Ardrey Kell’s ‘phenomenal’ Taylor Suarez is Observer’s girls athlete of the year

Langston Wertz Jr.
·4 min read

The Charlotte Observer’s 2023 High School Sports Awards

Team of the year: Ardrey Kell girls soccer Athletic Director of the year: Olympic's Stephanie Wilkerson

Ardrey Kell girls soccer coach Kim Montgomery once played for the US Women’s National team. Montgomery, a former All-American at N.C. State, thinks that junior forward Taylor Suarez the 2022-23 Charlotte Observer girls athlete of the year, could one day do the same.

Suarez, was also named 2022-23 Charlotte Observer girls soccer player of the year for the second straight time. She repeated as the N.C. Soccer Coaches Association state player of the year, and as Gatorade N.C. player of the year.

Earlier this month, Suarez led the Knights to their first NCHSAA 4A state championship, after losing in the 2022 state finals.

“I think I’ve run out of superlatives for that kid,” Montgomery said. “Besides just the obvious, of being the most phenomenal player and an attacking player, the kid is my heart. She’s funny. She drives her teammates to be better. She’s just an amazing person. You have no idea how much I’ll miss her.”

The state final was Suarez’s final high school game. She plans to graduate in January 2024, a month before her senior season would begin, and either train with a professional team or enroll at Florida State.

In 28 games this season, Suarez had 36 goals and 33 assists. Ardrey Kell had nine games where it won by nine or more goals, and Montgomery has a rule to not let players score more than once in those types of matches.

So Suarez could’ve scored many more goals.

“She’s just insane,” said Ardrey Kell all-state defender Ally Casey, describing Suarez. “She’s so technical. She’s fast and she always plays as hard as she can.”

She comes from a family of baseball players. Her father played at Seton Hall, her brothers at Charlotte and Lenoir-Rhyne.

Suarez started soccer at age 4, begging her mother to let her try the sport. Pretty soon, she was displaying the type of natural speed, quickness and instincts that puts players on the U.S. National Team’s radar.

Suarez started with national Under-17 team in 2021. She was a member of the U.S. team that won a gold medal at the CONCACF U-17 Women’s Championship in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in May 2022. Suarez had a game-winning assist in the championship match, a 2-1 win against Mexico.

That win qualified the U.S. team for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. The Americans lost to Nigeria (1-1, 4-3 PKs) in the World Cup quarterfinals in October.

The Charlotte Observer High School Athletes of the Year. Girls Athlete of the Year: Taylor Suarez of Ardrey Kell High School, All-American on track to be a US Olympian in soccer.
The Charlotte Observer High School Athletes of the Year. Girls Athlete of the Year: Taylor Suarez of Ardrey Kell High School, All-American on track to be a US Olympian in soccer.

“I always dominated at the youth level,” said Suarez, 17. “And I felt like I was doing more than most girls my age, and when I got called into my first national team camp in 2021, I was like, this is approval for me that I was doing good and how I want to be playing.”

In the past two high school seasons, Suarez has run up 53 goals and 45 assists.

She helped win her school’s first state title and will now chase her dreams of college — and maybe Olympic and professional teams.

“I hope I left a legacy,” Suarez said, “but all it starts with this team and everyone around me. I couldn’t have done anything this year without any of my teammates, my coaches and everyone working behind the scenes. I hope we had an impact on everyone out there who dreams of winning a state championship, who dreams of being in this position, and I hope we put that motivation in their minds and that dream in their hearts to go win it.”