Jeffrey Taylor '20 Recruiting Profile

This upcoming senior year, I will play varsity baseball and basketball and I plan to commit to playing baseball in college. I thrive in the classroom and on the field and I love challenges, both academically and athletically. My love of challenges has been built on a strong foundation of overcoming. The summer before my freshman year in high school, I was seriously injured in a boating accident while inner tubing on the Sacramento Delta. The injuries were life-threatening and I was airlifted to Oakland Children’s Hospital where I spent three weeks recovering from a broken femur and  four surgeries on each of my knees. I will never forget how elated I was when I rolled out of the hospital in a wheelchair. Little did I know, I still had six ensuing months of challenging physical therapy to endure and each day I struggled to understand God’s plan; though I trusted there was one. As I moved from a wheelchair to a walker, to crutches, and finally a knee brace, I slowly began walking, running, jumping, hitting, and pitching. I struggled through recovery, with the bad days offsetting the good ones, yet I was determined to play sports at a high level again. My competitive drive carried me through.

Three years later, I am still making up for lost time, and my dreams continue to grow as college baseball looms on the horizon. My ability to play competitive sports was largely lost during my freshman year but I participated as a part of the JV basketball and varsity baseball team. Sophomore year my comeback accelerated as I won sophomore athlete of the year while competing on the varsity basketball team and winning the CCS championship on the varsity baseball team. This year I have continued starting on our school's varsity basketball team and I played a huge role as the number one pitcher on our CCS winning baseball team both of which contributed to me winning Junior Athlete of the Year. Looking back, I cannot imagine my life without my injury and I am thankful for the patience, work ethic, faith, and grit it has produced in me.