Taylor Hamlett: 'Everything a coach dreams of'

The Miami University RedHawks soccer team has started its season off hot. Although the team ended last year with a four-game win streak, the RedHawks finished with an 8-10-1 overall record and left feeling disappointed.

In the past few weeks, the team has come together to change its trajectory. The RedHawks are 2-1-2 so far, with two non-conference games left before taking on their Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponents.

This season’s early offensive success has been led by forward Taylor Hamlett.

Hamlett has been involved in seven goals for the RedHawks, with five of her own and two assists. In the season opener against the Eastern Kentucky University Colonels, she contributed two goals and two assists to Miami’s 4-0 victory.

Hamlett has received several honors to represent her success. She was named MAC Offensive Player of the Week while also being named to Top Drawer Soccer’s National Women’s Team of the Week.

Hamlett said national honors are a “confidence booster” as she enters her fifth year.

“It feels really good, especially coming back for my fifth year, as it took a lot to come back for this year,” Hamlett said. “It just shows the hard work that I put in over the summer and the hard work the team has put in these past five weeks. It doesn’t go unnoticed.”

Soccer has been an incredibly important aspect of Hamlett’s life. The Pennsylvania native was originally a dancer before playing soccer, but she didn’t join the sport until her father signed her up for classes.

“My dad signed me up for a soccer camp, and I absolutely fell in love with it,” Hamlett said. “I wasn’t very good at all [in] the beginning. I did not start to play club until middle school, so I was behind. When I first started club, I was the worst person on the team, and I didn't even make the travel roster.”

Hamlett dedicated as much time as she could to getting better. She credits multiple people, especially her father, for her growth as a player. The pair trained whenever they could, even spending Christmas Eve practicing at the fields.

Throughout high school, Hamlett continued to grow as a player while strengthening her love for the sport. As a senior at Mars Area High School, she won the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 3A Girls Soccer Championship.

After this, Hamlett was ready to move on to college soccer.

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She started her collegiate career at Middle Tennessee State University, but the distance from home was unsettling. As a result, she transferred to Miami her sophomore year.

This change in direction led to Hamlett being happier than ever before.

“I was going through a lot of mental health stuff while at my old school,” Hamlett said. “I was 12 hours away from home, and I needed a change in scenery. I needed a break, and I needed to get closer to family. Miami and soccer as a whole, I would say, just completely changed and saved my life.”

When reflecting on her three years as a RedHawk, Hamlett is incredibly grateful for her teammates and her coaches. She especially appreciates head coach Courtney Sirmans, who was aware of her previous issues before she arrived in Oxford.

Sirmans is incredibly grateful that she has gotten to know and work with Hamlett, both as a player and a person.

“I never got to see Taylor play before she came to Miami,” Sirmans said. “I am actually really good friends with her assistant coach at Middle Tennessee, and the things he told me about how passionate she was about soccer, how competitive she was about winning and how much she invests in herself were all the things I needed to hear that I didn’t need to see her play.”

When Hamlett arrived for her first visit, Sirmans described her impressions of Taylor as “everything a coach dreams of.”

Those first impressions are something that Hamlett has lived up to and is still displaying in her final year. Sirmans mentioned that Hamlett shows her winning mentality in everything she does, whether she’s in a game, working out in the weight room or even competing in a chess match. She simply wants to win at everything.

For first-year midfielder Maris Jennings, having someone like Hamlett on this team is incredibly important, especially for the eight first-year and six transfer players who have never played for the RedHawks.

“She pushes everyone at practice so hard and is constantly pushing herself,” Jennings said.“[That] is obviously something that you want to see from not only a teammate but also a caption. She really is a great leader and a role model that you just want to look up to.”

Hamlett and the rest of the team are no longer focused on the last season or how it ended. They are focused on the present. While she feels satisfied looking back at her soccer career, there is no way she wouldn't have come back for a fifth year.

“I love soccer more than anything, but it's hard on the body, it's hard on the mind, sacrificing other parts of my career to come back for a fifth year,” Hamlett said. “I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. I love this team, I love the coaching staff, I love my teammates, my friends. Just the whole environment at Miami more than anything.”

burbrikn@miamioh.edu