Women's Soccer | March 03, 2022

College is a place for young adults to grow into men and women. Some of these moments of growth can be very painful and challenging. Being forced into situations where you're not sure what the outcome is going to be is an anxiety inducing feeling that one USC Aiken women's soccer student-athlete felt close to home. 
 
Baylea Payne has been playing soccer since she was four years old, starting off in a recreational league, and moving up into club and travel when she was ten. She's known she wanted to play at the collegiate level since then. 
 
Payne's parents were always supportive in her trying out new sports and finding whatever fit her best but after trying basketball she knew soccer was the sport for her. "Once I had a soccer ball at my feet I knew this is what I wanted to do."
 
Payne played soccer in high school, stating that "it was just for fun" where her real soccer career came from GCA – Gray Collegiate Academy in Gwinnett Ga., the club soccer team she played for. 
 
Finding GCA was a big deal for her as she was most interested in finding the best coaches that would utilize her talents, and the best opportunity for collegiate scouts. Payne said, "My parents drove me an hour or a little over an hour to find the best club where I would get the best coaching."  
 
Living in Covington, Ga. and playing for a club in Gwinnett, Ga. meant she would have over an hour drive to practice just about every day. In the long run, she knew that it would all be worth it and that she would find growth on and off the field through these travels.
 
Payne always knew she wanted to play college soccer in the North Carolina or South Carolina area, but her dream school had always been the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC. "When I was little, like every girl growing up in soccer, I wanted to go to UNC Chapel Hill." 
 
Payne found the University of South Carolina Aiken and felt that this would best fit her college soccer aspirations as she knew a Division II school would play her more often than a Division I school. She says, "You always dream big when you're little of Division I, but Division II was just as good for me."
 
Her teammates became a second family for her as she could go to them about anything and knew she would learn a lot from the older players. One of the semi-struggles she faced was multiple changes with the coaching staff. Every season it seemed that the coaches wanted different things, which was difficult to adjust to.
 
Another transition the 18-year-old Payne struggled with as a freshman soccer player was the transition from high school to college. She knew things would be different, but she wasn't prepared for all of the responsibilities she had to take on, and her time management skills never needed to be so tight before. 

"I thought I was ready for college soccer, but it's definitely different," Payne said. "There's more responsibilities and pressure, and as a freshman at 18-years-old you don't understand that. You don't understand time management." 
 
To add to Payne getting used to college classes and college soccer, her father suffered a heart attack early into her freshman year of college. She says mentally it was draining have classes, soccer, and her family matters to deal with all at once at such a young age. 
 
Her parents asked her to stay in Aiken and just focus on her schooling, but it was difficult to know that her parents were back in Covington Ga. having to take care of everything on their own. 

"My dad had a heart attack at the beginning of my freshman year season," Payne stated. "With him being in Atlanta and me being here [Aiken], my mind was just elsewhere, so I struggled in school academically." 

Payne struggled with the knowledge of knowing her mother was taking care of her father and her two younger brothers on her own. She felt as if she was no help.
 
Through all of this, Payne found her grades slipping and unfortunately would not be eligible to play her sophomore year. She was redshirted, but this was just another chance for her to grow and improve as a student-athlete, player, and person. 
 
Payne was forced to learn a new role as a practice player and having to support her teammates from the sideline. This gave her more motivation to do well in school to make her father and her family proud.
 
"I've never had soccer taken from me so because I couldn't play, I had to learn to be a teammate even when I wasn't on the field," Payne said. She was able to grow tremendously from this experience, and now makes straight A's or A's and B's every semester, becoming a Dean's List frequent flyer. 
 
Her father fully recovered and Payne found her way back to playing on the field. She remanences of a moment where he was able to witness her score off a header. Payne smiled while saying, "he was there and that was the greatest moment for me for him to be able to come back and watch me and for me to do that."
 
The things she had to go through her freshman and sophomore year of college soccer made her the teammate and leader she is today. She says she doesn't ever want to take soccer for granted again, so she works hard for herself and to inspire her teammates to work their hardest. 
 
Payne says, "No one can ever take away how hard I work." Her father and her brothers instilled in her that no matter the day she is having, the one thing you can make sure she does it work her hardest. This is something she has passed on to her teammates and freshman players. 
 
She has grown a lot from that 18-year-old girl who couldn't quite fit all of her responsibilities into her daily life to a 22-year-old young woman who strives every day to be her best in hopes to be a positive role model for the rest of her team. 
 
Payne has always been a great, vocal leader that has taken every chance to grow and become her best self. She strives to be her absolute best in hopes that she will inspire others around her to do the same.