Batavia's Salyers set
to compete academically
By Patrick Z. McGavin
Grace Salyers admits she can take her passion and competitive fury too far.
Soon, she will attempt to channel that energy into her college curriculum.
Salyers came of age in a sports-mad family and tried her hand at a range of sports -- from volleyball and field hockey to her signature sport of soccer.
She was always fearless and dialed in at the chance at achieving a kind of perfection. Her name fit.
“I have always been a naturally competitive person,” Salyers said. “Even if it was just playing volleyball in the backyard with my brother.
“Being competitive is just natural for me. Maybe sometimes, it does go too far.”
She started at forward for three years at Batavia. During her junior season, she scored 10 goals and contributed four assists.
During her last two years at Batavia, Salyers earned watch list team and special mention recognition as part of the all-state teams published at Chicagoland Soccer.
That thrill was kind of intoxicating.
“The way it started out, I just loved competing and wanted to be challenged,” Salyers said. “At first it was intimidating, and then I pushed it even more.”
Her mentality plays at the question of nature and nurture. She was just born that way. Her immediate impulse was always to test herself and find out what she was capable of.
Her friends saw up-close the special mixture of purpose and depth of convinctions.
“Playing with her in front of me over the past couple of years has allowed us to build a great chemistry,” said graduated midfielder Abby Zipse, a 2020 Chicagoland Soccer All-State selection and NIU recruit.
“Grace is a tireless and creative player who is always encouraging her team. She knew where to run, and I knew where to play it.”
That was then. Now Salyers in a naturally reflective state, on the cusp of adulthood and ready for the next stage of her life.
She is just a couple of weeks away from the start of her college life, where the brilliant student is set to study biomedical engineering at Purdue University.
With so much uncertainty going forward, Salyers said the school has announced a hybrid schedule of in-class learning and virtual classes.
Once she returns for her Thanksgiving break, she said the plan is to not return to the West Lafayette campus until the start of the spring semester in January.
Her focus turns toward the rigorous academic demands of one of the country’s top engineering programs. She is thrilled by her future.
Her decision meant giving up an essential part of herself, being an athlete and performer. That transition is taking some getting used to.
“I just feel like I played soccer my whole life,” she said.
She has always had a great acuity and restlessness intellectually. Naturally she is thinking backward and forward, imagining how the past and future play off and balance each other.
Her time at Batavia proved a defining experience in shaping her personality and mentality.
“Batavia soccer is something that is always going to be very dear to me,” she said. “The atmosphere, going to practice, seeing your teammates, especially the bonds we created and these experiences.
“It is not just your friends in school, or those you grew up with or had classes with. It is also those you didn’t know before, either underclassmen and different friends’ groups. These are teammates that you deeply care about.”
Soccer players have choices, especially the gifted players. Salyers spent her final club year with the Naperville-based Galaxy program, playing with the best players of Naperville North, Naperville Central, Neuqua Valley and Metea Valley.
Those memories only deepened her connection to Batavia.
“Especially for those players who are debating about it, I am going to always preach about pride and place in school and playing for your school.
“That is the beauty of high school soccer. Anybody can get out there and try out.”
In what turned out to be one of the final games of her career, Salyers scored the game-winner in the Bulldogs’ 1-0 regional championship over rival Geneva in the spring of 2019.
Her ability to process the game mentally always separated her from the pack.
“I think the strongest qualities of my game is just knowing where to go next, knowing people are on the field and where to play them, how they like to make their runs and know where those runs are going to originate,” she said.
Her combination of intelligence, savvy, skill and intensity of purpose made her an exceptionally compelling player, the type any coach is thrilled to have.
“Grace has always had the competitive attitude to perform at her best no matter the situation,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said.
“She is tenacious in the box and anticipates where the ball is going, which gets her on the end of services for the opportunity to score.”
Salyers also had a special presence and talent for existing in the moment and making plays. She demonstrated that ability through her creativity and tenacity in scoring off set pieces. More than half of her goals during her junior year came on restarts.
Most important, her success was not in a vacuum. It came in the context of team success.
