Munster’s Maya and Gabby Maldonado haven’t fared well as opponents.
That’s why coach Valerie Pflum has decided the sisters will always be teammates during practices.
“There is a rule that they’re not allowed to be on opposite teams,” Plfum said with a laugh. “They’re not battling it out anymore.”
Pflum prefers to set the sisters loose against opponents, and that’s working well for the Mustangs (7-1-1) this season. Junior midfielder Maya Maldonado leads the team with 10 goals and also has three assists. Senior midfielder Gabby Maldonado has scored four goals and has a team-high five assists.
Gabby Maldonado said she and Maya make good teammates.
“It’s just kind of natural,” Gabby Maldonado said. “We’ve played together for so long that I always know where she’s going, and she always knows where I’m at.”
Pflum said the Maldonado sisters often make plays that no one else sees coming.
“It’s amazing to watch them play,” Pflum said. “They’ll make a pass, and you’ll think, ‘Who are they passing to?’ And then the other one will be there. You just let it go and watch them flow.”
That connection exists off the field too.
“We work off of each other,” Maya Maldonado said. “Sometimes I may not feel like I want to do something. But then Gabby will come in and tell me we need to go, and then I’m OK because if she’s going to go, then I have to go too. It kind of forces me to get up and go work out.”
The Maldonado sisters said the competition between them is mostly a friendly one these days. But that wasn’t the case on the first day of summer practice two years ago, when a collision between them prompted Pflum’s decree that they can’t be on opposite sides.
To this day, what exactly happened remains a matter of debate.
“I got hurt because she pushed me and I fell,” Maya Maldonado said.
Gabby Maldonado barely let her sister finish that sentence before interjecting.
“I didn’t push you,” she said.
The outcome is not up for discussion, however. Maya Maldonado suffered a dislocated right elbow and missed a month of action. No such incidents have happened since then.
“They get along beautifully,” Pflum said. “They just have a battle now for who’s going to score the most goals. I feel OK about that one.”
Intense competition is part of the Maldonado family tradition. Their father, Paul Maldonado, is an assistant for the Merrillville wrestling team, and his cousin, David Maldonado, is the head coach. Paul and David Maldonado wrestled at East Chicago Central in the 1990s.
Maya and Gabby Maldonado said they never got into wrestling, although they’re part of a generation that is making an impact in soccer across Northwest Indiana.
“Being in a family that’s so driven and so sports-oriented has a lot to do with their good attitudes,” Pflum said.
Gabby Maldonado is driven to help the defending Northwest Crossroads Conference champion Mustangs continue winning.
“It’s all been coming together, and we have the ability to do a lot this season,” she said. “I don’t think it’s very smart to count us out of anything.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.
