CALEDONIA — Taylor Renth has learned from watching others get or miss opportunities.
A year ago, Renth might not have been able to make the connection between attitude and effort and how those intangibles were going to affect her chances of earning a scholarship to play sports in college.
But Renth said a transformation she made from her junior to senior year allowed her to become a better leader and to realize she didn’t want to be another athlete who didn’t follow through on her potential.
Renth showed Friday she learned her lessons and applied them well by signing a scholarship to play with the Northwest Mississippi women’s soccer team for the 2013 season.
“My attitude and effort from last season completely changed,” Renth said. “I came out in the preseason this year being a good leader and pushing through all of the conditioning we had to do that was terrible. I had a good attitude every time I came out to the field just so I could get it to rub off on everybody else. … I had to stay positive and work hard every practice and show out every game and give 100 percent.”
Renth said she has grown up watching so many players “waste” their dreams of playing a sport in college because they don’t have confidence in themselves or they don’t give it their all every practice or every game. She feels she watched so many girls and boys do that, which motivated her not to fall into the same trap.
“I am really relieved,” Renth said. “I am just glad my hard work paid off like everybody told me it was going to. I didn’t put it to waste all of these years I have been playing sports. … After today, I can look back on my life and feel like I did everything right and gave everything I could and got the results out of it that I wanted.”
Renth had three goals and was fourth on the team with 119 steals this past season. She helped lead Caledonia (12-9) back to the playoffs, where it lost to Lewisburg 2-1 in the first round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A North State playoffs.
Renth was a two-year member of the soccer program. The transfer from North Carolina also is a member of the school’s fast-pitch softball team. She also competed on the cross country team and is a member of the track and field team.
NWCC women’s soccer coach Peter Jarjoura, who also coaches the men’s team, watched Renth play last season. He said he watched her early in the season at a tournament at Center Hill and then received a recommendation of Renth from former Caledonia High boys soccer standout Dylan Mims, who was a freshman this past season with the NWCC men’s soccer team. Renth didn’t know the NWCC coaches were at the tournament, but she said she “showed out”, which laid the groundwork for her to receive a scholarship offer to join the program. Renth visited the campus in Senatobia and liked what she saw, and was equally enthused about the school’s nursing program, which she hopes to enter to pursue as a career.
Mims appeared in 12 games (eight starts) this past season for NWCC, which went 5-7-1. The women’s team went 5-8 and 2-6 in the MACJC.
Jarjoura hopes Renth’s athleticism adds versatility and depth to the program. He said he likes her speed and the fact she has the potential to play in a variety of positions, like she did in high school.
“She has the most positive attitude of anyone I have me,” Jarjoura said. “She is just a great girl, and I think she is going to be a great asset to out program.”
Renth had a season-high 10 steals in a 2-1 loss to district rival Amory on Jan. 15.
Caledonia coach Jason Forrester said Renth emerged as a leader and was one of five seniors who helped set the tone from the beginning of the season.
“She could play anywhere I asked her to,” Forrester said. “She had great speed and she listened unbelievably well. This year, she turned out to be one of our senior leaders. I couldn’t have asked her to do anything more.”
Forrester said Renth allowed her playing to do the talking for her. He said that was especially true this season. He said Renth grew more comfortable being a leader by example and vocally on the soccer field as a senior. He said her work ethic epitomized everything the seniors brought to the team.
“I think she will be just fine,” Forrester said. “I know speed is one thing they were definitely looking at, and I know with her she definitely has it. She will be able to use it wherever they want to use her. She has good ball control, and I don’t see any problem for her whatsoever from our game to the next level.”
Renth credits Mims for helping her believe in herself. She feels confident she will be able to contribute to the soccer program. In fact, she said she also will try out for the NWCC softball team. She said she wants to maintain a mind-set that prevents her from settling for anything or allowing an opportunity to go unfulfilled.
On Friday, she took the first step toward making that a reality.
“I owe Dylan a lot of thanks for helping me because I don’t think I would have gotten here without him,” Renth said. “He is always telling me to keep pushing even when it is hard and to keep believing in yourself. He helped me through a lot.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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