Caroline Taylor pulls on her jersey and wraps tape around her shin guards, covered by long socks. She tightens her cleats and ties her hair. After a deep breath, that was it. She was ready for the first game.

Caroline Taylor, junior, is captain of the 2013 GRHS Varsity Girl Soccer. She plays forward and, sometimes, midfielder.

In a recent interview with The Glen Echo, Caroline spoke to us briefly about the responsibilities of captaining the GRHS Panthers after their dynamic season last year.

“Being a captain is a responsibility,” Caroline said, “After I was named captain, I experienced myself realizing I need to keep a level head for my team and keep the tone of the game positive.”

Sensible of her responsibility as captain, she admitted that there was additional pressure. But she looked at this aspect optimistically and said, with a positive attitude, that the pressure keeps her at her best.

“It is competitive and there’s no better feeling than scoring a goal,” Caroline said.

She added that, to her, there is not a great difference between the past (as one of the team) and as a current captain. She certainly still plays the same way as before.

Caroline did talk about her role as a leader on the team. “If anything more, people are looking to me for direction.  Basically, I want to set a good example for my team and try to be an active member of a great group of players,” she said.

She describes her team as a unit. The athletes have great chemistry, and they have forged an extremely strong bond. They all know their strengths and weaknesses, which allows them to play a smart game of soccer. Every player supports the others.

“All of us are very close,” she said. The teammates talk, laugh, encourage, and constructively criticize each other on and off the field. She hopes to create an atmosphere for her team in which each member knows how crucial they are to the team as a whole.

Playing soccer since she was 5-years-old, Caroline has grown up with soccer. Now, bearing the “C” GRHS team, it seems as if we cannot talk about Caroline without mentioning ‘soccer’ as one of the most important parts of her life; now, she hopes to pass on her passion for the sport to her teammates.

“I would love to be able to say I helped inspire someone to do their best,” Caroline said

Caroline is planning to play Division I soccer in college.