KAMRIN TAYLOR OF SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, a first-year forward/midfielder on the women's soccer team from New Braunfels, Texas, has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Female Student-Athlete of the Week for the week beginning November 18.
The SCAC Character & Community award honors the efforts of student-athletes who excel in the field of athletics, and also serve their campus and community.
Taylor, who has played soccer since she was four years old, dreamed of playing collegiate soccer and has been training to make her dream come to life. However, just a few days before her birthday during her freshman year of high school, Kamrin fell down some stairs and lost complete feeling in her right leg.
In shock at the paralysis in her leg, Taylor was seen by multiple neurologists and was told by the doctors that what was wrong with her leg had nothing to do with her muscles or legs but the problem stemmed from her brain. She was diagnosed with conversion disorder, which is a mental condition in which causes a person to have paralysis or other nervous system symptoms induced by stress or other mental disorders such as depression.
Taylor said that the paralysis in her leg lasted for a month, and it took her about three months to get back to where she could start to be active and play soccer again. Before Taylor lost feeling in her leg, she had trained with the varsity squad, however, after her injury she fell behind on soccer and was moved down to the junior varsity squad.
"I remember being so disappointed. And I wasn't sure when I was going to walk again and what that meant for playing,” she says. “A part of me wanted to quit.”
Even after Taylor received feeling back in her right leg and started to train again, the issue lead to other injuries that held her back from getting to the same shape she had been before her injury.
"There are lots of girls who dream of playing collegiate soccer and I was one of them. I never really thought about not playing....and giving up soccer was going to be the end of that dream," Taylor says.
However, this adversity did not stop Taylor from the goals that she had had since she was little.
"I had decided that despite being really sore once I got back and my muscles being atrophied, it was hard to fight through it but it was worth it to get to follow my dream," Taylor says.
Taylor once again picked up in her training and found her way in the Southwestern University Women's Soccer program. She felt that her academics could excel while she could continue her love for playing soccer, so she committed her junior year. In her freshman year of being on the Southwestern women's soccer team, Taylor was able to be a part of the first Southwestern women's soccer team to win the SCAC women's soccer championship.
While she still works through the challenges that come with the disorder, Taylor has encouraged her teammates on an off the field as a teammate and competitor. While many may not know about her conversion disorder she has been a true example of an athlete who has worked through unpredictable adversity and has persevered to achieve her dream of playing on a collegiate soccer team.
"It's hard and sometimes you don't always feel like you are in the right place, but if it is something that you loved before the injury it should be something that you love afterward."