Last week, USL W announced its end of season awards. Among the winners was Minnesota Aurora’s Tianna Harris, who took home Defender of the Year. The announcement came as no surprise for those that watched Aurora this year, as the team dominated throughout the regular season. Harris was a key contributor to the success of the club. The stalwart Minnesota defense gave up only four goals in twelve matches, consistently shutting out opponents.

Defense has been a theme for Aurora since it launched last season in the USL W. Last year, defender Kenzie Langdok was a USLW Player of the Year nominee. The addition of Harris this season only made that defensive line more formidable. But awards aren’t given for lineups on paper, so Harris had to prove her mettle against the Central Conference. Her Defender of the Year award was hard earned.

“You work hard all year and do your best to put in your absolute effort every single time, so when you win those types of awards it’s so special,” says Harris, looking back over the 2023 season. “Seeing your hard work pay off in your craft, it’s another type of happiness. I feel extremely grateful and blessed to be here for just a single season…Being able to make that kind of impact for my team, it’s huge for me.”

As this season progressed, Harris and her teammates pushed themselves to consistently improve on the defensive side of the ball. “We never wanted to be complacent. That was one of our team goals this season - to have a growth mindset. We’d come into matches and say ‘We gave up a goal last game, let’s not give up one this game.’ We used it [Minnesota’s success in defense] as a motivation.”

For Tianna this season was ‘in limbo,” between her 5th year at Kent State and her professional career and she made the most of it. She’s already signed with a professional team but the details aren’t public yet - “it’s a surprise, but it will be announced very soon.” That move to professional from Aurora was an important aspiration for Tiana. “It’s a huge thing, coming in and having your goals set and completing them. It's a big deal, but now the hard work really starts.”

Harris, who began her collegiate career at Mississippi State before finishing with Kent State, was thrilled with the level of professionalism at Aurora. She describes it as “unreal.” Even in the lead up to season, she noticed things were different. “We’d have zoom meetings before we even got there, so we’d be familiar with the players and the coaches. We, the players, set expectations and goals for the season. That whole process made me realize, ‘wow, these people are taking this serious.’ So I had high expectations regarding the professionalism of the program.” Tianna was thrilled with the experience. “It was really professional. It was run like a high-level college program. You can see it in the preparation, in the training, and in what the coaches were pushing. It’s a great environment to be in and helps you grow a lot.”

Of course, the 2023 campaign ended in the semifinals, but that doesn’t blunt her opinion of her time with Aurora. “I think when you have such a great season, like what we had, obviously the loss [to Indy Eleven] had such a sour taste. But there was so much more good than that moment. It did really suck, I hate losing and I’m a very competitive person…but overall, the glory, the fun, and the enjoyment we had throughout the season, outweighs the loss we took in the playoffs.”

Her focus, much like the rest of the soccer world, is currently on the Women’s World Cup. She has high hopes for her home country, Canada, to make it out of group play and plans to someday play for her national team. In fact, earlier this week on social media, she posted “I will play in the next women’s World Cup.” If she keeps stacking up trophies, that goal may not be far-fetched.

- Dan Vaughn