Giving it her all in all that she does

    Ganado graduate Taylor Mirelez used her senior year to give it everything she had, in the school halls and on the courts and fields. Granted, she was a nervous freshman (and sometimes sophomore), and was on varsity teams for the first time.
    “It can be nerve-wracking and you don’t play to your full potential at first, you’re still trying to prove to the coaches you can do it,” she said. “This year I realized it’s my last year and I started coming out of my shell and presenting myself more in athletics and working a lot harder. I let loose, and my mom and coaches were telling me they’d been trying to get it out of me since I was a freshman.”
    She said each sport is her favorite when it’s that season and her main focus, but she started playing teeball when she was three years old. “Softball is probably what I lean towards the most because it’s what I’ve been playing longer,” she added.
    Softball coach Malina Andel has worked with Mirelez for all four years of her high school career and said she has matured tremendously in that time by allowing her teammates to pick her up when she’s having a terrible game. “She is competitive by nature and just keeps fighting, not to mention she puts in extra hours off the field in order to hone her skills by attending camps and summer workouts in order to get faster and stronger, and that is a real athlete,” she said. “She expects greatness from her teammates and doesn’t make excuses for them, and she finds ways to help them through their troubles on the field.”
    Coach Bryan Branch has worked with Mirelez in volleyball and basketball since she was a sophomore, and noticed her confidence take off in the previous years. “Even in the halls you could tell she truly began to believe in herself and she became a leader both by example and vocally. She was in charge of summer league teams and be the first one to practice and in workouts all summer,” he said. “She placed a lot of pressure on the underclassmen to perform in a way that her teammates respected.”
    Branch also said what made Mirelez so great was that she got the most out of her ability.
    She is the daughter of Cyndi Poulton and David Mirelez, and will be going to Texas State to study athletic training with an emphasis on physical therapy. She has decided to focus on her education in college and not play a sport. “I want to do what the Houston Texans trainer does, Bob Marley. I want to go to other schools or just be a physical therapist an help people,” Mirelez said. “I’ve seen my dad struggle after several back surgeries and he’s been in pain. I just want to help him in a way and help recover other people.”