Yes she McCann -- Taylor McCann, Girls' Soccer Player of the Year

Taylor McCann knew she needed a break. After playing soccer non-stop for eight years, McCann -- the 2009-10 Daily Journal Girls' Soccer Player of the Year -- decided to skip her high school freshman season at Burlingame. It turned out to be the best decision she's ever made. Reinvigorated after the layoff, McCann came back stronger than ever. The senior midfielder/forward earned a starting varsity spot as a sophomore, finished with 21 goals in a breakout junior campaign before establishing what is believed to be a single-season school record with 32 goals this season to go along with 10 assists. The Stanford-bound McCann had a season to remember, tallying 10 game-winning goals as part of her historic year. "As long as Taylor was in the game and there was time on the clock, we had a chance to win the game (even if we were trailing)," Burlingame coach Phillip De Rosa said. "There's an old saying that you cannot create a striker. There are a lot of players who can score, but only a few of them have that distinct, innate ability to see the back of the net. They're rare and Taylor is one of them." Although the Panthers came up short in their quest for a pair of three-peats -- they were aiming for a third consecutive Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division and Central Coast Section Division II championship -- they were impressive nonetheless, knocking off Mitty in a CCS playoff quarterfinal. McCann will remember that result, along with an opening-round 6-0 win over Branham in which she finished with three goals and two assists. "Scoring a hat trick in CCS is something I've always wanted to do," McCann said. "That was one of my goals coming into the season, along with trying to get to 30 goals." Even though she's not the biggest girl around, McCann plays bigger than her size. Once the ball was at McCann's feet, opponents had a hard time knocking her off it. McCann was particularly lethal in the open field, using her vision and technique to unleash powerful shots. De Rosa said McCann has one of the hardest shots he's ever seen -- boy or girl -- at the high school level. Nowhere was that more apparent than in the Panthers' 3-1 win over Saint Francis in last year's CCS Division II semifinal. McCann accounted for two of her team's goals, both on absolute laser-like shots. "Those shots were rockets," De Rosa said. "And that's what caught the attention of Paul Ratcliffe (Stanford women's soccer coach). He was there watching his recruit (then-Saint Francis goalkeeper Lindsay Dickerson). We talked after the game and that's what led Taylor to being recruited to Stanford. Taylor doesn't have the physical size of a lot of players, but my gosh does she generate a lot of power." Said McCann: "I think I developed it (a hard shot) over time. When I was little I started shooting so many balls with my dad. Over the years I kept at it, so I think being able to hit the ball hard and accurate comes from a lot of practice and not because I have a leg for it." McCann said she played in the midfield about 75 percent of the time this season and the rest at forward. De Rosa would push McCann up top if he felt the team needed an extra offensive push. No matter where McCann was on the field, she had no problems scoring. That's because starting in her junior season McCann developed a more aggressive mindset. "I knew I needed to be a more assertive player," she said. "In the past, I was more passive and last year I started being more aggressive towards the goal and looking to score more." McCann's junior season proved instrumental in her career arc because at the end of her sophomore year she endured a bout with anemia. McCann couldn't do any strenuous exercise for two months, but she eventually got well and has been on a tear ever since. "(Getting anemia) was hard because I went from having all this endurance to not being able to run a mile," she said. "I had no energy and it took me a year to get back to where I was before." Another factor for McCann's success had to do with her endurance and stamina. McCann was dogged in her pursuit of the ball, and could outlast her peers because she was in tremendous shape. McCann made Burlingame's varsity cross-country team as a freshman, finishing fifth in the PAL Meet and seventh at CCS. "I had a really good experience running cross-country," McCann said. "I got more serious about it as the season went on, but I didn't come in expecting to be a good runner. I first came out for cross-country to keep in shape, but fortunately I had some success at it. I was a little burnt out from soccer and the six months I took off made me realize how much I missed it." Even though McCann didn't play soccer in her first year of high school, De Rosa kept an eye on her. Everytime McCann and the cross-country team would run laps around the track, De Rosa could see McCann looking over at the soccer players. "While she was running with the cross-country team, the soccer team would be practicing and she would never take her eyes off the soccer field," De Rosa said. "Something in there told me she could not walk away from this game." De Rosa was prophetic. Not only did McCann return, but she developed into one of the best players in school history.