2025 Times Girls Soccer Player of the Year: Ottawa’s Taylor Brandt

One of the jobs of center backs on a soccer team is to stop the attacking side from scoring goals.

As the last line of defense besides the goalkeeper, the position not only requires speed, but also instinct and toughness.

Ottawa junior captain Taylor Brandt was switched from midfielder to center back early in the season, playing the spot at a high level for the Pirates and helping her squad finish 9-10 on the season, winners of eight of their last 11 matches.

“This year we all improved as the season went along, and we played some of our best soccer towards the end of the season,” Brandt said. “We were kind of a younger team, so we have almost everyone coming back. We started to do all of the things that win games, and hopefully we can do it all of that more next season.

“We’ll keep working.”

Brandt — the 2025 Times Girls Soccer Player of the Year — said the game of soccer is something she has just grown to love.

“My mom played soccer in high school at DeKalb, and both my parents coached when I was little and playing very youth soccer when we lived in Rochelle,” Brandt said. “I really don’t remember too much about the games, but I do remember we always got to go for ice cream afterwards.

“When we moved here to Ottawa, I think I was in second grade, they didn’t have a club soccer team here yet, but they did in Seneca, and Bud Nilles was my coach. I just really started liking the sport.

“I was fortunate in a way that I was always moved up a grade or level. I was always playing against bigger and faster kids, but I also think that helped me get better.”

During the season, Brandt scored eight goals and recorded an assist, but it was the Pirates’ goal-against average of 2.26 — the lowest mark in eight seasons, nearly a goal better than in 2024 — that made the difference.

“Taylor a big reason our goal-against this season was the program’s best we’ve had in a while,” Ottawa coach Kevin Olesen said. “I don’t like to compare seasons to seasons, and I’m not exactly sure where we ended up, but I know she didn’t play defense last year for us.

“We decided after our first couple of matches that we needed to switch her from midfield. She’s a great teammate and was all-in when we discussed making the switch. We were just giving up way too many chances. Putting her back in the middle of our defense along with who we already had back there made a huge difference for us.”

Brandt said she worked on and improved in the two areas she felt she needed to get better in during the offseason and fall.

“The main two things I knew I needed to improve on in the offseason was my overall movement and my passing. I felt like I made too many mistakes with my passing my sophomore year, and I want to be a player that puts the ball to my teammates in stride. I feel like this year I did better in that aspect.

“I also went out for cross country to hopefully help with the movement part. My first race after I finished, it was such an awful feeling, you’re so tired, but it was also a good feeling to finish. I feel like cross country helped me discover that push I needed when I’m tired, and I used that on the soccer field.”

Brandt was also honored for her efforts by being named to the Interstate 8 All-Conference Team.

“Defenders don’t always get the credit they deserve,” Olesen said, “but Taylor really played outstanding for us, and we were a better team with her back there. The other coaches in our conference saw that as well.

“I’m very excited to see what she can do next season.”