SuburbanOneSports.com recognizes a male and female featured athlete each week. The awards, sponsored by Univest, are given to seniors of good character who are students in good standing that have made significant contributions to their teams. Selections are based on nominations received from coaches, athletic directors and administrators.
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete for week of Dec. 15, 2021.
Taylor Moyer is a natural on the soccer field. A fact that was apparent at a young age. Taylor’s father and coach, Mike Moyer, remembers watching the Central Bucks West senior play in a Palisades club team game when she was just eight or nine years old. “It was a club team that was all for fun,” Moyer said. “I still remember she made this run from her own 18 to the other 18 at a hundred miles an hour down the field, took a shot, it went in, and she turned and ran off the field. I was like, ‘You know what – she has something.’ I tried to talk to her after the game, and she wanted nothing to do with it.”
The fact that Moyer gave early glimpses of big things to come was hardly a surprise. After all, she was born into a family with quite a soccer legacy. The men in her family – going back to her grandfather - were synonymous with the sport in the Central Bucks community, and it was assumed she would follow in their footsteps, which she did. For all her high school years, Moyer excelled - scoring goals, assisting on others and regularly finding herself in the spotlight. What could possibly be hard about that? Actually, in the West senior’s case, a whole lot. As a matter of fact, Moyer’s journey to the top of her sport was profoundly difficult for reasons that had nothing to do with soccer itself. As a youngster, Moyer began dealing with what has been a lifelong battle with anxiety.
A battle that almost ended her soccer career before it began when it was decided she would move from her Palisades ‘fun’ club team to a higher level Ukrainian National squad. “At age 10, Taylor started wanting a little bit more, and she needed to play with better girls, but the problem was she had crazy anxiety,” her father said. “I remember taking her down to – we call it the soccer church – where she had her first practice with the Ukies, which was a pretty good team. I had to pick her up out of the car and take her in there. She was crying, she was kicking. She wanted no parts of it. The practice was in a gym, and the coach said, ‘We can’t have parents in the gym.’ I said, ‘Okay,’ so I go out in the hallway. She always had to see me through the window, so I made sure I was at a window. Taylor had two older brothers, and I didn’t know what anxiety was. I’m like, ‘This is crazy, why are you acting like this. This is embarrassing,’ but it was real for her.”
“I remember when it happened,” Taylor said. “We were going to a soccer practice, and I did not want to go in. I did not want to meet the new coach, the new girls. I was just worried about everything, so my dad had to go with me. Ever since that day, my dad has been my coach. He probably wouldn’t have coached girls’ soccer if it wasn’t for me and my anxiety because he kind of had to or I probably wouldn’t have ever played. It’s hard, but I sometimes let it take away from my opportunities and it takes over.”
Taylor has come a long, long way since that day that threatened to derail her soccer career before it began. This fall she signed a letter of intent to play soccer at St. Peter’s University and the anxiety – it’s still a battle, but it no longer owns her. Playing high school soccer has been part of the healing process. “The last four years have been amazing - I couldn’t have asked for a better four years,” said Taylor, who also excels in the classroom. “Even if we didn’t win any state championships or anything like that – our teams have been amazing. Our senior leadership has always been amazing, and our team bond is always the most important thing. It’s been so strong the last four years, and I feel that’s what makes us a good team.”
For the first time in her life next fall, Moyer will not be hearing her father’s voice on the sidelines of her soccer games. St. Peter’s felt like the right place for that transition. “My biggest thing was feeling comfortable there,” said Taylor, who will major in elementary education. “It was a very welcoming environment for me. It’s going to be really weird (not hearing my dad), but I know what coaching style I like and what coaches are good for me, and when I met that coach, he kind of reminded me of my dad. I just knew he would be the right coach for me.” For Taylor, sharing her soccer journey with her father was significant. “It’s meant a lot,” she said, “I’m really glad he’s been there for all of it. He’s kind of been my number one supporter and the one person who believed in me since day one when he was carrying me into the soccer practice.”
