Allison Marquart was 4-time All-State in soccer

• The following is part of an ongoing series of articles in celebration of Libertyville High School's 100th anniversary.

Alison Marquart (McDonald) is a 1991 Libertyville High School graduate and an outstanding athlete, competing in four years of volleyball and soccer and two years of basketball.

Soccer was her top sport in high school, as she achieved the rare distinction of being named to the All-State team as a center midfielder all four years of high school, the only LHS soccer player to earn this distinction. She was named to the All-Midwest team her junior year and the All-American team her senior year.

Libertyville's girls soccer program began in 1982 under the direction of longtime girls and boys soccer coach Andy Bitta. By Marquart's freshman year in 1988, LHS had joined the state elites. They reached the state quarterfinals in 1988, losing in penalty kicks to Maine South.

They reached the state championship game her sophomore and junior years, losing to Palatine in 1989, St. Charles in 1990. In 1991, Marquart's senior year, they again reached the state final, this time defeating Waubonsie Valley for LHS's first athletic state championship.

Coach Bitta said this about Marquart, "She was the most competitive woman I coached. She worked extremely hard at her ball skills. She was the best female player at heading the ball that I'd ever seen in all my years of coaching."

Marquart's volleyball career began much more slowly, first playing for Hawthorn Middle School. She played with the LHS under levels her freshman and sophomore years. As a varsity player her junior year, she fell so in love with volleyball that despite being a varsity basketball player her sophomore year, she gave up the sport for club volleyball in the winter.

Marquart attended a summer volleyball camp at Bowling Green University the summer between her junior and senior year. The BGU coach told her she had the ability to play at the college level. At that point she began sending out video to several college coaches in hopes of a college scholarship.

She was willing to give up soccer for volleyball in college since there were more scholarship opportunities for girls in volleyball than soccer at that time.

Considering several college offers, Marquart chose Miami University of Ohio. She was a two-year starter and a captain her senior year. After redshirting her sophomore year, she had a fifth year of eligibility. But with knee problems, she decided to stop playing and graduate after her fourth college year.

Following her graduation from Miami, Alison began a career in human resources for Wells Fargo. After marrying 1988 LHS grad and soccer player Terry McDonald, and having her first of two sons, Alison stepped out of her position at Wells Fargo.

She is currently working as a librarian for a private map collection and is a proud Wildcat athletic parent. Her oldest son, Dillon, is an LHS freshman football, basketball, and baseball player, with Ben, a seventh-grader at Highland, soon to follow.