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Taylor’s time draws near Casa Grande distance runner is being pursued by numerous colleges By BOB PADECKY PRESS DEMOCRAT STAFF COLUMNIST Published: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 July 1 is the day in which Jacque Taylor will find out if those envelopes had something inside them other than stationery, stamped signatures and generic compliments. Sure, of course, the ones that have been arriving recently have become a bit more personal. They cite her results at recent races and describe the latest developments at their college or university which might include everything from the performance of a famous speaker to the crackdown on parking tickets is really working. “I’m getting business cards now,” said the Casa Grande junior. Buy a car, buy a house, buy a university, the business card sells everything, even college dreams. The wooing of Taylor, which began her freshman year with a letter from Pepperdine, will be reaching a more earnest and intimate level on July 1st. Until then colleges were prohibited from contacting Taylor other than sending her snail mail to the high school; colleges could not send mail to the Taylor home. So the letters came and came, with such regularity and volume that the Casa administrators set up a mailbox in the main office just for Taylor. A Manila envelope hung from the wall and Taylor would come by every day to snatch her stash, including when school was out for the summer. When Alyson, Taylor’s mom, read the names over the telephone, it sounded like The Who’s Who of American college athletics: Florida, UCLA, Georgia, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Florida State, USC, Duke, Georgetown, Penn State, Kentucky, Louisville, Colorado, Texas, North Carolina, Harvard, Yale, Naval Academy, Stanford, Arizona State, Arizona, Oregon State, to name 23 of the 39 schools who have sent mail to Taylor. Yes, a lot of trees have given up their lives for colleges trying to impress Taylor, especially UCLA, which sends a letter a week. It is a lot of mail and Taylor has learned enough to know that it is just that, mail. No high school athlete ever signed a grant-in-aid contained in a form letter. Yet the letters — the Taylors guesstimate their number to be at least 200 — indicate one irrefutable fact. Jacque Taylor is a national name. She is the Casa runner whose time in the 1600 last year — 4:49.63 — is better than any posted in the nation this year. She is the Casa runner who finished second in the state in 2008 in the 1600 with that time and finishing second in California has attracted a lot of schools to Taylor, as opposed if she finished second, say, in the Wyoming state meet. “I have big plans,” Taylor said. It is actually one big plan. By the time she graduates from Casa next year Taylor wants to break the national high school record in the 1600 — 4:33.82. That time was set by Christine Babcock of Irvine’s Woodbridge High School in 2008, in the state meet. Taylor ran that 4:49.63, the best 1600 of her life, but finished second, 16 seconds behind Babcock. “I think Jacque is on her way to doing that (breaking 4:33.82),” said Jamie Pugh, Casa’s assistant track coach. “She is doing everything we want her to do right now. She’s right on track.” Lopping off 16 seconds off her personal best in just one year appears an achievement of mythical proportions, yet, Taylor herself has been climbing that pantheon in the Empire. At this point, a junior in high school, only Julia Stamps and Sara Bei could claim better long distance careers. “It’s one thing to have talent,” said Pugh, a Casa math teacher, “but unless you are tough as well, talent doesn’t matter. Jacque has both.” Obviously Pugh is not the only track coach who feels the same way, otherwise 39 schools wouldn’t have been paying postage to keep in contact with Taylor. Taylor has narrowed her list down to four schools — Stanford, Oregon, Arizona State and Washington. Thank you, East Coast and the Midwest, but she’s a West Coast girl. “But I do get five official visits,” Taylor said, “and I’m going to use all of them. Why not take a free trip?” Indeed. Take advantage of the system. It is there, in place, for the prospective student-athlete to use. Taylor, after all, will be working for a large corporation when she graduates from Casa Grande. It’ll be called a university but it is still a business and a business exists to make a profit. And a NCAA All-American, no matter what the sport, increases a university’s visibility. On July 1st Jacque Taylor will begin to find out how many of those 200 letters were junk mail and who thinks she can increase their university’s visibility. It’s one thing to pay for a stamp; easy to hide behind a form letter, no personality required there. It’s quite another thing, however, to project sincerity. The herd will be thinned, there’s no question of that, but the phone will ring. The phone will be answered. Family discussions will commence. Words will be weighed, judged. A future will be determined. How will it go? Jacque doesn’t know but two things are certain. One, she can take down that mail box at Casa. Two, a lot of those brightly colored college team logos on the envelopes would make an interesting poster for her bedroom wall. For more on North Bay high school sports go to Bob Padecky’s blog at padecky@pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.
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