Taylor Linds remembers the soccer game that changed her life

Taylor Linds was playing her final soccer game in Toronto before traveling to New York for the preseason when something happened that would change her life. Photo: Yuliya Prisyazhnaya/The Dialog

It was the summer of 2011 and Taylor Linds was saying goodbye to Toronto in one last soccer game before leaving for preseason in New York. It was the match that ended up changing her life.

“Here I was taking the ball down the field, about to score the most beautiful goal when four girls from the other team started to come at me like an angry herd, tackling me to the ground,” said Taylor Linds, GBC student and Huskies soccer player. “I smashed my head on the ground so hard I was knocked out for a couple seconds.”

She still left for New York, but instead of playing soccer she was visiting doctors every day, and from that moment on she knew everything had changed.

Linds’ mother always wanted her daughter to be a ballet dancer or gymnast. Her brother played soccer, but he spent more time picking the flowers on the field.

“I hated dancing and all that jazz in elementary school all I wanted to do during recess was to play soccer with the boys,” said Linds. As soon as she started to play, she never wanted to stop because it was finally something she was good at.

For some people soccer is just a game where players run with the ball from one end to the other, while for her it means so much more, “I learned not only how to play the game well, but about discipline, teamwork and sacrifice,” said Linds.

No matter what her mood, soccer is always the first thing she wants to do saying, “it helps relax the mind, get frustration out and keeps me happy.”

She wanted to play soccer forever, it was her life’s dream,  and although she did her best and got accepted to a prestigious soccer school in New York City Linds said, “after the injury things were pretty hard, I had no family or friends out where I moved.”

Linds says her four roommates “were helpful throughout the whole thing, making sure I was never alone, but they definitely, secretly, thought I was crazy.”

Now she is a student at George Brown in the special events planning program, and plays as a striker for the Huskies. She only played in one game this past season but doesn’t let that stop her.

“I like playing for the Huskies,” said Linds. “I have never been in a school without being on a team. It’s never going to be the same as it was, but I try my best to keep playing and give it my best for this team.”

Linds’ main goal is finishing school, and after that she will think of what to do next for the future. Currently she manages her time with work, studying and soccer.

“I love playing soccer,” she says, “but sometimes I don’t want to play anymore because I’ll never play like I used to.”