MT. VERNON — Tylin Broaders is a blur as he dashes around opposing players at Mt. Vernon’s conference game against New Palestine. He sweeps across the field so quickly it seems as though his opponents are standing still.
A teammate zips the ball in his direction and Broaders seizes the moment, and with a powerful kick he sends the ball sailing toward the top right corner of the goal. The goal keeper leaps into a last-ditch dive to make the block, but the attempt is futile, and Broaders pumps both fists into the air as the ball snapped into the net.
Broaders grins. From ear to ear, there’s nothing but joy on his face.
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The adrenaline rush from scoring on a rival team, the energy pulsating from a crowd of fans and the lights beaming down on the soccer field, he grins because of all of that, Broaders said. But more than anything else, Broaders grins because he loves his team.
Whenever a game isn’t going their way, the Marauders soccer team has a hard time staying upset for long; during the action, Broaders, their captain, rarely lets his smile waver. Even when the team gets scored on, Broaders is on the counter-attack, typically with a holler and a sarcastic joke to get the guys laughing, said his coach, Matt Mayhew.
Broaders loathes to watch his teammates get discouraged and lose steam, the senior forward said. That’s why he always keeps their energy level up.
“I don’t want my team to hang their heads down when we get scored on,” Broaders said. “I want to be able to pick ourselves back up and keep moving forward.”
They return the favor in games and during training every day, he said.
“They pick me up when I score or even when I make a mistake,” Broaders said. “Somebody’s always there to back me up. When my whole team gets hyped together, I love that.”
But Broaders is only a class clown when the situation calls for it, he said. When it’s time to get serious and play ball, he gets down to business.
Broaders has nine goals and five assists on the 2018 season. Boasting 23 points this season, he is ranked 17th in the state in points per game and in the top 100 nationally.
But Broaders’ play style isn’t fixated on scoring goals, Mayhew said. Frequently throughout the course of a game the young man will withdraw himself back into the midfield to help his teammates push the ball forward. Drawing on his experience in high school and travel soccer on his FC Pride team, Broaders could proficiently play anywhere on the field, Mayhew said.
He played as a defender, a center-back and even a goalie before he began playing up front.
The Marauders have a strong team this season with a record of 5-0 and 3-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference, and a large amount of their success thus far can be attributed to Broaders.
Near the start of the season, a lot of the team was riding on his shirttails through Mt. Vernon’s first few wins, Mayhew said.
“He could play about any position on the field,” Mayhew said. “I’m waiting to see when we get into more of our HHC matches, I want to see who’s going to step up at this point. And I think he will.”
Upon graduation, Broaders plans to play collegiate ball, but he hasn’t fully committed to any school yet, he said. He’s spoken with coaches at IUPUI and at IPFW and is eagerly looking toward continuing his athletics career next year wherever he decides to attend.
Broaders hopes to study physical therapy in college, he said.
But his teammates say they’ll certainly miss him on the field when he’s gone. Senior Jon Hanson, Broaders friend and fellow leader on Mt. Vernon’s team, said that even in the most serious of moments, Broaders usually doesn’t hesitate to blurt out the joke lingering in the back of his head.
They’ll miss playing with a guy like that, Hanson said. Not everybody gets the opportunity to play alongside a teammate with such a quality attitude.
“He’s always lifting us up,” Hanson said. “We can always rely on him.”
