Youth Soccer Spotlight:  For many soccer players it’s more about the mileage than the years, but for Katie Taylor it’s certainly both that have grinded down time on her odometer.  

The years piled up through a lifetime of club, prep and ODP-level soccer all the way up to this coming fall, her senior year in college. The mileage, meanwhile, tells a different story. Taylor’s tale of the tape took her from Mission Hills High in Escondido, up Interstate 5 to her Laguna Hills Eclipse club team in South Orange County, and finally to Texas Christian University where she now is a standout defender.

 

The road to TCU involved a bunch of miles down the I-5, beforehand.

 

“It was a long trip, but it was well worth it,” Taylor said of her drive from San Diego to Orange counties. “I would do it all over again if I had to.”

 

That, of course, is the life of many a club soccer player, and there’s no question Taylor’s parents were happy to make that one extra commute to the local DMV to finally get her a driver’s license.

 

But it’s through miles such as those that the road to college scholarships are paved, and in Taylor’s case, it worked out.

 

The 20-year-old central defender enters her final season at TCU (she’ll turn 21 this fall) hoping to help the Horned Frogs and Coach Dan Abdalla to a long-sought Mountain West Conference championship and a berth in the NCAA tournament.

 

The team finished with a 9-10 mark in 2009, failing to qualify for the NCAA playoffs. But during that campaign Taylor played in 17 teams, starting in 16 of them. She scored two goals from her defender position and earned conference defensive player of the week honors at one point.

 

Her sophomore season was of the breakout variety. Taylor rebounded from a season-ending foot injury during her freshman year to be named to the All-Mountain West Conference’s second team. The Horned Frogs finished the campaign as a consensus Top 30 nationally ranked team with a 14-4-2 record.

 

Her six assists that year from her defender position were the fourth-highest tally in TCU history. They also were among the Top 10 in the conference that season.

 

Now she looks to finish her tenure at TCU on an up-note.

 

“My individual goal for this next season is to be a consistent leader,” Taylor said. “Our team goal is to be Mountain West Conference champions. We want to make it to the NCAA Tournament.”

 

Taylor was in the staring lineup in her first game as freshman. But later, the injury bug bit.

 

Prominent OC club coaches such as Abner Rogers, Neil Powell and Hugh Donald helped shape Taylor’s game and had a big influence on her through her 16-year playing career.

 

But nothing could have prepared her for the foot injury that would sideline her almost as soon as she arrived at TCU.

 

“I learned everything happens for a reason,” Taylor said of her injury. “It also gave me time to really find out who I am as a player and what I needed to do once I was back healthy to better help my team.”

 

The criminal justice major would love to join the FBI after finishing school. She loves working with kids and, down the line, can see herself coaching soccer someday.

 

If she moves into the coaching realm, Taylor will lean on her experience of playing at the colligate D-I level.

 

“I would tell [players wanting to go to the next level] to make sure that when they are looking at a school, to choose the school because they like the school and not just for the soccer team. Really, go and look at the school.”

 

When Taylor made her initial visit to TCU she fell in love with both the campus and the community. Plus, the university had her criminal justice major available.

 

The idea of joining a soccer program she could help build — as opposed to going to an already more established program — appealed to her as well.

 

“[It is important to] get a feel for what it is going to be like,” Taylor said of potential college choices. “They’re going to be spending their next four years at that school. My advice for the youth that want to play at the next level would be to put the time in. They will have to sacrifice some, but in the end it will pay off.”