She was a standout on a Bulldogs squad that finished 17-4-1 and shared a part of the DuKane Conference title with state power St. Charles East.
That amplified her natural fire.
“When you are having success, it’s a high,” Salyers said. “It makes the experience even better. Sometimes you go through those lows, during a game, and you say to everybody, ‘That’s terrible. Let’s get back together, keep working and keep going.'
“You feel that chemistry and team bond.”
With 14 returners back and some highly promising newcomers to the scene, Batavia was ready to launch into an even higher orbit in the 2020 season.
The cancellation of her senior year was a bitter pill.
“It was very difficult,” she said, as if catching her words. “It was actually devastating. It took me a couple of weeks to get over it.
“I was so excited about finishing off the year and playing with people I love to play with. To even have one single game or anything was just horrible. It was sad to see it all end, since I think our team was going to be very good.”
During the spring, when hope still existed that some part of the season might be salvaged, Salyers trained with her friends, midfielders Zipse and Bella Zink.
With her two friends each playing in college, she has the chance to vicariously experience the game through them.
Salyers is working through the wide emotional range, a sadness tinged with regret over her lost final season. She is also a realist, and the reason for her success as a student and player was because she sculpted a vision for herself and maintained the plan.
“I have always been plan-oriented, as opposed to somebody who just goes with the flow,” she said. “That is my nature.”
The void, the peculiar time away, has been disassociative, a presence of an absence.
“It does feel like a little piece of me is missing,” she said. “Soccer has always been there. I told my parents I feel like I have done nothing this summer.
“In past summers, I was always at camps or traveling with my club team. I feel like a part of me is missing out.”
No matter what the future holds, the game and the depth of her feelings are always going to be bundled together. School is her priority.
That is not to say if a ball comes her way, she is not going to instinctively get a touch in.
“That’s how I have always been,” she said. “If I see something I want to do, I just do it, random crafts or anything.
“I would play any sport with my brother, volleyball, beach volleyball on vacation, or just shooting hoops. That has always been my nature.”
to compete academically
By Patrick Z. McGavin
Grace Salyers admits she can take her passion and competitive fury too far.
Soon, she will attempt to channel that energy into her college curriculum.
Salyers came of age in a sports-mad family and tried her hand at a range of sports -- from volleyball and field hockey to her signature sport of soccer.
She was always fearless and dialed in at the chance at achieving a kind of perfection. Her name fit.
“I have always been a naturally competitive person,” Salyers said. “Even if it was just playing volleyball in the backyard with my brother.
“Being competitive is just natural for me. Maybe sometimes, it does go too far.”
She started at forward for three years at Batavia. During her junior season, she scored 10 goals and contributed four assists.
During her last two years at Batavia, Salyers earned watch list team and special mention recognition as part of the all-state teams published at Chicagoland Soccer.
That thrill was kind of intoxicating.
“The way it started out, I just loved competing and wanted to be challenged,” Salyers said. “At first it was intimidating, and then I pushed it even more.”
Her mentality plays at the question of nature and nurture. She was just born that way. Her immediate impulse was always to test herself and find out what she was capable of.
Her friends saw up-close the special mixture of purpose and depth of convinctions.
“Playing with her in front of me over the past couple of years has allowed us to build a great chemistry,” said graduated midfielder Abby Zipse, a 2020 Chicagoland Soccer All-State selection and NIU recruit.
“Grace is a tireless and creative player who is always encouraging her team. She knew where to run, and I knew where to play it.”
That was then. Now Salyers in a naturally reflective state, on the cusp of adulthood and ready for the next stage of her life.
She is just a couple of weeks away from the start of her college life, where the brilliant student is set to study biomedical engineering at Purdue University.
With so much uncertainty going forward, Salyers said the school has announced a hybrid schedule of in-class learning and virtual classes.
Once she returns for her Thanksgiving break, she said the plan is to not return to the West Lafayette campus until the start of the spring semester in January.
Her focus turns toward the rigorous academic demands of one of the country’s top engineering programs. She is thrilled by her future.
