BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
The medal around her neck represented the fact that she proved herself to be one of the strongest lifters in the state, whereas the scars on her legs signified that her greatest strength occurred when she was a 10-year-old facing significant injuries and a grueling rehabilitation just to be able to walk again.
Bradford High School senior Jessica Traylor helped the Tornadoes win the Class 1A state championship in girls weightlifting — more than seven years after she was fortunate to survive the Sept. 29, 2014, incident in which a tractor-trailer rear-ended a school bus in Lawtey. She lost three units of blood and had to be freed from the wreckage by the Jaws of Life.
She certainly wouldn’t have known it then, when the only thing on her mind was if she was going to survive, but the accident proved to be what ultimately led to her interest in weightlifting.
More importantly, though, Traylor learned to not take life or the people in it for granted.
“I’m thankful for the accident in a way,” she said. “It really does make me look at life completely different. I appreciate things more and the people I do have in my life.”
Traylor was one of seven students injured during the crash and one of 15 students on the bus overall. She remembers she was sitting in the back of the bus, laughing as she said, “That’s where all the cool kids sat. When you’re older, you sit in the back of the bus. The younger kids sit in the front.”
When the tractor-trailer slammed into the back of the bus, the result felt like being on a roller coaster, Traylor said. She admitted to being calm in the immediate aftermath, wondering if everyone was OK. It was when her hands came back covered in blood when she reached down to feel her legs that she began to worry. Traylor, in fact, asked the bus driver to do something for her.
“I told her to tell my mom that I loved her because I thought those would be the last words I would say,” Traylor said.
Traylor would’ve rather had her mother, Victoria Oakley, by her side, of course.
“I just wanted to hear her voice,” she said. “I wanted to talk to her because I really thought I was going to die.”
Due to her entrapment, Traylor was the last student off the bus.
“I sat there for what felt like forever,” she said.
It wasn’t until she was lifted to be placed upon a stretcher that she became aware of the pain. She suffered a compound fracture of her right leg and had deep lacerations that exposed bone on her left leg.
Those who were attending to her told her to keep talking to them. Her blood loss was a concern.
“I felt extremely tired,” Traylor said. “I couldn’t keep my eyes open. It was probably because I lost so much blood.”
What followed was a month’s stay in the hospital, which consisted of 10 surgeries. Doctors were concerned about Traylor possibly developing an infection in her right leg, which would require amputation. That never occurred, although she did experience a staph infection in her left leg.
Traylor wasn’t aware of much during the early part of her hospital stay. She was in ICU for approximately a week.
“I didn’t really know what was going on because they had me on drugs,” she said. “I was basically out of it.”
Getting to the point where she could walk again was one of the most difficult things she’s ever done in her life, Traylor said. The physical therapy was tough, but so, too, was missing out on going to school.
“I was being home schooled,” Traylor said. “That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
Lifting weights
At that point in her life, Traylor never would’ve imagined that she’d become a competitor in weightlifting, but she began moving in that direction during her physical therapy at UF Health Rehab Center-Magnolia Parke. When her knees began giving out on her, her therapist — Josh — suggested lifting weights to strengthen her knees as well as her overall body.”
“He built the base of everything,” Traylor said of her therapist.
A woman who worked at the rehab center worked out at The Ark Fitness in Gainesville. She told Ark Founder Michael Espinosa about Traylor. Espinosa allowed Traylor to work out there for free following her stint in rehab.
It was Espinosa who got Traylor involved in weightlifting competitions. In 2018, she placed second in a competition in Orlando and competed in the USA Weightlifting Youth National Championships in Michigan.
As she made gains and watched the totals she was lifting increase, she became hooked.
“It was like, OK, this is something I want to do,” Traylor said.
Traylor, who competed in the unlimited class, began lifting alongside the members of the BHS team while still in eighth grade. As a freshman, she placed sixth at the district level with a 250-pound total (120 bench press, 130 clean and jerk) and went on to finish with a 275 total (140, 135) at the regional level.
In her sophomore season, Traylor placed fifth at the district level with a 295 total (150, 145). She was 5 pounds away from a sixth-place finish at the regional level, with a 310 total (155, 155).
She placed at regionals as a junior and earned her first trip to the state finals. First, Traylor placed second at the district level with a 345 total (175, 170). She then placed third at the regional level with a 350 total (180, 170) before going on to place fifth at state with a 360 total (180, 180).
Traylor said Coach Adrian “Ping” Mosley deserves a lot of credit for what she accomplished.
“I don’t have a dad in my life,” she said. “He was my father figure. He guided me and pushed me the hardest I had ever been pushed at that time.”
She continued to be pushed her senior season when Bryan Griffis took over as BHS head coach. Traylor placed second at the district, regional and state levels, finishing behind teammate Mahailya Reeves at each event. She had a 405 total (220, 185) at the district finals and a 395 total (210, 185) at the regional finals, where a shoulder injury prevented her from attempting all of her lifts.
At state, Traylor went a perfect 6 of 6 (three attempts each in the bench press and clean and jerk), finishing with a 415 total (220, 195), which put her in second place by 30 pounds.
“In my mind, I wasn’t there to max out,” Traylor said. “I was there to get all my lifts. That was my goal, to go out perfect all the way across. That’s what happened.”
Moving forward
Though she wrapped up her senior season at state on Feb. 12, Traylor doesn’t want to leave weightlifting behind her. She’d love to remain involved with the sport by being a coach.
However, her main focus on her future is to continue going to school and become a registered nurse. She wants to work in pediatrics, a desire that stems from what she went through as a result of that 2014 crash. She believes that’ll help her put children at ease, no matter what they’re going through medically.
“I went through a lot of stuff,” Traylor said. “Just to be able to be there and comfort (children) is something that I definitely want to be able to do.”
Traylor obviously didn’t go through “a lot of stuff” alone. She said she can never give enough thanks to her mother — not only for her support in the aftermath of the crash, but for what she did for Traylor and her older sister, Christina, as a single parent.
“She’s always worked two times harder than other parents to make sure my sister and I had what we needed to be successful,” Traylor said. “I’ll always gratefully appreciate her.”
If someone notices the scars on Traylor’s legs and asks her about them, she’s willing to share her story. She believes it’s an inspiration to not give up.
“If you have that mindset, it will take you miles,” Traylor said.
In her case, that mindset eventually took her to the second-place platform at state and played a part in the BHS girls weightlifting team winnings its first state championship.
It was a moment that proved Traylor’s strength in more ways than one.
