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Tyler Meets Challenges, Aims for Final Goal
May 9, 2018
By Tom Kendra
Special for Second Half
Talia Tyler has showed her competitive fire, really, since birth. But one really good example of how occurred when she was 6 years old.
She had just scored a bunch of goals in a youth game and her father, Jim – partially to keep her humble and partially to be the smart-aleck that he is – quipped to her tongue-in-cheek:
“Too bad you didn’t score any with your left foot.”
Later that day, little Talia was out in the yard with her soccer ball, shooting exclusively with her left foot. The next game, she scored all of her goals with her left foot, each time followed immediately by a glare to her father on the sidelines.
“I always try to challenge myself, in school and in sports, to be the best that I can,” explained Tyler, whose constant striving – not to mention her speed and smarts – has landed her a spot on the women’s soccer team at Columbia University, a Division I school in the Ivy League, located in New York City.
The immediate challenge for Tyler, the senior striker and leader of the Muskegon Catholic Central girls soccer team, and her teammates is to try and improve on last year’s run to the MHSAA Division 4 Semifinals – which capped the best season in school history.
Muskegon Catholic, which is 8-1 overall and a perfect 4-0 in the Lakes 8 Athletic Conference this spring, lost just three seniors off last year’s team which won the school’s first-ever girls soccer Regional title before bowing 2-0 to Kalamazoo Christian in the Semifinals.
Led by Tyler, the Crusaders have made winning the Division 4 championship their No. 1 goal this year.
Tyler, who has six goals and three assists so far, is joined up front by senior Lauren Doriot (who currently leads the team with seven goals), freshman standout Emily Olsen, sophomores Caitlyn Fodrocy and Payton Helton and junior A’lahna Cherry.
Kyra Tyler, a junior and Talia’s younger sister and the last of four standout Tyler athletes at MCC, is the top defender for the Crusaders – along with seniors Kasia Gasior, Roxy Hubl and Zoie Price, who is currently sidelined with a leg injury.
The final line of defense is one of the state’s best keepers in senior Isabelle Bertolone, although she rarely gets to show her ability in regular-season games as the Crusaders normally keep most of the action on the opposite side of the midfield stripe.
“We are loaded enough that we should make another run,” said second-year MCC coach Art Dorsey, who was notably frustrated after a narrow 2-0 victory Monday over conference rival Muskegon Orchard View. “We should be playing much better than we are. We need a little more hunger, a little more sense of urgency.”
Dorsey knows one of the biggest challenges in the entire state is just a few miles away in North Muskegon, which is undefeated and on a District collision course with MCC.
Tyler said the key to winning games in the postseason is mental.
“Girls soccer really comes down to which team shows up focused and ready,” said Tyler, who has served as her class president for the past three years. “Really, one of the biggest keys for us is staying healthy. We will keep working on it and getting better.”
Tyler’s tenacity and grit shines through in key moments in big games, but the first thing everyone notices about the 5-foot-6 senior is her speed.
Tyler is so fast that in her sophomore and junior years she ran track in the spring, in addition to her soccer. In her sophomore year, she finished eighth in the 200 meters at the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals. In her junior year, she qualified for the Finals in four events, but had to miss the meet to play in the Crusaders’ soccer District championship game.
Instead of on the track, Tyler used that speed throughout the tournament to make runs down the edges of the field and put major pressure on defenders. She finished her junior year with more than 20 goals and 20 assists.
“Talia has a complete skill set, and that’s what makes her the best soccer player ever at this school,” said Dorsey. “She can turn it on and get up to her top speed so quickly that it catches defenders off-guard. Then she is smart enough to make the right decisions going to the goal.”
Smarts is another trait that runs through the Tyler family. Talia’s older brother, Ian, plays football at Columbia and her older sister, Annika, is a club soccer player at the University of San Diego.
Talia has maintained a 3.85 grade-point average while taking a steady diet of AP classes and being a four-year varsity starter in both basketball and soccer. She also has racked up more than 200 service hours during high school, many on spring break mission trips.
