Mitch Calvert
Taylor Meyers has transitioned from a Muskie to a Warrior without skipping a beat.
Meyers, who was inducted into the Muskie athletic hall of fame after graduating from Fort High this past spring, now is suiting up for the University of Waterloo Warriors’ soccer team as their starting keeper.
“I contacted the coach [Peter Mackie] and he sent me the training camp schedule and said that they were interested, so I came down two weeks early and tried out for the team,” Meyers noted.
“I was really the only goalie that came to tryouts that was eligible to play,” she admitted.
“They had another goalie who is still in Grade 12 that’s a prospect for next year, but the keeper they had for the last five years just graduated.”
That long-time keeper, Catherine Vandenburg, is helping ease Meyers into her role working as the team’s goalie coach.
Meyers has some big shoes to fill given Vandenburg earned a spot as an OUA second team all-star last season.
“It’s kind of scary a little bit, but it’s exciting,” she enthused.
“It’s pretty intense, a lot quicker than I’m used to, but I’ve been working really hard with the goalie coach so hopefully it’ll pay off.”
The Warriors began the season with back-to-back losses to Western (2-0) and Windsor (1-0) this past Saturday and Sunday—although scoring clearly was the team’s Achilles heel on the opening weekend.
“The coach said the team is looking better than it has in a while, but it’s a young team with lots of rookies and should definitely be a building year,” Meyers noted.
The team continues its road trip to begin the season with games against McMaster and Brock this coming weekend.
Meyers originally chose the University of Waterloo because of its recognized health sciences program.
“It has a co-op program and is No. 1 in Ontario for applied health sciences, and I’m in kinesiology so that was the big factor,” Meyers explained.
“I’m not really sure what I want to do, even being a gym teacher would be awesome, but there are a lot of different options,” she reasoned.
“School [started Monday] so I haven’t had to stress about school stuff yet, but orientation week I met a lot of people and it’s been good so far,” she added.
