ShawneeDispatch.com

Some high school seniors, especially those headed to college in far off locations, will begin to face the next seven months with trepidation — wondering if they will be able to comfortably sever the tether that holds them to the comfort of home and what they know. Homesickness will become an uncomfortable possibility in their minds and some will wonder if they’ll have what it takes to go it alone for the first time.

Yet for Maranatha Academy senior boys soccer player Taylor Lemmon, there is no doubt that going away to school — and playing soccer — some place far away is something for which he’s waited his whole life. On Wednesday, Feb. 3, Lemmon began that journey when he signed his national letter of intent to play collegiate soccer at Virginia Tech University.

“At first, my parents were a little wary of it (going so far away to school). Then my dad and I visited the school and talked to the coaches, and that made him feel better,” Lemmon said. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and it’s something that I knew, even as a kid playing club soccer, was a possibility.”

Lemmon will debut for the Hokies next year in Blacksburg, Va., for head coach Mike Brizendine. Brizendine and his assistants spent a large portion of the last year and a half keeping tabs on Lemmon or going out to watch the Maranatha senior play club or high school games. Lemmon had been playing premiere club soccer since before the age of 10 and had improved his game under the tutelage of a variety of club coaches including, most recently, Huw Williams of the Kansas City Strikers. It is Williams and Lemmon’s other club coaches whom Lemmon credits with improving his game.

“Coming up in club soccer all the way made a big difference for me,” he said. “Playing year round, playing indoors, playing in the spring was also important. I made a lot of progress under Huw Williams and he did a lot of work trying to get in contact with college coaches to see me play.”

Lemmon also credits Williams with turning him into a scorer. In his freshman and sophomore years at Maranatha, Lemmon hardly scored a goal, but, after Lemmon joined the strikers, his high school scoring took off. Lemmon became the Eagles’ leader in scoring in both his junior and senior years and set the Maranatha school mark for single-season goals while becoming an All-State first-team selection.

Lemmon plans to take that goal-seeking mentality to Virginia Tech.

“I talked with them (the Hokie coaches) and they’re definitely looking to use me as an attacking player,” Lemmon said. “As a freshman, I’ll play where they need me to fit into the team. You don’t go in to a program like that as a freshman trying to be top dog. I have experience playing center midfielder and wing midfielder so I could play there also. Wherever they need me.”

For Maranatha Academy coach Keith Nelson, Lemmon’s appeal to college coaches was obvious. After two years of watching Lemmon take charge of his team offensively, Nelson was effusive in his praise of his senior.

“(NCAA) Division One coaches look for players who are big and strong,” Nelson stated. “There are a million great soccer players in the U.S., but his attraction is that he’s big and strong and will only get bigger and stronger with college coaching and conditioning.

“Taylor had a special creativity about him. He’s silky smooth with the ball and very, very skilled. He’s a great pursuer, a great finisher, and can beat a player one-on-one. He has a complete attacking game. It’s amazing that Maranatha Academy has had one of these kids.”

Lemmon intends to go to Virginia Tech not only to play college soccer in one of the NCAA’s most powerful conferences for the sport, but also has his eyes set on a degree in architecture from the school’s prestigious architectural program. It was a combination of academics, athletics and staff that made VTU an easy choice for Lemmon.

“I could tell the coaches like me as a player,” Lemmon said, “and I liked the ways they said they planned to utilize me. Another thing was that Virginia Tech plays in the ACC which may be the best Division One conference in the country. I liked everything about it — the campus, the guys on the team, everything.”

However, a career in architecture may have to be put on hold for a while if everything goes the way Lemmon hopes it may. He has long thoughts about the opportunities that await in professional soccer and is hoping to use his college career as a launching point into the next level.

“It’s definitely something I could look forward to and strive for … that option of playing professional soccer,” he said. “It helps going to a program like Virginia Tech. The opportunity will be there.”

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