Taylor Richards thrives on the Troy soccer field
Scoring or assisting a goal is what many soccer players dream of doing on the pitch, but for one player, stopping those dreams is what brings her the most energy out of the game.
Taylor Richards grew up in Plano, Texas, with her mom, dad and older sister. In Texas, she grew up around all kinds of sports, including football, basketball and of course soccer, but playing keeper was not her first choice.
“My first sport was actually figure skating, and I started at a really young age but to be honest, I’m not really sure why,” said fifth-year goalkeeper Taylor Richards. “In Texas, it was just something younger kids do; you just put your kid in figure skating, and I loved it.”
Her love for figure skating was short lived, and after a little while, her love switched over to a different sport. After watching her sister play soccer, she decided to put on some cleats and try it out.
“I saw my sister play, and when I did, I thought ‘that looks really fun; I want to try that,’” Richards said. “I think having an older sister is what started me out with soccer.
“She’s a forward, so she's a great training partner, and watching her play college soccer is what drove me to play collegiately.”
There was one issue for Richards, though, when choosing soccer, and that's why she chose keeper as her position.
“I hated running, and at a young age, I knew I was not going to run,” Richards said. “By the time keepers were added, I was the one kid who would always ask to play keeper.”
Her willingness to play keeper continued throughout her life, making her one of the best keepers in Texas during travel and high school soccer. She was named First Team 9-6 A, and Plano Senior Highschool Varsity MVP in 2019 and 2020.
“Playing soccer in Texas was hard, but it was really good,” Richards said. “There were a lot of clubs, and I played for FC Dallas.
“It was definitely scary a lot of the times. As a keeper, you can spend 80 minutes without touching the ball, and in the 80th minute have to make a huge save, but that ultimately made me a better keeper”
Those competitions, plus her sister, eventually drove Richards to consider college ball. When she went to her sister’s official visit to Auburn, she realizedthat she wanted to continue playing soccer.
“Going on my sister's official visit to Auburn and seeing her play college soccer, seeing her live through it, made me realize I wanted that,” Richards said. “I want to have a group of girls who are my girls and see them every day, and so seeing it from a young age helped me realize that's what I want.”
Her junior year in high school, Richards decided she wanted to follow in her sister's footsteps and go to Auburn as well.
“I was pretty set on that being where I wanted to go,” Richard said. “My sister is my biggest supporter and biggest role model, so I was lucky to play there.”
Richards went on to play at Auburn for three years, two of them with her sister, but one school she played against her freshman year in college would come back in a big way.
“We played Troy,” Richard said. “I just remember thinking ‘wow this team is actually really good.’”
Three years later, Richards got a chance to tour Troy, where she fell in love right on the spot.
“It was crazy,” Richards said. “I didn’t realize how beautiful the school was. I had heard of it, but I had never been here, and I was like ‘wow, I can see myself here every single day,’” Richards said. “The girls all welcomed me, and it was hard not to love these girls at the end of the day, all of them were so great, and they acted like I had been here forever.”
Richards is now finishing out a long career of soccer, that will end in a place that she now calls home.
“It’s been great, and I am so blessed to finish my college career with these girls,” Richards said. “I think we have a solid group this year, and I have never been more proud of the group we have.
“If I have to go out at the end of this year, I'm glad it’s with these girls.”
With Senior Day coming up on Sunday against Arkansas State, Richards will be cherishing every moment she’s had on the pitch, and every moment she’s stolen from her opponent.
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