Her decision meant giving up an essential part of herself, being an athlete and performer. That transition is taking some getting used to.
“I just feel like I played soccer my whole life,” she said.
She has always had a great acuity and restlessness intellectually. Naturally she is thinking backward and forward, imagining how the past and future play off and balance each other.
Her time at Batavia proved a defining experience in shaping her personality and mentality.
“Batavia soccer is something that is always going to be very dear to me,” she said. “The atmosphere, going to practice, seeing your teammates, especially the bonds we created and these experiences.
“It is not just your friends in school, or those you grew up with or had classes with. It is also those you didn’t know before, either underclassmen and different friends’ groups. These are teammates that you deeply care about.”
Soccer players have choices, especially the gifted players. Salyers spent her final club year with the Naperville-based Galaxy program, playing with the best players of Naperville North, Naperville Central, Neuqua Valley and Metea Valley.
Those memories only deepened her connection to Batavia.
“Especially for those players who are debating about it, I am going to always preach about pride and place in school and playing for your school.
“That is the beauty of high school soccer. Anybody can get out there and try out.”
In what turned out to be one of the final games of her career, Salyers scored the game-winner in the Bulldogs’ 1-0 regional championship over rival Geneva in the spring of 2019.
Her ability to process the game mentally always separated her from the pack.
“I think the strongest qualities of my game is just knowing where to go next, knowing people are on the field and where to play them, how they like to make their runs and know where those runs are going to originate,” she said.
Her combination of intelligence, savvy, skill and intensity of purpose made her an exceptionally compelling player, the type any coach is thrilled to have.
“Grace has always had the competitive attitude to perform at her best no matter the situation,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said.
“She is tenacious in the box and anticipates where the ball is going, which gets her on the end of services for the opportunity to score.”
Salyers also had a special presence and talent for existing in the moment and making plays. She demonstrated that ability through her creativity and tenacity in scoring off set pieces. More than half of her goals during her junior year came on restarts.
Most important, her success was not in a vacuum. It came in the context of team success.
She was a standout on a Bulldogs squad that finished 17-4-1 and shared a part of the DuKane Conference title with state power St. Charles East.
That amplified her natural fire.
“When you are having success, it’s a high,” Salyers said. “It makes the experience even better. Sometimes you go through those lows, during a game, and you say to everybody, ‘That’s terrible. Let’s get back together, keep working and keep going.'
“You feel that chemistry and team bond.”
With 14 returners back and some highly promising newcomers to the scene, Batavia was ready to launch into an even higher orbit in the 2020 season.
The cancellation of her senior year was a bitter pill.
“It was very difficult,” she said, as if catching her words. “It was actually devastating. It took me a couple of weeks to get over it.
“I was so excited about finishing off the year and playing with people I love to play with. To even have one single game or anything was just horrible. It was sad to see it all end, since I think our team was going to be very good.”
During the spring, when hope still existed that some part of the season might be salvaged, Salyers trained with her friends, midfielders Zipse and Bella Zink.
With her two friends each playing in college, she has the chance to vicariously experience the game through them.
Salyers is working through the wide emotional range, a sadness tinged with regret over her lost final season. She is also a realist, and the reason for her success as a student and player was because she sculpted a vision for herself and maintained the plan.
“I have always been plan-oriented, as opposed to somebody who just goes with the flow,” she said. “That is my nature.”
The void, the peculiar time away, has been disassociative, a presence of an absence.
“It does feel like a little piece of me is missing,” she said. “Soccer has always been there. I told my parents I feel like I have done nothing this summer.
“In past summers, I was always at camps or traveling with my club team. I feel like a part of me is missing out.”
No matter what the future holds, the game and the depth of her feelings are always going to be bundled together. School is her priority.
That is not to say if a ball comes her way, she is not going to instinctively get a touch in.
“That’s how I have always been,” she said. “If I see something I want to do, I just do it, random crafts or anything.
“I would play any sport with my brother, volleyball, beach volleyball on vacation, or just shooting hoops. That has always been my nature.”