In August, Kayln Anderson will be a student-athlete at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama. How she got there is due to part athletic talent, part academic aptitude and a very determined personality.
Anderson, 17, is a senior at Smiths Station High School, where she began playing soccer in the seventh grade on the high school JV team. The next year, she advanced as a starter on the varsity soccer team. Students in the middle school program at Smiths are permitted to participate in sports at the high school level, but it isn’t often that someone as young as Anderson succeeds in garnering a starting position so early.
“You always have to prove yourself, and I guess I did,” says Anderson when asked about the opportunity.
She has been playing soccer since the age of four and loved it from the beginning. From her River City Soccer Club days until she began playing with the Columbus-area Red Star Soccer program, the sport of soccer has been Anderson’s one and only sports endeavor. She has never been tempted to try another sport, preferring instead to hone her athletic skills on the soccer field.
Her playing time has been spent in primarily two positions; midfield and forward. The 5’2” athlete is fast on her feet and quick in intellect, which makes her capable of delivering no matter where a coach places her. Of the sports offered to female athletes in high school, Anderson says she prefers soccer for several reasons.
“I guess ‘cause I feel like I am good at it. It just comes easy to me. I get everything we are supposed to be doing. It’s just like a second nature to me. It’s more contact. It’s more rough. It is a stress reliever,” she says.
Like many high school athletes who choose to focus on one sport, Anderson’s passion for soccer developed into a year-round activity. Her commitment to Red Star Soccer put her on the playing field when she wasn’t playing for the Smiths Station Panthers and vice versa. Anytime she could get in a soccer game was a good day in her mind.
It was while practicing for the soccer club her sophomore year that Anderson suffered a debilitating injury. She says she jumped up high and came down wrong on her knee. Although she knew right away it was bad, she didn’t know just how bad until she was diagnosed with tears to her Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and meniscus, along with some other less serious damage. Surgery was performed, and the soccer athlete spent ten months without playing while she recovered. As a result, she missed soccer seasons with both of the teams.
“It was awful,” says Anderson, shaking her head as she recalls that time.
At this point, Anderson’s determined spirit took hold. Vowing to come back for her junior year to play for Red Star and the Panthers, Anderson did everything that was required of her and more. The hard work to rehab her knee and the mental attitude she adapted proved successful. Anderson was told she completed her recovery ahead of schedule.
Although she was a little cautious about her return to play with the rehabbed knee, it didn’t take long for those fears to melt away. Not only did she return to play, Anderson says, in her opinion, she came back better and stronger. She threw herself into the game again and hasn’t looked back.
That kind of dedication often takes a toll elsewhere; usually in the form of slipping grades, but Anderson is just as determined off the field. The student athlete currently holds a 4.0 grade point average. Sometimes seniors will roll with the “easy” classes the last semester of high school, but not Anderson. She knocked off two Advanced Placement (AP) courses last year and has three AP classes (biology, literature and statistics) on her class schedule now.
“I took them to prepare for college, for one. And also, if you pass the AP test at the end of the year, you can skip that course in college,” she says.
In addition to tackling difficult class subjects, Anderson has also been determined to keep up with her school work despite her very busy schedule. When playing club soccer, sometimes Anderson did not finish until 9:00 and then had a 30-minute drive home before even taking a look at homework or studying for a test.
The discipline and resolve to go after what she wants has helped Anderson secure a scholarship for the fall. Her stepfather learned about the Faulkner soccer program and encouraged Anderson to seek a tryout. Determined to find a place she could play soccer, Anderson called the college coach and asked for a chance to tryout with the school’s soccer team.
The risk paid off, and she was given an opportunity to practice with the team. Her skills, along with her academic standards, impressed the coaching staff at Faulkner. She was offered an academic scholarship, which will also enable her to attend the school to play soccer.
Receiving an education while playing soccer is one of Anderson’s goals. Another is to become a physical therapist. She developed the idea while she was involved in her recovery from knee surgery.
“It all came from there. I didn’t even plan on being a physical therapist, and then I went to physical therapy and I was like ‘I want to do this with my life’,” says Anderson.
If her life so far is any indication of how her plans will work out, Anderson will be telling her physical therapy patients about her own soccer injury rehab in the very near future.
Getting to know Kayln
Family: Mother, Jennifer Dexter; father, Mike Anderson; one brother and two sisters
Pets: Three dogs
Favorite food: Chicken
Favorite place to eat: Chick-fil-A
Music she prefers: Country
Favorite team (college or professional): Auburn
How she spends spare time: Going to movies
Favorite movie: Lion King
Book she is currently reading: Divergent
Person(s) she most admires: My parents
Ritual before game: I don’t talk to anyone
Favorite subject: Science
Best thing about attending Smiths Station High School: It’s where I’ve grown up.
Columbus Valley/Academic Athlete/April 2015
Kayln Anderson
Smiths Station High School
Smiths, Alabama
By Beth Welch
Photos by Jerry Christenson
Soccer and determination help get athlete to the next level
The most important thing to remember as you prepare to play soccer at Faulkner University is that “You earned it”! How many recruiting questionnaires did you fill out? How many emails did you send to college coaches? Faulkner University is giving you an opportunity, make the most of it and enjoy it. HARD WORK PAYS OFF!