Daily Chronicle 2024 Girls Soccer Player of the Year: Sycamore goalkeeper Tayla Brannstrom

The first time Tayla Brannstrom faced a penalty-kick situation in a varsity game, it brought her to tears.

Two years later, the Sycamore goalkeeper was the one making opponents upset, turning away scoring attacks either in regulation or on PKs.

The senior stopped 10 of the 15 penalty kicks she faced this year, including those in two wins against Kaneland that resulted in not only an Interstate 8 Conference title but the Spartans’ first regional crown since 2019.

“I feel like this team has been building for a couple years,” said Brannstrom, who has been named the 2024 Daily Chronicle Girls Soccer Player of the Year. “This year, definitely, I was honored to be a part of this team. It’s fun to have all those titles but also the experience with all the girls. We’re all just real good friends.”

Brannstrom said she started playing goalie on a 12-and-under team basically by default. The only choices, she said, were her or Cortni Kruizenga, who’s also on Sycamore’s roster and the team’s leading scorer.

“I hated it. I did not want to be a goalkeeper,” Brannstrom said. “They basically just threw me some gloves and said just stand there and don’t run away from the goal. It’s kind of funny. I stuck with it all these years, and now I’m going to play in college.”

Brannstrom indeed stuck with it, saying she thought it would be her ticket to playing varsity. But it was a rocky road picking up the position. On the JV team as a freshman, the team played only five games in 2021, so she didn’t get a lot of experience.

During her sophomore season, she was expecting to be on JV again, but was pressed into service as the starting goalie on the varsity team. Early that season at a tournament in St. Charles, Brannstrom faced penalty kicks for the first time.

She said not only did her team not convert on the offensive end, she didn’t make a single save.

“I didn’t know how it worked,” Brannstrom said. “The ref had to tell me how to take a PK and the rules and everything. ... I let in all the shots just because I was so scared, and afterward I cried. I cried so much. It was just an emotional experience with all the pressure.”

From there, Brannstrom said coach Kevin Bickely started making PKs a focal point. They practiced more, and by the end of the season the Spartans beat Kaneland in the conference tournament on penalty kicks.

That opened the players’ eyes to just how important PKs could be, Brannstrom said.

“That kind of encouraged us to refine our skills just so we could be improved in that moment,” Brannstrom said. “And I think obviously it paid off, just two years later. ... Having all those experiences sophomore year helped me develop personally and gave me the experience to make the accomplishments I have today.”

Brannstrom also credits working with goalkeeper coach Jay Smith starting in her sophomore season for everything she knows, helping her progress beyond “stand there and don’t run away.”

Working with Smith and learning the ins and outs of the position completely changed her outlook on the position.

“I think I knew I wasn’t a very good field player, but I still loved soccer,” Brannstrom said. “I thought that was a way to stick with it. And I think it was sophomore year when I was actually taught there was more to goalkeeping than standing there and getting hit. You can actually control the game and distribute the ball. Making those vital saves is so important. I think that was taught to me kind of early on in high school.”

Branstromm recorded 16 shutouts this year and a 0.87 goals-against average as Sycamore finished 18-9. Bickley said Brannstrom surged late. She and the defense went more than a month without allowing more than one goal in a game.

“She just keeps growing every year,” Bickley said. “She kept getting better as the season went this year. Her confidence grew. You could see in those last eight, maybe 10 games where she’s kind of vocal, very commanding. The communication between her and the defense got so much better toward the end of the season.”

Brannstrom will play next season for Kishwaukee College. She said she really wanted to stay close to home.

“I’m so close with my family, I wanted to stay at home, not be too far away,” Brannstrom said. “I looked at other schools, especially schools in Wisconsin. I did camps up there, and I really like it. It was where I wanted to go, but then I visited Kish, and I just knew with the program it would be really easy to fit in and be comfortable there.”