Dryden’s Taylor Bennett inducted into NYS Girls Soccer Hall of Fame

One of the most prolific goalscorers in Section IV girls soccer history is now a Hall of Famer.

On September 6, Taylor Bennett was inducted into the New York State High School Girls Soccer Hall of Fame. The Dryden native tallied 186 goals, which was the second-most in Section IV when she graduated. Forty-eight of those strikes came in her senior year, setting the single-season program record and earning her the honor of the state’s Class B Player of the Year.

“It was an incredible honor,” Bennett said. “Even being considered for it is one thing, but it’s a whole nother thing in and of itself to be selected for it. I had a lot of time to reminisce on my high school days and what really made it special and everything. I think that time that I got to spend playing on the same team as my older sister and being coached by my mom and how special that time was that we got to share together. Who else can say that they got to play with their sibling for so long and find the success that we did together?”

Bennett played alongside her sister Leighann for three years with the Lions. Believe it or not, it was actually Leighann’s record of 34 goals in a single season that Taylor went on to break. That sort of ‘sibling rivalry’ made them both standout players at Dryden, each earning multiple All-State selections.

“As the older sister, she’s never going to want her younger sister be better than her, beat her in anything or something like that,” Bennett said. “We’d have games where if I scored first, she was gonna go score two, that kind of thing. So we definitely competed with each other in that, and I think that brought out the best in each other, as well. I think that definitely is part of our success in that and what allowed us to be so successful in our Dryden soccer days is that we had that competition with each other.”

Bennett’s mother Janine coached her since she was four years old, including throughout her time with the Lions and for her club team Syracuse Development Academy. She gave all the credit to her mom for her outstanding high school career, which set the tone for a great collegiate career at Syracuse University.

“I think the biggest thing that she instilled in me is that mental toughness to get through the mental hardships of what soccer is,” Bennett said. “It’s a hard game. You can be the better team. You can be the dominating force, and you can have the ball 99 percent of the game, and then that one percent you get scored on, and you lose 1-0. It’s a very hard mental game.”

Bennett was actually a defender while at Syracuse, following in the footsteps of her mom when she starred at SUNY Cortland. She played as a forward throughout her entire career up until the recruiting process, where then-assistant coach Neel Bhattacharjee believed she could thrive in the Orange back line.

“It wasn’t too much of a black-and-white shift, but I definitely found myself further from goal than I’d like,” Bennett said. “But I made it work, and I think our team was better off for it because I could see the whole field. I could help direct and help coach on the field for the people that may only play during school season or may play at a recreation level as opposed to competitive club level.”

After college, Bennett went on to play professionally in Iceland for three seasons before suffering a career-ending injury, a torn labrum in her hip. She then turned her attention to coaching, which has landed Bennett at her current role as an assistant coach for the Binghamton University women’s soccer team. That in itself is the textbook definition of a full-circle moment: Bhattacharjee is the Bearcats’ head coach. Her sister played at Binghamton. And of course, her mom was a longtime coach.

“I kind of felt like coaching was always going to be the end goal for me,” Bennett said. “I’m not your typical nine-to-five type. I would not be great sitting at a desk all day. I needed to be active and I wasn’t done with soccer.”

Bennett becomes the first person from Dryden to be inducted into the NYS Girls Soccer Hall of Fame. Given how strong the soccer community is in town, it’s only natural that they have some representation among the best of the best in the state when it comes to “the beautiful game.”

“Both [Dryden boys soccer head coach] Laszlo [Engel] and my mom are so willing to give back to the game and so willing to spend their time developing players,” Bennett said. “It’s not just a two-month, three-month sport in Dryden. People are developing their skills year-round.”