Soccer
Favorite athlete: Christian Pulisic
Favorite team: Women’s US National Team
Favorite memory competing in sports: Being named all-state my junior year.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I got a concussion in our last game of the season because a girl kicked the ball into my face, and I flew backwards and landed on my head.
Music on playlist: Lil Uzi Vert, Da Baby, Jack Harlow
Future plans: Become a kindergarten teacher
Words to live by: “Everything happens for a reason.”
One goal before turning 30: Have my own bakery wherever I live
One thing people don’t know about me: I’ve never broken a bone
By Mary Jane Souder
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.”
The journey
Soccer was part of Moyer’s life for as long as she can remember, which is hardly a surprise. The soccer bug hit the Moyer family long before Taylor came around. Her grandfather, Rick Moyer, was the MVP of his soccer team at Central Bucks (the last year before it split into two schools. Her father, Mike, was the MVP as a senior and still holds the record for goals scored at West (70). Her brother Bailey was MVP of his West squad, and her oldest brother Cooper, the head coach at Palisades, had a career record 111 goals during his playing days at Palisades.
Was there any chance Taylor would play anything but soccer?
“I tried a couple of other sports, but I never really liked them as much as soccer,” she said. “Obviously, my dad has always been a soccer guy, so he wanted me to play soccer. I’ve always loved it.”
But loving soccer and playing it with new teammates and new coaches was a different story. Moyer’s battle with anxiety began manifesting itself in first grade.
“It wasn’t in soccer, it was in school,” she said. “My mom would drive me to school, and I would not get out of the car.
“It was always a struggle, but in fifth grade, I had an amazing teacher, and she was really the first person to understand and help me, so it made it a lot easier going to school.”
In eighth grade, Moyer’s family moved to Doylestown, which meant attending Lenape Middle School, a new school that presented new challenges.
“In eighth grade, I really don’t remember being in any of my classes,” she said. “I would spend my whole day in the guidance office. I had my own little room.
“It was really hard because I didn’t want the other kids to know because it was embarrassing. Not a lot of people really knew. I only knew a couple of people because I just moved here, so it was definitely hard.”
Moyer continued to play for her Ukies squad, which was coached by her father, but she didn’t play for school until her freshman year at West when her father took over the helm of the program.
“Even as a ninth grader at West, she was very intimidated by the upperclassmen and by the other players on the team,” Mike Moyer said. “I didn’t start her as a freshman for the first six games. She should have been in the starting lineup, but it wasn’t until the senior captains came up to me and said, ‘Mike, we need Taylor in the game a lot more than what she’s playing.’
“At that point, she’s a freshman, I’m the coach, and that’s when I realized – I do have to play my best 11, and she was one of the best 11. I remember telling her, ‘Listen, I have to have an honest conversation with you. There’s going to be a lot of people that are going to take shots at you because you’re the coach’s daughter. You know me – if you’re not playing well or you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, you’re going to sit on the bench, but it’s your job to prove everyone else wrong.’”
If there were doubters, Taylor certainly proved them wrong, earning first team all-league honors for three straight years and all-state recognition as a junior.
“It was really exciting because I felt like I had a place to be and something to do,” Taylor said. “My dad being the coach is sometimes hard for obvious reasons, but I’m glad he was my coach because it made a lot of things easier for me.
“When I was a freshman, the seniors we had were amazing. They were so nice, and that made me feel really good about myself coming from them.”
In ninth grade, Taylor began working with a therapist and talking to her guidance counselor.
“We figured out what triggered the anxiety and how to help it, and it helped me get through my day,” she said. “Some days were harder than others. I don’t know why, but that’s just how it was.
“I was able to do things normally, but obviously, a lot of my friends play soccer, and they know about it and they’re really good about it and help me a lot too.”
By the time she was a sophomore, Taylor began entertaining the idea of playing college soccer.
“I realized I wanted to go to the next level because I realized I could have a lot of good opportunities if I worked for them,” she said. “Sometimes with my anxiety, I regret not doing some things and letting my anxiety win.
“Looking back, I wish I had done more things like played with another team that I didn’t know in tournaments.”
For both father and daughter, there’s been a learning curve.
