Fairland's Gorby keeps sports schedule full as 5-sport athlete

PROCTORVILLE —Specialize: To focus your time, studies, or work on one particular subject, skill, or product to become an expert.

And even though Yardley Gorby is a straight A student, she doesn’t seem to understand what that word actually means.

Not only doesn’t Gorby fail to specialize, she has decided to participate in five — yes, five — different sports along with a few other activities.

“It keeps me busy. It keeps my mind off things,” said Yardley.

“It’s just kind of what I like to do. I don’t have any other hobbies. I just enjoy doing them more than anything. It’s what I find joy in.”

During the current fall season, Yardley plays soccer, she golfs and she’s a placekicker for the football team.

In the winter months, she mostly does weight training and practices with a golf simulator, and in the spring she plays softball and fills in on the track team whenever possible.

“I do powerlifting in the winter during basketball season. I think it helps a lot. I do it with my friends. I think it helps with soccer a lot and it helps with softball with my arms,” she said.

Her name Yardley has a sports connotation to it, but that wasn’t the reason for the name choice despite what the late, great Fairland and Ironton football assistant coach John Lemley joked.

Parents Jeff Gorby — who also happens to be the Fairland athletic director – and Megan Gorby were looking through baby name books trying to find something unique. It was mom who made the decision.

“She came up with a list of names and the final two choices were Yardley and Wynn and that is actually her middle name,” said Jeff, who said Lemley told him they picked the names because in football you had to have yards to win.

“We just narrowed it down to two and we made them her first name and middle name,” said Jeff.

Yardley’s days are generally non-stop for the most part which create a hectic schedule for mom and dad.

One example was the day of the district golf tournament. Yardley and the Lady Dragons began the day at 9 a.m. in Gallipolis at Cliffside Golf Course.

When the tournament had finished, Yardley jumped in the car and dad drove them to Lawrence County, Ky., for a soccer game that night.

“She had the opportunity to sleep while I’m smacking myself trying to stay away. That’s how exhausting it is,” said Jeff.

“I’ve seen her go from the OVC golf match, go and kick (football), and then right straight to soccer that night. So, it makes for some long days.”

Even though Yardley’s schedule can keep her parents busy, she said her parents have backed her decision to play so many sports.

“My dad likes it. My mom is kind of stressed about it at times. She worried about football at first because she thought I’d get tackled all the time. But other than that, they’re both supportive of it,” Yardley said.

To help ease the time table stress, Yardley has arranged her schedule so that she can keep up with her academics despite all the time she spends with playing sports.

“I have a study hall the first period. I haven’t had that much homework to do so far, so if I can to do it on the bus or I just do it first period in study hall,” said Yardley.

“We don’t practice (soccer) right after school. (Coach Holly Rowe) gives us like an hour to go home and do stuff. I’ll do football after school on Thursdays and then I’ll go from 4:30 to 6:30 (at soccer practice) and then I’ll go home at 6:30 or I’ll go watch the boys play.”

Yardley began playing soccer at the age of 4 and she added softball at the age of 10.

“I was going to try golf in middle school, but it’s weird how it worked out, so I didn’t do it until my freshman year,” said Yardley. “Football was my freshman year, and track I did it my eighth-grade year.

“I started most of the time in softball last year. There was just a lot going on there. Soccer, we’re really good in soccer.”

Soccer is Yardley’s favorite sport and she puts more practice time into it than the other sports.

“I play travel soccer, too. When school soccer is done, I go straight to travel soccer,” said Yardley.

Probably second on her list of sports is golf. She said that during the winter she will spend time practicing on a golf simulator.

“I’m not great at it, but I’m good at it. All the girls golfed all summer and I was still the number three player. They have this simulator thing now that I go to a couple of times a week that really helps me,” Yardley said.

“I just hit it on there for distance. We see how far I hit it. I don’t play holes. I just hit for distance.”

As for the winter time, Yardley likes to work out in the weight room to help strengthen her for all the sports she plays.

“I do powerlifting in the winter during basketball season. I think it helps a lot. I do it with my friends. I think it helps with soccer a lot and it helps with softball with my arms.”

Yardley added football to her repertoire as a freshman last year. She said that going against boys rushing the kicker was initially very intimidating.

“My freshman year, it was kind of scary at first. But then I got to know the team and I knew most of them from other things. I trust them a lot,” said Yardley.

“Last year, I was new to it and not sure I could trust them, but now I’m like it’s OK. It was kind of scary at first, but the more I see the people on the teams, I know what to expect.”

Being a sophomore, Yardley is looking forward to continuing her schedule the next two years. However, she knows that once she attends college, everything is about to change and she will have to specialize.

“I’ll probably stick with the sports I’m doing now. I might try basketball again. Hopefully, I’ll move on to college golf or college soccer. Whatever I get a scholarship for. I just want to do some sport in college and then be a teacher,” said Yardley.

“Hopefully, I’ll constantly be working on that one sport and just doing it in one season. I like doing things year-round. I like staying active and not being home. So, in college I’m sure it’ll be like constantly doing it.”

For the immediate future, Yardley is looking forward to the showdown in the Ohio Valley Conference when Fairland will entertain Gallia Academy to decide the league champion in soccer. Both teams are unbeaten in the league and they tied 1-1 in their first meeting.

“I’m really excited to go against Gallia, but I’m kind of nervous because we were in kind of a slump.  We lost all of our strikers so we can’t score at all,” said Yardley.

The Lady Dragons have only allowed one goal in the conference, but they have scored the least amount of goal.

“We have the best defensive line in the OVC,” she said.

It sounds like the soccer team is specializing only in defense. Maybe they should talk to Yardley about diversifying their game.