Ithaca Times
Dryden’s Taylor Bennett is so much more than just the coach’s kid.
“Nobody can ever
say, ‘Oh, it’s because it’s your daughter,’ because I’m harder on them
than I am on anyone else,” said Dryden Girls’ Soccer Coach Janine
Bennett. “Taylor couldn’t always separate that. So, we’ve had our bumps
in the road, but when it comes down to it, it’s what we always wanted to
do and she’s matured enough that anything I give her on the field is
about making her better. She’s finally gotten to the point where it’s
not an attack on her, it’s a we’ll-get-better situation.”
Playing center defender this season, the junior
is the face of the 11-0 Lions, the team she leads in scoring with 22
goals along with six assists. She has 152 goals and 42 assists for her
career. Last year, Taylor was named the ESPN Ithaca Player of the Year
in girls’ IAC soccer as well as IAC Player of the Year. She has the team
record for goals scored in a season with 42, and in November, will be
playing on a regional team that will represent the United States for a
tournament in Russia.
Taylor has been a member of the varsity team
since she was in seventh grade, and with her mom as the long-time head
coach and her sister, Leighann, a former first-team All-State forward
for Dryden who now plays D-I soccer at Binghamton, she is continuing the
family tradition of success for the Lady Lions.
Now, Taylor has accepted a new role with the team
this season. Being the third Bennett to be a part of the girls’ soccer
program at Dryden means she’s learned from the best. That experience and
knowledge has led to her being a coach on the field and a mentor to the
team, which is made up mostly of freshmen and sophomores.
That new role of being an assistant coach as
brought about a new position change: she now plays center defense. The
position switch works for Dryden for a number of reasons. It allows
Taylor to see the field and help her teammates out in-game. It also
strategically takes Taylor out of games, and lets the offense run
naturally so defenses don’t just zero in on their best player. For
Taylor, it helps her prepare for college soccer life at Syracuse, where
she’ll play center defense for the Orange in 2016.
“She’s accepted that role right now, it’s part of
her maturity,” said Janine. “We moved her position to the back of the
field from the front and it has taken the weight off of her. She’s still
our leading scorer. It still helps everybody else play together instead
of just ‘I got it, I’m going to score.’”
For Taylor, playing soccer for her mom is nothing
new. Janine has been her coach since she was four years old, and who
better to learn the game from than a family member who also happens to
be a former SUNY Cortland All-American?
“It’s been fun,” said Taylor. “It’s not like I
get out of anything at all. She is actually probably tougher on me than
anyone else. Which is good for me, it helps me grow. It helps me raise
the bar for the other players.”
The Bennetts are an athletic group. Their father,
Brian, was also a former All-American swimmer. The girls both chose
soccer, which Janine said was totally up to them, and that there are no
hard feelings around the house.
“Swimming and soccer are in the same season, so
it was going to be whatever they wanted to do,” said Janine. “They are
both great swimmers too. So they chose. They fell in love with it. They
picked. We gave them both opportunities, we showed them swimming as
well. It worked out great that’s what they chose.”
“When I was four, she was very, as long as you
love the game, do it,” said Taylor. “Everything was supportive and
everything like that. It’s still supportive now, but now it’s more
instructive and she’ll pick and prod the little things that she sees in
the game.”
Now, Taylor has taken her mom’s passion and made
it her own. She doesn’t just play for Dryden, but plays year round for
club teams and leagues across the area, building up her resume to find
that success in college. That was modeled after Leighann, who has been a
big help in the development of the younger sibling.
“Leighann has really opened the doors for Taylor
because of the experiences she has had,” said Janine. “Taylor got to be
there younger. Leighann really worked hard for everything she got and
paved her way for everything. Taylor saw it, and it wasn’t new when she
got there. She saw what the Olympic Development program was like because
Leighann played. She saw different kinds of training because Leighann
played. And she was good enough that half the time she played with
Leighann’s teams.
The difference between the two girls, Janine
said, comes from their attitudes off the field. Both are fierce
competitors, but for Taylor, the competition tends to come home with
her.
“Taylor and I can butt heads, we definitely can
go at it with each other,” said Janine. “This year has been really good.
Leighann never took what happened on the field away from the field. She
could separate it. But Taylor’s never been able to separate mom and
coach. … She hates to lose. She is such a fighter and she has a hot
temper. She doesn’t like if the ref doesn’t call the right thing, or if
someone calls her a bad name. She’s always had a hard time dealing with
that. Over the past year, she has really grown into recognizing that
people do that to get you off your game. If you are hated, the more they
hate you, the better you are. It’s not anything other than you are so
good, they don’t know how to beat you. When that finally clicked, you
could see that in her.”
At 11-0, Dryden has to be thinking this could be
the year something big happens. Looking at the schedule, it becomes a
question of: “Who is the team who will finally beat us?” Taylor and
Janine don’t want to underestimate any opponent. They may be undefeated,
but they have a long way to go. Janine has never been to the state
tournament before in her 16 year career as head coach, and that’s
something they are looking to do soon.
“That’s the one thing my mom is missing as a
coach,” said Taylor. “Every team we play from now on could be it for us.
We do not have an easy schedule at all anymore. We have Waverly,
Lansing, and they will give us a run for our money. But we will do our
best. They are very physical.”
Janine agrees that the team could finish the year strong, but it will take focus, consistency and determination from her group.
“This team can do whatever they want.” said
Janine. “They are so inconsistent because they were so young. Next
season is starting, a lot of them are basketball players, so basketball
is coming up. It’s, ‘I’m so excited for this, school dates are coming
up, tests come up.’ Everything starts to happen now. This is where our
attention span kind of waivers. They are quite talented, but they are
also 14-15 years old. Their minds are very easily distracted. It’s very
easy for them to have a bad day in school, and then we’ll be off on the
soccer field. They aren’t mature enough yet. I didn’t think we’d be
where we are right now. Everything just keeps being bonuses.”
But Janine believes this team has the potential
to do great things if they can find a way to hang with the schools who
make soccer everything.
“I think this can be a fantastic team except for
the fact that they don’t play seriously year round,” she said. “A lot of
those players in the larger B schools select a sport. We’re a small B
school and the population that competes in there, we have many multi
sport athletes. That will always be our Achilles heel.”
