Appointing a new player as a captain and team leader may be rare, but Syracuse field hockey head coach Ange Bradley knows from experience that Shannon Taylor is right for such a task.

In a 2006 game with Taylor and Bradley riding a 45-game winning streak together at Richmond, the score was surprisingly tied against Temple. Taylor walked up to Bradley and assured her that she would win the game.

‘She said ‘I’m going to hit the winning goal, we’re going to end this right now,” Bradley recalled. ‘And I said ‘Alright, pick a corner.’ She did it, and we went on to the (conference) championship.’

Taylor scored five minutes into the first overtime, edging the Spiders past Temple, 2-1. Richmond went on to defeat St. Joseph’s, 3-2, to win its fifth straight Atlantic 10 Championship.

That kind of confidence vaulted the transfer Taylor into captainship this fall with Syracuse. She officially reunites with Bradley in the team’s season opener on Sunday when No. 18 Syracuse faces off against No. 8 Old Dominion.

The transfer up north wasn’t easy, though.

At Richmond, Shannon Taylor had it all. A good education close to home, an Atlantic 10 offensive player of the year award and a coach she deeply admired. However, the fairytale senior season that Taylor was looking forward to, took a turn for the unexpected when Bradley took the same position at Syracuse University.

The decision left the standout midfielder to decide between everything she was familiar with and a senior year with the coach who helped shape her game. She chose the unorthodox transfer to SU, and now will be counted on as a team leader. Taylor was forced to sit out one season and leave three years of friends and memories behind.

‘I did have a lot of friends (at Richmond),’ Taylor said. ‘I had a lot of great teammates and actually had a boyfriend.’

Despite the emotional connection she had with her former school, Taylor eventually made the decision to join her coach. With Richmond in 2006, Taylor led the Atlantic 10 in goals (30), points (69) and game-winning goals (seven).

The sustained success with Richmond was difficult to leave.

‘When it comes to taking that next step in your life and what you think is going to be best for you, I really had to buckle down and see that this is best decision for me,’ Taylor said.

Taking a back seat for one year while still putting in the grueling hours was nothing less than frustrating, she said.

Bradley remembers how difficult it was to tell Taylor that not only could she not play in games, but she could not join the team on the road, as stated in the conditions of her release from Richmond.

‘(The team) was working their butts off,’ Bradley said. ‘And then you go to leave for a competition, and it’s like ‘sorry (Taylor) you can’t come.”

In the Orange’s first exhibition game on Tuesday, Taylor played an integral role in the Orange’s 10-2 rout of Western Ontario College, scoring three goals.

Scoring, however, is not the main role Taylor will take on for her team this year. As Bradley’s most experienced player, she will have to deal with coordinating and stabilizing a very young midfield – a role that both Taylor and her coach are working to improve.

‘It’s all about consistency, and being able to play her game and help the people around her get better,’ Bradley said. ‘She is our field general and our leader out there, and of that engine room of positions, she is the cog out there, and if she’s not running, we don’t run.’

Kim Coyle, a sophomore back, said Taylor’s experience is a great asset to the team.

‘We’re all stepping up more, and it gives us the ability to lead from experience and not just going into something where we don’t know what’s going on,’ Coyle said.

That kind of leadership has led both Bradley and the team to the conclusion that they will be able to depend on Taylor throughout the season.

‘Shannon’s really dedicated and really hard working,’ Coyle said. ‘She’s 100 percent dedicated to what she does on and off the field, and she leads by example.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on August 27, 2008 at 12:00 pm