'She was the real deal': Stewartville's MaKenzie Swanson-Larson brought joy to family, teammates
Apr. 28—ROCHESTER — MaKenzie Swanson-Larson cherished the little things in life, like skiing and snowboarding with her uncle Brad. She loved adventuring with her great grandmother "GG." She loved music and sharing her contagious laugh as much as she loved sports.
Swanson-Larson, a 2018 Stewartville High School graduate, died on April 17 at the age of 23. She was a two-sport athlete in both high school and at Rochester Community College and a pair of her former coaches have fond memories of her.
"She had it all," RCTC women's soccer coach Bryan Weiss said. "She was great in the classroom, a great teammate and captain and a good player on the field."
Weiss was an honorary pallbearer at Swanson-Larson's funeral on Friday.
She was more of a standout in soccer, but also made an impact in softball, where she was coached at Stewartville by Curt Hughes. Hughes is now the activities director at Stewartville.
"She was great," Hughes said. "She was very positive, she worked hard, she didn't complain. If she had struggles she worked hard to get better. She was just a great person to have around because she just wanted to be there."
Swanson-Larson's dedication to softball was strong enough that she also decided to play that sport as well as soccer at RCTC.
"She just loved it so much that she thought she'd give it a shot," Hughes said.
Family was a big reason she chose to attend RCTC right after high school. One of her younger brothers was battling cancer and she wanted to be close to home. After she concluded college, Swanson-Larson stayed in the area — working at Nissan in Rochester — and helped care for both a grandmother and great grandmother.
"She was the real deal, just a great person," Weiss said. "She had a lot to give."
At RCTC, Swanson-Larson played two years of soccer and softball. She ended up earning a host of awards while with the Yellowjackets.
As a freshman in 2018, she was named to the NJCAA All-Academic Team, the MCAC Fall All-Academic Team, was MCAC All-Conference honorable mention and on the NJCAA All-Academic Second Team.
In 2019, she was a team captain in soccer as well as MCAC Fall All-Academic and NJCAA All-Region XIII.
As a captain during her sophomore season, Swanson-Larson even helped some with recruiting by talking to potential soccer recruits.
Even when Swanson-Larson was done playing at RCTC, she still had an impact for the Yellowjackets.
"She really was just an all-around great person to have on the team and be part of the program," Weiss said. "She would come back for alumni games. And she'd come back and cheer us on for our regular-season games and come check out practices every once in a while."
Swanson-Larson completed the Automotive Service Technician program in 2020 at RCTC and went on to attend Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato. She was on the soccer roster at Bethany Lutheran for one season, but didn't play in any varsity games during a COVID year.
Upon her return to the Stewartville area, Swanson-Larson was active in the community. She coached the Stewartville C squad girls soccer team in the fall of 2021. She was also starting to officiate games.
Weiss said that Swanson-Larson was just on the RCTC campus a few weeks ago talking to coaches and the athletic director.
Hughes said he had kept in touch with Swanson-Larson as well. While she was active in soccer, she also played in community softball leagues.
"She got along well with her teammates and was well respected among her teammates," Hughes said. "She was very outgoing and was just a joy to be around. Just an overall well-rounded person."
