McAlester senior goalkeeper Emma Harrison, better known on the pitch by her alias, Hollywood, has the playmaking skills to justify her nickname. “I do feel like I am a Hollywood type of playmaker,” Harrison, 18, says. “ I feel like my greatest skills and attributes on the pitch are my punts and encouragement during games.”
“Emma is a true competitor,” McAlester head girls soccer coach Charlette Moss says. “She provides leadership from the back of the field to the front and performs well under pressure.”
Hollywood was born when, playing on her first club team, Harrison shared her name with Emma Laudermilk (who graduated from McAlester last year). Harrison, a lifelong McAlester Public Schools student, often wore sunglasses to practice, motivating Nooner to to establish the differentiating nickname. “One day, he [Nooner] decided to call me Hollywood and it has just stuck ever since then,”
Harrison says. “I was about 10 or 11 years old at the time.” Soccer wasn’t the only – or even the first – sport which Harrison played. She tried basketball and even softball, but she “just fell out of it” once she reached high school.
“I just love soccer,” Harrison says. “I wanted to focus on soccer. It’s exciting on and off the field with my teammates. We always have a good time no matter where we are.”
The Buffaloes have had their share of fun lately, no doubt with Harrison’s talent on the forefront of their success. They finished 12-4 last year and made the 5A state playoffs. They’re off to a 6- 2 start this year.
“[Harrison] is well respected among her peers because of the integrity with which she makes choices on and off the field,” Moss says. “She is a well rounded individual spiritually, academically, and athletically.”
Harrison is also a member of Native American Club, FCA, National Honor Society and attends Life Church. She plays percussion in the Pride of McAlester Marching Band, which she has been involved in since sixth grade. With the time commitment, it’s like a second sport to Harrison.
“Our high school marching band rehearsals have always been in the morning, 7-8:30 before school. It was just hard on the weekends when we had a competition and I had a club soccer game. We would go compete then leave to go to the soccer game or the other way around.”
Especially when she was still playing basketball, it was tough. Harrison then couldn’t join her teammates on the pitch until February or March, leaving her little time to prepare before the first game. It was “go, go, go all the time.”
She couldn’t have done the balancing act without her parents, David and Rachel, and
teammates’ parents. “Now that I’ve just focused on soccer and band on the side, it has been way less stressful,” Harrison says.
Photo Credit: Credit Madelyn Nix Photography