To read Moyer’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/taylor-moyer-0098093
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete for week of Dec. 15, 2021.
Once upon a time, Jason Vogt was costing his team races due to inopportunely-timed Gatorade chugs and ran so stiff and awkward that he earned the nickname “Turtle” from coaches and teammates. Now, he’s on the precipice of running cross country and track in college, where he hopes to study in a field that will allow him to put competitive runners like himself back together when their bodies break down due to the stress of racing. Between these two points, there was a lot to learn about how to run. Turns out, there’s a lot more nuance to it than just sprinting as fast as you can. Like most kids who ultimately become runners, Vogt, a senior three-sport runner (cross country, indoor track, outdoor track) at William Tennent, started his athletic career elsewhere. He tried baseball and even gave bowling a shot, but neither stuck for long. Soccer was the closest sport he had to an athletic identity, and his chosen position of sweeper served as an early preview of his running prowess, discovering he was able to continuously run up-and-down and side-to-side without tiring.
Vogt stuck with soccer through the end of his freshman season, but by this time, the competitive running seed had been planted. He began racing in seventh grade, and the endeavor began with some apathy. “I was iffy,” he recalled. “I remember it being the kind of thing where my mom wanted me to do an activity at school and I said OK, fine, but I was kind of meh about it. I wasn’t very good, either.” In his mind, Vogt didn’t do much to stand out to coaches, which could end up becoming a poison pill for runners that young. But then suddenly, something clicked. Vogt recalled his first time trial in eighth grade as the turning point. A cerebral thinker, Vogt sometimes thought so much about the task at hand that he found he psyched himself out before he even had a chance to prove himself. Get out of his own way mentally, and he might view running differently. “I was running the 400, and I just said to myself, I’m not going to think about this…I’m just going to go,” he said. “Turns out, I did pretty good. The coaches noticed me and paid attention to me. Suddenly, I got really competitive about it.”
Coach Vinnie Murphy’s first season with Vogt was the runner’s freshman indoor campaign. The thing that sets Vogt apart from others, according to Murphy, is his willingness to work. After dealing with some stress reaction injuries that slowed his progress during spring track freshman year, Vogt needed to understand how to fix it. No matter what Murphy threw Vogt’s way — specific exercises, yoga, physical therapy, working with a sports chiropractor, strength training, etc., Vogt followed the instructions verbatim almost to the point of obsession.
Vogt got through his sophomore cross country and indoor seasons healthy, and he felt like he was really hitting his stride as a runner. As it turns out, the only thing that could slow his progress at this point turned out to be a global pandemic that shut down Vogt’s sophomore outdoor season. However, Vogt’s response to the pandemic and cancelled season told Murphy everything he needed to know going forward. During a time when the world retreated into their homes for extended periods of isolation, Vogt refused to let apathy grab hold of his spirit. Murphy sent the team workout plans every two weeks and set up a Tennent group on the exercise app Strava that allowed Vogt and his teammates to record every workout to measure progress. Some took to it, while others faded. And Vogt, you ask? “He did every single workout, everything that we asked of him,” Murphy said. “He just kept running, so that when cross country season came around in the fall, Jason was in the best shape of his life. He won every single dual meet in our conference and came in second place at the league championship despite the fact that he turned his ankle and didn’t make it to states, even though he probably should have.”
Vogt hasn’t chosen a college yet, although he lists Ursinus, DeSales and West Chester as potential landing spots. In addition to finding a school that offers his field of study, Vogt said he’s searching for a well-coached program that takes running seriously. After having to push himself so much the past few years, he wants to be around a bunch of other supremely talented collegiate runners who can push him to be his best while he offers the same back to them. His coach has no doubt that Vogt will find success wherever he lands. “I would love for him to experience running for a serious program,” Murphy said. “Tennent athletes tend to settle on average, and I don’t want him to settle on a school just because. I see him as a potential Division II/Division III All-American. I’m not sure anyone has had a bigger impact than he has the last four years, and he’s passing on everything he’s learned to his younger teammates.”
To read Vogt’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/jason-vogt-0098097.
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