BYU freshman right back Taft Erickson never expected to play collegiate soccer, let alone help the Cougars win a national championship.
Growing up in Gilbert, Ariz., and attending Highland High School, Erickson was always athletic, competitive and driven. But soccer? That was never the sport he imagined would become such a defining part of his college experience.
Erickson began playing soccer at just three years old, following in the footsteps of his older brothers. Soccer shaped much of his childhood, and he grew into a strong, versatile player. But by high school, everything shifted. The sport he had known his entire childhood faded into the background.
“Taft has always had this light in him,” his mom, Christine Erickson, said. “No matter what sport he played, he wanted to work hard and lift the people around him.”
But soccer no longer felt like part of his future.
“When I reached the age of high school, I decided to quit soccer,” Erickson said. “I just decided to focus on football.”
The decision came naturally. He had played multiple sports including soccer, baseball and football, but football quickly became the dream.
“Honestly, I would have loved to play college football,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to do.”
Then came the moment that changed everything.
Heading into his junior year, Erickson tore his ACL, an injury that required nine to twelve months of recovery. The timing couldn’t have been worse. He would miss crucial preseason training and lose any chance to prove himself in what should have been a pivotal season.
“I was supposed to recover right when the season was starting … no training, nothing before,” he recalled. “That kind of ruined my career.”
Without reps or exposure, college football suddenly felt out of reach.
So Erickson turned back to something familiar, although without much hope attached.
“Soccer season is six months after my recovery,” he said. “Might as well just play soccer one more time and call it good. My dreams kind of got shattered.”
What he expected to be a final farewell became something far more meaningful. His senior year at Highland was memorable and fun, a reminder of the joy soccer once brought him. Still, he assumed the sport was done after high school.
Instead, Erickson prepared to serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.
Serving in Trujillo, Peru, reshaped his direction more than he anticipated. Removed from sports and fully immersed in missionary work, Erickson’s confidence deepened. It grew not from statistics or highlights but from service, discipline, and faith.
“My mission changed everything for me,” he said. “It helped me understand who I was and what mattered.”
Around the eighteen month mark, soccer came back to his mind after a conversation with his older brother, McKay, a former college midfielder.
McKay encouraged him to give the sport a shot when he came home. Taft considered training again, but the moment he started, he felt a spiritual impression that stopped him.
“I honestly felt like it was distracting me from what I was doing on my mission,” Taft said. “I strongly felt the Spirit tell me I needed to stop worrying about soccer and to not train until I got home.”
He trusted the prompting. In hindsight, he believes it made all the difference.
“I was able to be laser focused on the Lord and on His work,” Erickson said. “I honestly feel like that helped me have more fire, more energy, and become a better soccer player when I got home.”
During this period, Taft felt another hesitation that McKay understood well. He worried that returning to soccer might pull him away from the spiritual strength he had gained. McKay’s advice reframed everything.
“The more we think we need to focus on ourselves, the more we lose sight of the main goal,” McKay told him. “Our ability to focus on others will help us more personally than any single pursuit of focusing on ourselves.”
He reminded Taft that soccer offers countless opportunities to serve. Taft would soon see that firsthand. After returning home, he helped run youth soccer camps at BYU, where he gave a devotional and bore his testimony to more than three hundred kids. He and his teammates also visited a local hospital, spending time with families in the NICU.
“What impresses me most about Taft is not his soccer ability, it is his character,” childhood friend Hayden Winegar said. “He is the same steady, genuine guy now that he was growing up.”
Through these experiences, Erickson realized that soccer was not pulling him away from his spiritual foundation. It was strengthening it. Service became his anchor, rooting him more deeply in the gospel than ever before.
Once he returned home, he trained intensely for six weeks before reaching out to BYU’s coaching staff. Shortly after, he earned a roster spot for the upcoming season.
“This past season was my first season playing soccer at BYU,” he said.
Despite being a freshman, Erickson worked his way into consistent minutes and early starts at right back. Wearing No. 16, he adapted quickly to the collegiate pace. As the Cougars continued to dominate, Erickson’s once unexpected journey kept accelerating.
“Taft is a great leader because he is always willing to put in the work on and off the field, and he is proactive in everything he is asked to do,” teammate Nick Sharp said. “He is a great teammate because he is always positive and has a smile on his face, and his laugh is contagious.”
Everything built up to the biggest moment of the season, a national championship showdown with UCLA. BYU won, securing a title and creating an unforgettable end to Erickson’s first collegiate year.
“We went to the national championship… we played UCLA in the championship, and we won,” Erickson said. “It was awesome.”
“I have known Taft since we were little, and he has always had something different about him,” childhood friend Noah Peterson said. “Seeing him play on a national championship team does not surprise me at all.”
For Erickson, success on the field is inseparable from the spiritual foundation within BYU’s program. The Cougars pray together, share devotionals and emphasize character with the same intensity as their training.
“We are not just trying to be the best soccer players,” he said. “We are also developing our Christlike attributes.”
That commitment, he said, sets BYU apart.
“We do not only focus on being better at soccer, we focus on being better disciples of Jesus Christ," he said.
Looking back, Erickson sees a path he never could have scripted. Quitting soccer, dreaming of football, enduring injury, serving a mission, receiving unexpected spiritual promptings and ultimately finding himself in one of the nation’s top collegiate programs.
The only explanation, he said, is simple. “It is a journey that was truly written by Heavenly Father.”
Now, after a freshman season full of defining moments, Erickson steps into a future he never anticipated but is profoundly grateful for, one shaped by faith, humility and trust in God’s plan.