Her final intangible, which she first displayed as the starting point guard on MCC’s varsity basketball team four years ago as a freshman, is leadership. On a team with plenty of young talent, Tyler is the veteran the other girls look to in crucial situations.
“Looking back to freshman year and everything that we’ve been through together, it’s kind of surreal that now it’s just down to this final sport and this final season,” Tyler said. “It’s great getting this chance to play with my friends and see if we can really leave our mark. That’s our goal.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Muskegon Catholic Central’s Talia Tyler (9) winds up to send the ball downfield during a game this spring. (Middle) Tyler (3) charges ahead during her heat of the 200 at the 2016 MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals. (Photos courtesy of Kristine Tyler.)
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Off Top Finish, Somsel Eyes Bright Future
June 23, 2020
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
TECUMSEH – Erin Somsel will be giving her Valedictorian speech to fellow Tecumseh High School graduates next month. Her message will be to not take anything for granted.
“I think that’s a pretty important thing, especially because of what we are all going through right now,” said Somsel. “You just never know.”
Somsel wasn’t one to take anything for granted in the classroom or on the Tecumseh soccer field.
She entered her senior year No. 3 academically in her class but juggled four advanced placement classes to finish first among her classmates with a 4.222 grade point average.
“I made the goal of being Valedictorian my freshman year,” she said. “I didn’t know if it was possible. I was No. 3 in my class my sophomore and junior years and the start of my senior year. I think the extra advanced placement classes helped put me over the top. It was tough, but worth it.”
Somsel, 18, wants to become a neurologist. She will study biology and biochemistry on a pre-med track at Kalamazoo College. Oh, yeah – she plans on playing soccer too.
“I knew I wanted to play at the next level for a while now,” she said. “Soccer has been a year-round sport for me. It’s been my only sport since middle school.”
Somsel picked up the game before going to school. By the age of 7 she was playing club soccer on traveling teams.
“I played on the local club team in Tecumseh for two years and then moved to the Jackson Rush,” she said. “It was through club soccer that we had a camp in which there was some college coaches. The Kalamazoo coach came to the camp year after year. I’ve known him since my freshman year.”
She missed out on her senior season of soccer because of the global pandemic but committed to Kalamazoo recently. She played center back for Tecumseh and the Rush and intends to continue playing defense in college.
“I’ve always just liked defense,” she said. “I was never one of those players that wanted to be up front and to score goals. I gravitated toward defense from the start. At center-mid, I like the fact that you can see the entire field and sort of direct people. That’s where I like to play.”
Somsel has been a captain for both the Rush and her Tecumseh squad. She was named to the all-county and all-District teams in 2018 and 2019 and was honorable mention in the Southeastern Conference. She picked up two “Defender of the Year” honors from Tecumseh.
Over three varsity seasons, she started all 56 games in which she played. She scored seven goals and had 10 assists over her three seasons, taking just 40 shots on goal during her career.
When she wasn’t hitting the books or on the soccer field, Somsel volunteered with the Lenawee County Humane Society and was an active member of the National Honor Society and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions).
Somsel isn’t worried about trying to mix soccer into her college regimen. By now, she’s used to it.
“Soccer really helped me tremendously with my academics,” said the daughter of Jim and Holly Somsel. “It helped me develop a really good work ethic. I had to have a really good study schedule to keep up with everything, and I had to stick to that schedule. Soccer helped me stay on track.”
Taking the advanced placement classes wasn’t an accident.
“I felt it would be a really good idea, especially since I am going into pre-med,” she said. “I thought it would better prepare me for playing sports and studying in college.”
She did a lot of homework during the car rides from her home in Tecumseh to Jackson, the home of her club team.
“My parents and everyone was super supportive,” she said. “My Tecumseh coaches (Thomas Goodman and Matt Twiss) and my Rush coach (Marco Bernardini) really helped me along the way.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Tecumseh’s Erin Somsel lines up a free kick during a game last season. (Middle) Somsel, wearing 2 earlier in her career, controls the ball. (Top photo courtesy of Somsel; middle by Mike Dickie.)