“In the beginning, I would get mad at Taylor, and I didn’t know at the time – that would escalate everything,” Mike Moyer said. “Instead of trying to comfort her, instead of trying to help her deal with it, my thing was to just get mad at her.
“It caused some friction between me and my wife and Taylor early on until I really started getting a handle on it. I understand that it’s a problem these days. We didn’t have technology when I was younger, it wasn’t like today where all these kids are in each other’s lives 24-7 with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok, and they’re constantly judging each other with all of this stuff.
“Now that I’m in this coaching job at West, I have girls that are 18 years old, and the 14-year-olds, the incoming freshman – none of them are confident enough to come in and try and be the best player. It takes them a while. Back in the 80s, 90s, you didn’t have that issue. It’s a lot different than it used to be, and I’m still trying to get better at it.”
“I think my dad didn’t really understand it in the beginning,” Taylor said. “My mom (Jenn Moyer) – I give a lot of credit to her because she really helps me a lot. My dad didn’t really understand it, but after a while, he was really helpful with it.”
As for soccer, what is it that sets Taylor apart on the pitch?
“I think the way she understands the game, the way she reads the game,” Mike Moyer said. “There’s a couple things she does – her touch is unbelievable. (Our goalie) Jules (Broskey) will punt the ball 50 yards, and she brings it right down to her foot.
“Just her speed and her finishing. I’ve always said this about her – she can put the ball wherever she wants, especially on set pieces. She does practice them a lot. The goals – yes, I’m going to miss 100 percent, but the reason we’ve been successful is because we really work on set pieces, and the only way you can be successful on a set piece is if you have somebody that can put the ball where you need the ball to be put in order to make the play work, and that’s what she did from ninth grade on.
“The only time she didn’t take a set piece is if she wasn’t in the game. She could kick a ball 60 yards in air, so if we had a free kick around the 50 or even on our side of the 50, she could put it on the 10-yard line and create some type of chance for us. That is one thing as a coach I’m going to miss next year – the way she can hit a set piece.”
This past fall, the senior captain's season was cut short when she suffered a knee injury in West’s game against Souderton and was out for the remainder of the season.
“I was just glad I could be on the sidelines rooting the rest of my team on,” said Moyer, who was shooting the ball at the same time a defender was kicking the ball when the injury happened. “My foot stopped but my knee kept going forward. I was scared I tore my ACL because that’s kind of how it happens, but I didn’t hear anything pop.”
The prognosis?
“They weren’t sure,” Moyer said. “They thought it was a meniscus or MCL. I didn’t have surgery. I’m just doing a lot of PT right now.”
A bright future
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 the West senior, who will major in elementary education. “I didn’t feel the need to go to a big school that just wants to win every game and have an amazing team.
“I wanted nice coaches who understood me and who would be there for me and a nice team. I just want to enjoy my time there, and that’s how I felt when I went there and met the coaches and some of the girls on the team. 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.”
Taylor has taken steps to avoid allowing anxiety to consume her.
“There are still some things that trigger it, but it’s mainly with school,” she said. “I have found a lot of ways to prevent it or help it not be as bad.
“The number one thing that helps me when I feel that way is distracting myself. Doing anything else than thinking about it – drawing, watching a TV show for 20 minutes, anything that can distract me and get my mind off what I’m thinking about, which is another reason soccer is so good because I could go out for two hours a day and just do that and not think about anything else.”
Taylor is sharing her story in the hopes that it will help others who are battling what can be a debilitating condition.
“The biggest thing for me was having someone know about it, so they could talk to me or I could talk to them if I needed to,” she said. “I know some of the freshmen this year have bad anxiety, so I would just talk to them and tell them I was there for them and I understood because some people you talk to who don’t have it don’t understand fully what it’s like, and I just wanted them to know that I actually understood and was there for them if they ever needed me because I know how hard it can be sometimes.”
Taylor has been a difference maker for at least one teammate who suffered panic attacks.
“Even her father was like – ‘It’s crazy how your program has changed (my daughter’s) outlook on life,’” Mike Moyer said. “Everybody thinks it’s easy being a coach, not just for me but for all the other coaches. There’s a lot we go through trying to make sure everybody’s in a good place.”
For Taylor, sharing her soccer journey with her father was significant.
“It’s meant a lot,” Taylor 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.”
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