Talyn Curtis will just be right up the road when he takes the soccer field at the collegiate level.
Curtis is a 2025 Gilmer High honor graduate and was a four-year starter at goalkeeper during the program’s current pinnacle. He will head up Hwy. 515 to attend Young Harris College and noted the school was one of three programs in the running when he made his decision to play for the Mountain Lions.
“Young Harris was my No. 1 choice for sure, especially after my last visit with them,” Curtis said. “I got to see the structure of the team and how it’s ran. It’s very solid and well put together. I used some of my contacts to see how college life is at some other places. I saw that Young Harris was more my fit than anything else.”
Curtis got a chance to meet and play with some of his future teammates. Last summer, he was invited to campus and took the field alongside incoming freshmen.
“It went very well. I thoroughly enjoyed it,” he said. “Even those incoming freshmen seemed to be very tight and close.
“As far as playing in college, I’ve always kept it a harsh reality that if I can’t play college soccer, that’s OK. But if I get the opportunity, I should take it to experience what I want to. My interest started to grow around seventh or eighth grade when I realized you can get recruited around here. We’re a smaller school, but we have the opportunity.”
The same stretch of road was Curtis’ path for his soccer career. He began playing in Fannin County’s rec league before the team moved to combine with Gilmer’s. He started playing travel ball early in his career, but football brought a brief hiatus to his club days.
Curtis played football, basketball and soccer through middle school. He took the field as a freshman football player at GHS before focusing solely on soccer.
“There was a little rough water between me and basketball,” Curtis said. “With football, it just wasn’t my style. I wasn’t going to go to college to play, and I was just getting beat up. I decided if I was going to play soccer in college, it was best to give that up.”
He made his way to Cherokee County for his latest club seasons with the Impact. Travel season ran from May to as late as December depending on how far teams advanced.
“I learned how to play a different style of soccer and be more organized,” Curtis said. “Our head coach is from Scotland so there’s a different kind of soccer there that he brought to the United States. I got to see how it’s played in high school and how it’s played in club, and it gave me a greater sense of what to do.”
He broke into the starting lineup his freshman season at GHS. An injury to Noah Turner brought a position change, and Curtis took his spot in net. That season turned out to be the Bobcats’ best at the time in terms of wins. GHS finished the season with a 10-5-1 record, qualified for state and Curtis was the goalkeeper for six shutouts.
He was awarded with his first of two consecutive second-team all-region selections. As a sophomore, Curtis had four clean sheets, the Cats went 7-7 and lost in the first round of the state playoffs to Oconee County, 2-0.
GHS notched four shutouts in Curtis’ junior year, but they just missed out on the playoffs and posted a 7-8-1 record. His play garnered a spot on the all-region first team.
The Bobcats took the field as the favorite for much of his senior season. GHS set program standards for wins, and its 14-4 record is its best ever.
A botched referee’s call versus Northwest Whitfield robbed the Bobcats of a potential game-winning goal, in a match that turned out to be the de facto region championship.
Gilmer entered the state playoffs seeded No. 15 out of 32 teams. GHS hosted its first-ever state playoff match, and the 4-1 victory over Cairo was its first postseason victory.
The Bobcats then went on the road for the Sweet 16 and upended No. 1 seeded Whitewater, 2-1.
“The structure of how we got there was phenomenal,” Curtis said. “We took our trip down there and stopped to get warm on a public field. All the stuff leading up to it from a coaches’ perspective benefited the team tremendously.
“The attitude of the team was phenomenal. They realized they could do something special if they wanted to. It was always a joy to see the team know that it can do something.”
Gilmer was then pitted against Northwest Whitfield in the Elite 8. The chippy contest saw three players from each team ejected. The match was eight-versus-eight for most of the second half and the Bruins came out on top, 3-1.
Curtis made 90 saves on the season and ended his GHS career with 10 more clean sheets. His play secured a first-team all-region spot. Gilmer’s 52 goals allowed were its fewest in program history, and its 15 goals scored were the most.
“All credit goes to the team,” Curtis said when asked about this time at GHS. “From freshman year to this year, I’ve always had a good group of kids around me to influence me to become a better player. My experience was more than I could ask for.”
Curtis named parents Shawn and Natasha, as well as club and high school coaches as those who have pushed him and inspired him to excel. He plans to major in business finance and possibly attain a minor in accounting.
“I’m looking forward to getting a chance to grow as an adult,” Curtis said. “You’re in school for 13 years, and you miss a lot of social skills from the business perspective of the world, or just by the everyday interactions with the same group of kids your whole life. I’m looking forward to growing as a person.”
Young Harris competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division II as members of the Conference Carolinas.