Soccer standout to continue career at Young Harris

Reagan Spivey started her soccer journey at three-years-old.
And so when the final horn sounded in her senior season, after taking her team to the Elite Eight, Spivey wasn’t ready to hang up the cleats for good, signing to play soccer in college for Young Harris College, where she’ll begin this fall.
“It’s very incredible,” Spivey said on the opportunity of playing soccer in college. “This is what I asked for, so when I got it, I was like ‘Holy crap, I really could do it.’ I was really excited and just picturing the next four [years] at a higher, more competitive level and just getting to wake up every day and getting to go play every day with a new team and a good coach and just the whole aspect of it all was very exciting to me. I was extremely happy and proud of myself as well.”
For Spivey, who played at a high enough level to consider playing college soccer and volleyball, choosing between the two sports she’s grown to love was a tough choice.
“It was obviously really hard because both [soccer and volleyball] are incredibly important and fun to me and I’ve put a lot of time and effort into both,” she said. “I started soccer when I was three, so I’ve been doing it for way longer, but when volleyball came into my life in sixth grade, it became equal. I wanted to do it just as much.”
After weighing all of her options, Spivey decided her love for soccer was too great to stop now, after nearly 15 years in the sport.
“It was a long process and a long decision and I prayed a lot about it, but it was more like what did I want to wake up to do every day for the next four years and just completely love and to me, soccer was just something that I could wake up every day and do and I would not ever get tired of it,” she said. “Even though volleyball is fun and I loved it…down deep soccer has always been number one.”
With the sport decided on, Spivey’s decision then circled back to the next most important aspect: where she would be going.
“There were lots of different places I was looking at, and some were even out of state, so I just had to narrow it down to what would be best for me,” she said. “It came down to Valdosta [State University] and Young Harris. I’d heard a lot from both and I was weighing it down and I just trickled it down to what was the best.”
That choice eventually became clear.
“The environment at Young Harris when I went up there, right on the lake and their field is literally sitting in the mountains,” Spivey said. “It’s just gorgeous and the team was like a family instantly so it was just a better vibe for me. It’s not too far, not to close. That just seemed to be what was best for me.”
Spivey plans to major in criminal justice upon arrival, with hopes of working in criminal forensics after college.
As for her time in Lumpkin, Spivey said she’ll miss playing here the most.
“I’m probably going to miss my team the most because over the four years, each new team with the new people we got, we were all best friends,” she said. “All of us would hang out outside of soccer. We had our own language as a team. We were definitely weird, but we were our own weird….Playing here is what I’m going to miss the most.”
However, while playing at Young Harris, Spivey will likely get a couple more opportunities to tie on her cleats competitively in Dahlonega, as Young Harris and the University of North Georgia face off each year as fellow members of the Peach Belt Conference.
Spivey said the thought of playing one more game in her hometown is exciting.
“It’s exciting because I have tons of teachers and friends and family that are all like ‘I want to come see you play’ so to be like, ‘we’ll be here,’” she said. “I played under a club at North Georgia and our club director was the Women’s Head Coach here so to watch his team after practice and see the level and now I’m like ‘I get to play that’ and getting to play on this field. I’m excited.”
Spivey added that another PBC rival of Young Harris is Georgia College, meaning she’ll get to play at her friend and volleyball teammate Kiersta Trammell’s school as well.
Spivey said that none of this would be possible without the support of her family.
“My family obviously spent so much money through travel ball and school and food and gas and hotels,” she said. “Just everywhere I needed to be they put me there. Sitting through the freezing cold or pouring rain to the blazing heat, anywhere I was whether it was the south of Georgia or North Carolina or wherever, they were always there….And I thank God for giving me too legs.”
As for what she leaves behind, Spivey said she hopes that her legacy at Lumpkin is one of both leadership and friendship.
“I hope they remember me as a good leader and someone that they can count on to take them far,” she said. “And just like a friend and that they can come to me still. Just a good leader and a good person and funny.”