< Kyra Teixeira
of Old Lyme finishes her career at Becker College in grand fashion, winning the school’s major scholar-athlete award.
Once shy and reserved, Old Lyme's Kyra Teixeira busted out of her shell at Becker College.
By her senior year, Teixeira regularly spread good cheer on a small campus where everyone knows her name.
"I'm the kind of person that can say hi to anybody and I'm overall very friendly," Teixeira said. "I pretty much say hi to everybody I see . ... When I was in high school, I was pretty quiet. I wasn't the popular kid or anything like that. I just did my own thing."
"... I definitely have come a long way."
Teixeira also underwent a transformation on the soccer field, going from being a standout defender on a state championship Old Lyme High School team to an offensive force as a forward and attacking midfielder at Becker.
During a superb senior season last fall, Teixeira set career highs in goals with an New England Collegiate Conference leading 18, assists (eight), points (44) and game-winners (six). She accomplished her goal of being named New England Collegiate College Player of the Year, which she called "an incredible feeling." The Hawks won 12 games and reached the NECC tournament semifinals.
Teixeira also won over her teammates and coaches with her outgoing and warm personality. She became one of the leaders on the team her senior year, according to Becker coach Anthony Cosky.
"She's pretty approachable," Cosky said. "Everyone likes her. She always has something to say and has a lot of personality, too. On the bus, she's one of the loudest voices you hear all the time. I always give her a hard time about that.
"She's just fun and enjoys the game."
Teixeira also excelled in the classroom, becoming the first Becker player to be named to the United Soccer Coaches Scholar Honors Division III All-Academic second team. She made the Dean's List both fall and spring semesters.
The Becker athletic department recently honored Teixeira with the John J. Dorsey Scholar-Athlete Award during a virtual senior awards ceremony, recognizing her accomplishments in athletics and academics. Award criteria also take into account community behavior and respectability among peers and administrators.
"I was really honored to get it," Teixeira said. "I didn't really expect to get any award, to be completely honest. I work really hard on my academics, especially because eventually I plan on going to grad school. Then I also work hard on the field in the off-season. I just try to do the best I possibly can in both areas. That's the type of person I am. I just like to do it the right way the first time."
She played two sports the last two years. Her softball season prematurely ended in March due to the coronavirus crisis. She also worked two jobs — one off-campus as a nanny and the other in the campus gym.
Her senior soccer season was a highlight.
An off-season of hard work paid immediate dividends as she scored six goals in the first four games and netted two game-winners. She earned two straight NECC player of the week honors.
"During the summer I was running every single day and going to the field playing pick-up games with some friends from Old Lyme and just overall putting in the work so when the season came I'd have the endurance and ability to come in strong for my senior year because I knew it was going to be a hard one and it was going to be the most important one to me to leave my mark."
Teixeira nearly quit the sport after tearing her ACL four games into her freshman year. She eventually conquered the mental and physical barriers that come with recovering from a significant injury. "I definitely think everything happens for a reason," she said. "I definitely wouldn't wish upon anybody to tear their ACL or anything like that but I really think it helped shape who I am as a person."
She finished with career totals of 34 goals and 12 assists in 68 games, including 65 starts.
Coming from a highly successful high school program helped her excel on the college level.
"I had a really good time," Teixeira said of her Old Lyme soccer days. "I loved the coaches. They were very supportive and the team was supportive. It was a very good setting, to say the least. Our overall mentality for everybody on that team was wanting to win and then taking it game by game. That really helped me here."
It was a difficult end to a satisfying college career. Her college graduation ceremony was supposed to be held on Saturday but was pushed back to September due to coronavirus-related restrictions.
"It was in my head a lot (on Saturday)," Teixeira said. "It obviously stung a little bit that I wasn't able to graduate just because that's something you look forward to for a long time, like ever since high school you think about graduating college. Then it gets taken away."
Teixeira, who majored in exercise science, is thinking about her career options while living near the Becker campus in Leicester, Mass., and working for Frito-Lay. Becoming a physical therapist is one possible path but she's also considering others, including entering the physical education field and coaching soccer.
She's grateful for her Becker experience during which she became "a better version of herself." And a more outgoing one, too. "It was definitely my decision coming here," Teixeira said. "I don't think I would be at all where I am today if everything didn't happen."