OBSERVER Photo by Andrew Kuczkowski Pictured are Fredonia soccer standouts Laural Erick, left, and Audrey Taylor. The duo was recently accepted to the exclusive, 22-player team of United States Girls’ Development Academy and will forego their high school soccer careers.

No matter what sport, every athlete wants to make it one step higher. In high school, athletes aspire to go from the junior varsity team to the varsity team. Then to become a star on the varsity team. From there, it’s usually the path of college to pros.

For soccer, that route isn’t as traditional. The sport is year-round for Audrey Taylor and Laural Erick, both of Fredonia High School, and that has paid dividends to reach new heights.

The United States Girls’ Development Academy will have its inaugural season this upcoming fall and it drew the attention of all female soccer athletes nationwide, including Taylor and Erick. The program is the creme de la creme. The program to get the most exposure and face the top talent in the U.S. and not just the local area.

Empire United, out of Rochester, was the closest club in the USDA. However, what are the odds that thriving talent from the small village of Fredonia will get the recognition to join the 22-girl team?

But talent, persistence and traveling has given the duo the opportunity to make the program.

“My dad got the phone call from the head coach,” Taylor said, “and my dad just came downstairs and said, ‘Audrey, give me a hug.’ Then he gave me a hug and said ‘you made it.'”

It was around March 27 that Taylor found out the news that she made the team. It was the moment where she can make the next stepping stone in her athletic career, however, she won’t have to do it alone.

“I kind of got a whisper while they were on the phone,” Erick said, “and I knew because I know the coach’s name and they said it was him… I was so excited; I was so happy and everything.”

The USDA is a very dedicated program. Once accepted, the players have to sign off all other commitments as they could only play with their organization for the 10-month season, this includes no high school athletics.

This was not a problem for Erick and Taylor as it only means that they don’t have to stress on balancing practices and games for clubs and high school sports. Also that they could put forth their sole focus to hone their skills.

The acceptance onto the upper-echelon team was a payoff to further their careers. Something they both aimed for at an early age.

Audrey Taylor, a 10th-grade center defender, grew up in Modesto, California. She joined a soccer club in Ripon, California at the age of 4. Soccer in the United States isn’t the same in all areas. For Western New York, sports like baseball, hockey and football reign supreme and soccer isn’t one of them.

So when Taylor made the move in 2012 to go from the Golden State to the Empire State, it was not only a change in location, but of a way of life.

“In California, that was their sport, actually,” Taylor said. “Everyone just loved it. That was the major (sport), that was the priority. Soccer was the thing. But when I moved here, that’s when basketball and football came more of the sport, I guess.

“I was like, ‘Where’s soccer at? Why don’t you guys like soccer?’ I was kind of, in a way, judged for liking it so much.”

Taylor and her family knew that traveling was a necessity for exposure. She joined an Olympic Development Program and played in a club as well.

Laural Erick, a 10th-grade forward, is an offensive powerhouse. While at Fredonia High School, Erick excelled as a scorer. In the 2016 season, she netted 35 goals and tacked on 10 assists. That added out to be 80 points in a 19-game season, or over four points a game with goals accounting for two points apiece.

Instead of the Olympic Development Program like Taylor, Erick joined the Empire United SA of Buffalo. The club soccer program helped her grow as a soccer player, however, it was usually a team of athletes that weren’t from the Southern Tier.

Once Erick got the call to join the USDA and found out that Taylor would be joining her, it was comforting to have a teammate and a friend within the new locker room.

“I have been playing Empire up in Buffalo since I was 10,” she said. “And I didn’t have anyone (that I knew). And then when Audrey joined the team, it made me so happy because I finally had someone that (I can do) road trips with, someone to be there with me through everything and I wouldn’t be so alone. So it’s honestly great.”

The travel companion also helps the families as well. Empire United has three practices a week in Rochester and one in Buffalo. The distance is not down the road. The club travels all over for tournaments and games. In recent weeks, Erick and Taylor traveled to Delaware for a weekend and soon will go down to Kentucky for another tournament.

“Since she was 10, we have been doing this,” Stacey Erick, mother of Laural, said. “Three nights a week, I’ve been living at a soccer field over an hour away. So, it’s an hour to get there, an hour and a half practice and an hour to go home and now that I got somebody to ‘hey, I’ll take Mondays, you take Thursdays or whatever’ and tournaments … it’s been great.”

And the one thing that the families agreed on was that this was an investment. Shawn Taylor, father of Audrey, stated that few kids ask and pursue to become the best. So when his daughter wanted to play more advanced soccer, the traveling was not the question, but what is next for his daughter was.

“They’ve been consistently giving their heart and souls into what they love to do, which makes it really simple for us as parents, which we do whatever the heck we have to do to make it possible,” Shawn Taylor said. “We don’t ask, ‘Will it be easy?’ We just do it. We have to do it. If they’re willing to do the work, we’ll do whatever we need to.”

The duo aims to go to a Division I school. Audrey Taylor rattled off a few schools like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where, she noted, that Mia Hamm went. Though, they both know that college degrees aren’t universal and that one school may not be the best choice for both.

Yet, that won’t prevent them from being best friends.

“She wants to go to architecture,” Taylor said of Erick, “and I want to go in for psychology, it’s kind of hard because you have to find a school…”

“… that fits not just your soccer needs, but your academic needs,” Erick added. “If we don’t fit, then we don’t fit and we have to just stay with each other. We are best friends; we are still going to remain best friends.”

Email: Akuczkowski@observertoday.com

Twitter: @Kuczkowski95