Taylor Green: The Junior Leader of the Youngest Team in the MAC

Henry Kosko

Two falls ago, the 2023 BGSU women's soccer team began its fourth season under head coach Jimmy Walker and welcomed a class of nine new freshmen.

Eight of them are still on the roster today, but only one is leader of a 2025 Bowling Green squad that's piloted by a second-year head coach, a first-year captain, and a new mindset. Junior defender Taylor Green.

No Mid-American Conference (MAC) team features fewer players above the junior class than the Falcons, whose 29-player roster features only one senior and one grad student. Despite their youth, the squad broke the program record for most games unbeaten in a row at 13, and they haven't conceded more than one goal against a single opponent all season long.

At the forefront of the defense that's allowed only 10 goals through 17 games is Green, who missed five games due to injury but has returned better than ever for their playoff push.

As a center back that entered the squad in 2023 and immediately contributed, playing in 16 games and starting 13, earning her first career points on Oct. 8 against Central Michigan, she makes the position look easy. It wasn't always that way for a Plainfield, Illinois, native who began at a different position.

"I kind of got into soccer because my brother played first, and the competitive person that I am, I was like, oh, I gotta play and be better than him, so I put a lot of focus into it," Green said. "But I actually started as a center mid for the good portion of when I played when I was younger. Once I got into the ECNL club, they started putting me as an outside back, and then, actually, my junior year, right before recruiting all started, first game into the season, our center back got hurt, and they said, "alright Taylor, you're going to center back," and from there I haven't looked back."

As Green played more of the position, she grew into it and eventually took it and ran with it when she got to the college level.

"I think in the beginning, it was definitely a bit different, like at outside back you're getting up a lot, making a lot of runs and stuff like that, and then becoming a center back is kind of different. I had to stay in one spot, stay kind of in the back, but I've really grown to love the position."

During the recruiting process, Green was drawn to Bowling Green and the winning culture that had been implemented by previous head coach Matt Fannon and maintained by Walker, the coach who brought her into the program.

"I think just in general, the team had a winning culture," Green said. "A winning history of back-to-back years winning the MAC, and I just think, when I came on the visit, I fell in love with the school. It's all super close, walkable, but then coming to practice, everyone was so engaged, and everyone wanted to win. They were super enthusiastic, and I could tell how much everyone wanted to be here. No one was here just to have the name, but everyone wanted to win, and I just knew I wanted to be a part of that."

When Green arrived, there was already a center back that served as one of the leaders of the Falcon squad, then junior Isabelle Gilmore, who was one of five captains of the 2023 team and the lone junior captain. Gilmore finished her career with BG 23rd all-time with 69 matches played from 2021 to 2024 and earned the team award of 2023 player of the year.

"Isabelle was awesome, I loved playing beside her," Green said. "It was just always the energy that she brought day in and day out. Like, you could never know if she was in a bad mood, or if something wasn't going her way, like she found a way to make it all seem okay, and she was just a great leader. A lot of people on the team looked up to her, and just overall, there's so much that I could learn from her, and I'm just glad that I was able to play with her for two years."

Green followed in Gilmore's footsteps in 2025, becoming a center back junior captain herself, but instead of having a squad that contained five captains, Green became the lone captain in only her third year.

Green is the first junior captain to man a Bowling Green team by herself since Beth Rieman in 2004, and the first solo captain since Alyssa Zuccaro in 2011.

Fox, who named Green the 2025 captain after a 2024 season where she started every match and played 1,604 out of 1,620 possible minutes through 18 games, cited her leadership skills even as an underclassman in an evaluation of her nomination to the position.

"She's had an unbelievable impact, I think, as a freshman even before I got here and then as a sophomore last season," Fox said. "We put a lot of weight on her shoulders both in possession and out of possession, and I think she carried that so well. Last season, playing in a different system, a different philosophy, she showed tremendous leadership qualities even as a sophomore. To be named a captain as a junior is a big accomplishment, and I think it is a testament to her as a person, as a character, how hard she works, how much respect she has from the coaches and her teammates."

With the graduation of Gilmore at the conclusion of the 2024 season, there was room for a new center back to enter the fold and play alongside Green, and that hole has been filled by juniors Gabby Lamparty and Jayna Searles, who both didn't play with Green in 2024 under different circumstances.

Searles, who sat out all of 2024 due to injury, didn't make a start in her first two seasons under Walker, but in 2025, she's started 16 out of the Falcons' first 17 games at a back-line position that she wasn't used to after playing in a midfielder role as an underclassman.

Lamparty transferred from West Virginia, where she played all 20 games in 2024 and 29 total through her first two years, and has immediately fit in with Bowling Green, joining Searles, Green, and sophomore Haley Wolf in a back line that has held their 2025 opponents to only .59 goals per game.

"Gabby and I get along very well, and I think it really shows in our chemistry on the field, and some things that might not be my strong suit are hers, and we just kind of balance each other really well back there," Green said. "And then Jayna, I couldn't ask for someone to put in as much work as she does on and off the field. She puts the time in, gets everything done right, and I just couldn't ask to play with better people in the back."

The success that the youngest team in the MAC has provided, with an 8-2-7 record with two matches remaining on the schedule, raises the question of the potential of the team in 2026, with 27 of the 29 players slated to return barring transfer portal exits. Green, having one more year to captain the 2026 roster, believes the sky is the limit for this year, next year, and beyond.

"I think, being a young captain obviously, there's still a lot that I can work on and get better at throughout the years," Green said. "But it's kind of nice, having one year to kind of figure it out and then looking to next year. I think it helps keep the cohesion of the team going into next year, too, like, we're not losing a lot of people, so obviously, we have a goal in mind, but next year, we'll be right there with the same team, just taking it one step further every year.

Fox believes growth is a key part of the process, and Green has exceeded expectations in the growth she's had since 2023 and the growth that he will see from her in the coming years.

"From a cultural standpoint, I think she sets the bar for the team," Fox said. From a growth standpoint, I think it's just because of all her qualities, she's learning and evolving, gaining more confidence, both with herself and within the system, which is allowing her to find a lot of success."

Green, is a graduate of Plainfield North High School in Plainfield, Illinois just outside Chicago, nearly four and a half hours away from Bowling Green, but she's not only has found a home in the small Northwest Ohio town with a population over 30,000, she's helped to build a foundation that will stay firmly in place for many years of BGSU women's soccer history that are yet to be written.

"Obviously, I have a big role as a captain and I just want to be there for my team and be able to push everyone," Green said when asked about her personal goals for her upper-class years. "I'm focused on my own play, but being able to push my team as well, like, it's not just about me. It's also about them. I think that's kind of a big thing I'm focused on. Obviously, getting better and developing myself, but finding a way to balance that with pushing everyone else as well. We have big team goals in mind of winning some titles these next two years, and I don't think we want to fall short either year. I think that's the biggest goal of mine."

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Isabelle Gilmore

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