Telegraph Staff Writer
Whether as a player or a coach, Kaylan Taylor has a passion for the game of softball.
That passion will now fuel her first-ever head-coaching opportunity as she takes the reins of the Bradford High School varsity softball team.
Taylor, the daughter of Vince and Michelle Tucker, is a 2016 Union County High School graduate who played at Santa Fe College. She had the opportunity to work as an assistant coach at UCHS the last three years.
“I’m super excited,” Taylor said. “This has always been a goal of mine, to become a high school head coach. It’s honestly just a dream come true. I’m just really excited to get started.”
One of Taylor’s goals, of course, is for BHS to become a winning program. The Tornadoes have finished with a record above .500 once in the last six seasons.
“Our main goal is to win a district championship and see if we can succeed past that,” Taylor said. “With the talent here, there’s no limit to the success this team can have.”
Bradford hasn’t won a district championship since 2014 and hasn’t won a regional playoff game since 2013, when the Tornadoes advanced to the state semifinals for the first time ever.
Yet there’s more than just striving for victories on the field. Taylor said she wants to help in “developing successful, young ladies.”
Taylor was one of the pitchers for UCHS during the 2013-16 seasons. She led the team in strikeouts all four years she played. She went 4-1 with a .303 ERA in 15 appearances as a freshman, recording 58 strikeouts in 39.1 innings. She followed that up with a 4-4 mark in 16 appearances as a sophomore, finishing with 54 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.75 in 48.1 innings.
During her junior season, Taylor went 8-8 with an ERA of 1.63 in 17 appearances, striking out 74 in 103.1 innings. Shen then capped her UCHS career by going 9-1 with a 1.97 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 64 innings as a senior.
“My sister (Haylee) used to pitch,” Taylor said. “I watched her pitch. I wanted to be like her.”
The Tigers won the program’s first-ever district championship (in fastpitch) in Taylor’s final season, which ended in the state semifinals.
Union won its first-ever fastpitch state title the year after Taylor graduated.
“It obviously broke my heart that we didn’t get to win it (in 2016), but I think we truly kind of set the stage for them to have that success (in 2017),” Taylor said, adding, “I was really proud of them.”
Taylor, who played in the infield also, didn’t just make her mark in the pitching circle. She batted .426 as a freshman, following that up with .397 and .364 averages her sophomore and junior seasons before capping her UCHS career with a .432 mark. She led the team her senior season in RBI (42) and triples (5) and tied for the team lead in home runs (3).
Her efforts helped her to earn a scholarship from Santa Fe College, where she played primarily as a pitcher. Working hard to put herself in the starting rotation was one of Taylor’s college highlights.
“It was tough at first, but I just knew within myself that I could earn that position,” she said.
Taylor made 11 starts in 22 appearances as a freshman, going 7-4 with two saves, an ERA of 2.60 and 23 strikeouts in 83.1 innings.
In her second season, Taylor made 21 starts in 32 appearances, going 6-12 with an ERA of 3.57 and 75 strikeouts in 143.1 innings.
She had the chance to continue her playing career, receiving a full scholarship to Thomas University in Thomasville, Georgia.
“I actually moved in, and I was going to play,” Taylor said, “but I decided to come home and start a family. I was sad about leaving, but I made the right decision.”
It was while playing at Santa Fe that Taylor began thinking seriously about wanting to coach.
“I kind of realized that was a dream of mine, that I’d like to use my passion for the game to teach younger girls,” she said.
Starting that coaching career at her high school alma mater was “a really great experience,” Taylor said. She said she learned a lot from UCHS Head Coach Jim Godwin as well as from her coaches at Santa Fe College. She said she was “paying attention and learning different coaching techniques and just different aspects of the game and the way it’s coached.”
Her roots may be in Union County, but Taylor, her husband, Joey, and their 2-year-old son, Easton, have been feeling right at home in Bradford County now.
“Bradford has just welcomed my family and me with open arms,” Taylor said.
Taylor described the atmosphere at Bradford as “amazing,” referring to the support for athletics that’s currently in place.
“The administration is so supportive of the sports programs here,” she said. “Our athletic director and our superintendent, they really back the sports programs here. It’s just a great atmosphere to be in as a coach.”
Softball practices don’t begin until Jan. 24, but Taylor has already been coaching as an assistant to Bryan Griffis in girls weightlifting.
“Quite a few of our softball players are actually on the weightlifting team,” Taylor said, “so I’ve kind of gotten a head start, meeting some of them and their parents and kind of getting into the Bradford atmosphere of sports. It’s been amazing. Truly, I think it’s going to help me get started here in softball.”
In looking toward meeting all the softball players for the first time, Taylor said she planned to stress to them the importance she places upon work ethic, hustle and determination.
“Those things, to me, stand out more than talent,” Taylor said. “How hard of a worker are you? How good of a teammate are you? Those are the kinds of things I want to see as a coach.”
Part of being a good teammate is continuing to work hard when things aren’t going well for you specifically.
“Your best athletes in the world go through challenges,” Taylor said. “You’re not going to have your best game every game. You’re not going to have your best practice every practice. How you answer that is what’s most important — to keep working and keep a positive attitude, to keep encouraging your teammates when you’re down.
“To me, that’s what makes your best athletes.”
Sometimes, things don’t go well for an entire team during a game, but Taylor, who describes herself as a positive motivator, wants to see her players continue to scrap and fight no matter what. She said no game is over until it’s officially over, even if her team finds itself trailing by 10 runs.
“You can score all of those runs back in one inning,” Taylor said. “Don’t give up. Keep pushing, pushing, pushing. I like to stay positive and keep fighting.”
How her first-ever season as a head coach plays out remains to be seen, but Taylor is ready for it to start. Preseason play in Florida begins Feb. 14, with Feb. 21 being the first date for regular-season play.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Taylor said. “I already have the pre-game jitters.”
