For most of her life, Southlake Carroll’s Kenzi Tufts has lived on the soccer field.
The future Dallas Baptist Patriot and senior Dragon is among the top players in the Dallas-Fort Worth area while playing both offense and defense. She helped SLC to the 2022 state championship as a sophomore.
Carroll is the #1 Class 6A team in DFW while sporting a 20-0-1 record this season. The Dragons are also 10-0-1 in District 4-6A following a 4-4 tie on Tuesday against Byron Nelson.
Tufts signed her letter of intent with DBU in November.
While she has excelled both in high school ball and club ball – the sport she has loved all her life was nearly taken away from her in a blink of an eye.
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Just over a year ago – on the morning of Feb. 28, 2023, Kenzi experienced her first seizure while driving to school down Southlake Blvd. Witnesses say she drove diagonally across the intersection of Shady Oaks and 1709, and crashed head on into a tree.
“Luckily, I have Life360 on my phone, which immediately notified my family as well as the Southlake DPS that I was in a car accident. When the ambulance and first responders team arrived, I was rushed to the emergency room.
“Although I have no recollection of the incident, I remember waking up in the emergency room clueless of what was going on. Before leaving my house that morning, I felt out of it, but blamed it on lack of sleep. Since I am not a morning person, my family, myself included, thought I fell asleep behind the wheel.”
But Tufts didn’t fall asleep at the wheel.
A few days later, she had a neurologist appointment and they discovered that she has a pea sized cyst in her brain that can cause seizures. She couldn’t drive for three months.
Thinking they can put that in the past and move forward with her recovery, Tufts would experience another seizure a month later. Thankfully, she was in the passenger seat while a friend and teammate Maddy Sexton was behind the wheel. Sexton is currently at DBU and was a part of the 2022 championship team.
Following that seizure, Tufts was rushed to the ER and put on medication.
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Fortunately after the first incident, Tufts walked away with just a sprained elbow, sprained wrist and bruises around her face and neck. She toughed it out and didn’t want to miss a soccer game so Tufts suited up and played for SLC only three days later.
The Dragons beat Eaton 7-1.
Carroll ended up winning its first 29 games and reached the Class 6A Region 1 Final. Tufts and her teammates beat Weatherford, San Angelo Central, Permian and McKinney Boyd (at the regional tournament). They lost to eventual state champ FM Marcus to finish 29-1.
Her second seizure came on March 27.
The next day Carroll defeated Central 4-0 in the area round.
Now she’s on meds that keep the seizures away. She takes them twice a day everyday.
“My mindset has shifted. That day reminded me how graceful and loving our God is. Every time I step on the field, I play in His name. He has blessed me with an able body to continue playing the game I love, so I will not take that for granted,” Tufts said.
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Tufts has career-high 17 goals along with 9 assists this season.
She had 12 and 6 as a freshman, 12 and 10 during the championship year and 8 and 13 last year as a junior. Tufts has career totals of 49 goals and 38 assists along with 136 points.
SLC has always been a dominate team.
The Dragons also won in 2019 – when Kenzi was in the seventh grade. Her older sister Taylor Tufts was a senior on the team and is still considered among the best girls soccer players in state history.
The sisters will get a chance to play together for one season as Taylor is also at DBU.
But while Carroll has another great team and season, the Dragons have a unique twist according to Kenzi – and the loss to Marcus continues to surround the program.
“After winning state with a talented team my sophomore year, I was unsure of what our team would look like for the next two years. Although we have potential to go as far as possible this year, it will be because of our effort, commitment, leadership and intentionality. We are athletic and gritty, and we intend to earn our wins through our dedication to each other and this program. It will be difficult to beat a team that will outwork you, and that’s what we are going to do each game.
“The Marcus loss motivates our team every practice and every game. Our team motto this season is “Bounce Back Better,” reminding us to play with maximum effort, and to not take any opponent lightly. Our response this year will be proven on the field.”
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One Response
This girl is amazing she has something no one else has.she bring people up when then they fall down she always teaches people to be better.she cares about everyone she knows. She got nothing to lose and I cannot wait to see what she does for the rest of this season and at DBU.