Even at a young age, people could tell Caylin Meikrantz was destined for special things on the soccer field. It wasn’t only her parents, relatives and friends who noticed it first.

“I would watch my brother play on his travel team, so I would always be like, ‘When is it my turn,’” Meikrantz said. “I just remember I would play a year up when I was young. It’s funny because one time this woman said to my mom, ‘Your daughter is going to be a Division I player.’ My mom and dad didn’t know much about soccer. They just let me play.”

Meikrantz didn’t just play. She became one of Salisbury’s top players in program history.

Coupled with her tremendous career on the pitch, Meikrantz was also Salisbury’s leader on the basketball court this past winter. Those accomplishments led to her being named the Salisbury Press Female Athlete of the Year.

“Soccer was definitely the best season out of the four years this past season,” said Meikrantz, who hold’s the Salisbury record for career assists with 48. “Just becoming a captain and taking that leadership role that I’ve been wanting to for the past four years.”

Under Meiktrantz’s lead, along with a group of seniors that has been playing together since the third grade at Saint Thomas Moore, the Lady Falcons made history this past fall. Salisbury advanced to both Colonial League and District 11 Class 2A title games in hopes of securing a championship or two.

While Salisbury came up short of the goals, qualifying for the state tournament as the No. 2 team out of District 11 was a program first. Once there, after winning a play-in game, the Falcons’ historic run came to an end against District 4’s Montoursville in overtime.

“We strived to become Colonial League and District champs,” Meikrantz said. “Even though we fell short on those goals, we made sure that in states we would be a team that Salisbury never saw before.”

Meikrantz finished her senior season with team-high 21 goals and 10 assists. For her career, her 43 total goals rank sixth on the Lady Falcons’ all-time list, as does her 134 career points. She was also named a Colonial League First Team All-Star.

She started playing basketball around the same age as she started kicking around a soccer ball, in grade school for Saint Thomas Moore. But a decision needed to be made as she progressed in both sports. Would she continue playing AAU basketball and hope to reach new heights on the court? Or stick with travel and club soccer?

There was no way she was giving up her first passion.

“I definitely loved basketball a lot,” said Meikrantz, who started club soccer with Lehigh Valley United before moving to Vincent United her freshman year. “It’s a whole different game. Everyone is so close to you on the court, but on the soccer field it’s so much more thinking. I love being out there more than anything. I couldn’t give it up over basketball.”

Still, she was able to play basketball during the winter season at Salisbury. And Meikrantz was a gifted athlete in that sport as well.

Her final season ended with her leading Salisbury in scoring at 13.5 points per game and 337 points scored. She played a key role in helping lead Salisbury to both league and district playoff appearances, and hit a team-high 49 three-pointers.

“It was definitely a huge loss, losing the other seniors,” Meikrtanz said. “But I knew, just like soccer, that I had the potential to be a captain. Kyra Bruns and I were the captains. We really had fun with our last year. It was definitely one of the best years, just like soccer.”

Much like soccer, she was named a Colonial League All-Star for basketball, leading the list of Second-Team honorees. But her true calling has always been soccer.

Besides a recent vacation to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, Meikrantz’s summer has been nothing but soccer.

But pretty soon, she’ll be back down south, this time in North Carolina. She’s in the process of training for the next step of her career, which is set to take center stage at Elon College.