've watched so much soccer."

Not surprisingly, watching has become one of the defining themes of her life.

Track entered almost by accident. She joined the team in middle school because someone suggested sprinting might help her become a better soccer player. During her first race, she pulled comfortably ahead, looked around, and eased up before reaching the finish line.

"I didn't realize you had to race to the line," she said, laughing.

Today, that same athlete owns three Conference USA individual championships and left this spring's outdoor championships as the Women's High Point Scorer of the Meet.

She still insists she's learning. Ask her which race fits her best, and she'll answer the 100 meters. She says her sprint coach, Kirsten Nieuwendam, would say it’s the 200, but Marlee is firm in her opinion

"Because I don't like to run that far," she says of the 200.

The irony isn't lost on anyone who has watched her spend 90 minutes flying up and down a soccer sideline. Track made her faster. Soccer made her smarter. Neither, though, may have shaped her as much as the person waiting for her at home.

Keegan was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 years old. As a little girl, Marlee never understood why strangers stared or why people seemed uncomfortable around him.

"I just thought it was normal," she said. "I never really saw it as anything super different."

That changed as she grew older and realized the world didn't always see her brother the way she did.

"I didn't understand why it was a problem," she said.

She never became embarrassed. She became protective. Whenever Keegan came to her games, she made a point of introducing him to teammates before anyone else had the chance to wonder.

"This is my brother," she'd tell them. "He'll say hi. He's just a little shy."

Then life became even more complicated. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Keegan developed epilepsy, and the family's already hectic schedule became even more demanding. Between soccer, track, school, two-hour drives to her club team at MVLA and the constant awareness that Keegan might need someone at any moment, there was always somewhere to be, something to do or someone to help.

"It was always something," she said.

Even now, she admits she doesn't always know how to relax.

"If something drops, I immediately think someone's having a seizure," she said. "I just get up and run. I always feel like I should be doing something."

That sentence may explain Marlee Cavitt better than any list of athletic accomplishments ever could. It also explains why she already knows what comes after sports.

Professional soccer remains the dream. She hopes that chapter lasts as long as possible. But the career she's imagined since she was 9 years old has very little to do with goals or medals. She wants to become an occupational therapist working with children with autism.

The decision wasn't made in a college classroom. It was made while sitting alongside Keegan during therapy sessions, watching one of the few places where he genuinely seemed to enjoy the work he was doing.

"He loved it," she said. "I remember thinking, 'This is so awesome.' You're helping somebody, and they're having fun while they're getting better."

She hasn't really changed her mind since.

That certainty became one of the reasons New Mexico State felt different after her freshman year at Portland. She initially wasn't convinced she even wanted to visit Las Cruces after entering the transfer portal, hoping instead to return home to California. There was, however, a family connection. NMSU head coach Rob Baarts also played at Portland and was an acquaintance of her parents.

Her mother persuaded her to make the trip anyway, telling her she should respect Coach Baarts enough to at least visit. Everything changed once she arrived.

She found coaches in soccer and track who were willing to work together instead of asking her to choose between the two sports. She found a kinesiology program that fit the path she had already chosen years earlier. She found a place where both the athlete and the person she wanted to become could grow together.

"I know full-heartedly if I was anywhere else, I probably would have quit one or the other," she said, speaking of her two-sport status.

Instead, she has become a conference champion, a team captain and one of the leaders of an Aggie soccer program that believes better days are ahead. Those accomplishments matter. They simply aren't the most interesting part of her story.

Growing up around soccer taught Marlee Cavitt how to watch the game. Growing up with Keegan taught her how to watch people. The first has made her one of the best athletes in Conference USA. The second will likely define her long after the races are over, the soccer career has ended and another little boy or girl walks into an occupational therapy clinic needing someone who notices the things everyone else misses.