THE PHOTO IS blurry and the faces are indiscernible, however this screengrab, Emilio Rodriguez says, captures the second that Jackie Taylor’s life turned. It is from a exercise in the summertime of 2021.
Rodriguez had simply taken the volleyball teaching job at Gulliver Prep, a non-public college identified for its teachers, athletics and being a hub for kids of well-known folks in Miami. Gulliver was not, nonetheless, well-known for volleyball, profitable only one sport the earlier 12 months.
Taylor was a 15-year-old who had been taking part in volleyball for 2 years, principally simply “for enjoyable,” and was coming off a nondescript season on Gulliver’s junior varsity group. On the time, there wasn’t a touch that she would develop into a center blocker for a North Carolina group that’s heading to the NCAA event this week.
“She was tremendous, tremendous uncooked,” Rodriguez says. “Like when Bambi first walks.”
She hit the court docket that day amongst a bunch of seasoned 15-to-17-year-olds in South Florida. Rodriguez hit file.
“She had no actual acknowledgement of the area she wanted, so she was all up within the web,” Rodriguez says. “She may barely swing.”
Her mother, Jackie Garcia Haley, sat within the stands and watched. She’s the one who nudged her into taking part in volleyball. Garcia Haley had been a soccer star at Gulliver and performed on the College of Miami, and Taylor’s dad — nicely, he was an athlete, too, and performed within the NFL. Jackie Taylor had competed on the observe and subject group and tried soccer at a youthful age, however sports activities by no means caught.
When the clinic wrapped up, Garcia Haley requested Rodriguez how her daughter did, and the coach confirmed her the picture: Taylor hovering into the air, 5-foot-11, along with her whole head above the online and an acre of area between her toes and the ground.
Rodriguez noticed the potential, and flashes of the person he — and thousands and thousands of soccer followers — remembers however Jackie cannot. He noticed Sean Taylor.
THE VIDEO IS grainy and dated, however the play captures the essence of the late Sean Taylor. Sporting No. 21 for Washington, Taylor sprints throughout the sector towards the sideline, cuts beneath the Inexperienced Bay Packers’ Greg Jennings and leaps into the air to intercept a heave from Brett Favre. It is 2007, and Taylor is 24 years outdated and on the peak of his athletic profession. It is his second interception of the day.
He was drafted by Washington with the fifth general decide in 2004. As a security on the College of Miami, he had touted himself as the toughest hitter within the draft, and in 2007 Sports activities Illustrated dubbed him one of many hardest-hitting gamers within the NFL. There’s video of Taylor from his rookie season pummeling the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Willie Parker as he is making an attempt to reel in a cross from Ben Roethlisberger, and a YouTube compilation of Taylor’s “BIGGEST HITS ever.” It was a unique time within the NFL. Taylor as soon as flattened a punter — within the Professional Bowl. Within the video, he arrives out of nowhere, like a missile, and punishes the Payments’ Brian Moorman on the faux punt.
Sean Taylor performed 57 video games within the NFL. He intercepted 12 passes and compelled eight fumbles, and followers, announcers and teammates spoke of him with reverence, even proclaiming that he was one thing greater than mortal. On Nov. 11, 2007, he left the sport in opposition to the Philadelphia Eagles early with a knee damage. Later, he went dwelling to Miami to recuperate along with his household.
Taylor had modified over the previous two seasons. The younger man who flouted the NFL’s dress-code guidelines, and as soon as was ejected for spitting on an opponent throughout a playoff sport, moved his locker away from the rowdy children and to the center of the veterans. When requested about it, he stated he merely wanted a change. However one thing else occurred in 2006. Jackie was born, and it modified his perspective on life.
In one in every of his final conversations with Ryan Clark, a good friend and former teammate, Taylor talked about his religion, his well being and his child.
“He talked about how mild she made him,” Clark says, “about how he noticed love otherwise now.”
On Nov. 26, 2007, Taylor was dwelling in Miami asleep in his bed room with Garcia Haley and 18-month-old Jackie. Taylor, who missed Washington’s sport the day earlier than, heard noises in the home and grabbed a machete he stored beneath the mattress for defense. He confronted the intruders at his bed room door. He was shot within the thigh whereas Garcia Haley and Jackie hid beneath the covers. Neither had been harmed. The bullet severed Taylor’s femoral artery. He died the subsequent day.
5 males had been later convicted on fees linked to Taylor’s homicide. Eric Rivera Jr., the alleged gunman who was 17 on the time, stated they did not count on Taylor to be dwelling.
“You solely get one dad and hers is gone,” Jackie Garcia Haley stated in a press release that was learn at Rivera’s 2014 sentencing. “It breaks my coronary heart to items to undergo every day and every milestone with out him.”
THE IMAGES WERE plastered all around the information — little Jackie Taylor, fidgeting in her mother’s lap throughout her father’s funeral. Taylor asleep along with her pacifier as a congregation mourned.
Their lives intersected for 565 days. She remembers none of them.
However she has good reminiscences of rising up in a loving family and a childhood that was “actually regular.” Taylor was surrounded by an enormous household — her maternal grandfather lives two doorways down from their dwelling — and caught near her mom.
“I feel with the character of every little thing that occurred with us,” Taylor says, “we had no alternative however to lean on one another. She raised me to be tremendous near her and to all the time be open to telling her something.
“And we did loads collectively, like sports activities and dance. She was all the time simply round and with me always.”
In 2010, Garcia Haley married Shay Haley, a musician who most notably performed alongside Pharrell Williams within the funk rock band N.E.R.D. Garcia Haley informed her it was OK to name him dad, so Taylor did. She grew up with 4 siblings whom she thought of associates.
She stated there wasn’t any dramatic or intentional second through which her mother sat her down and informed her the story about Sean Taylor. However she developed a deeper curiosity when she was 10 or 11. Shortly after that, she spoke at his induction to the College of Miami’s ring of honor. Over time, she realized extra about him via his soccer associates and at occasions that honored him.
Nonetheless, the influence her father had on thousands and thousands of individuals all these years later was considerably jarring. When Taylor was 13 and at a soccer sport, a fan requested for her autograph. She was simply studying cursive on the time, so she merely signed it along with her initials: J for Jackie, a reputation she shares along with her mother, and T for Taylor, a reputation she shares along with her dad.
After getting just a few requests, she thought of training her autograph so she may get the dangle of it.
She has seen clips of her dad taking part in soccer however hasn’t sat down to observe any outdated video games.
“I feel I’ve by no means been curious to go on the web,” she says. “I do not even suppose I’ve ever actually heard his voice.”
She thought of that for a second and figured she’d in all probability heard it sooner or later throughout one of many ceremonies honoring him.
Taylor has been informed they’ve the identical mannerisms and that they appear alike, stroll alike and transfer alike. She heard all of it the best way again in fifth grade, when she performed soccer. At occasions, it made her really feel uncomfortable. What if she could not reside as much as the expectations of being Sean Taylor’s daughter?
As a substitute of embracing sports activities, she centered on dancing. In the future, when Jackie was in eighth grade, her mother introduced her a pair of volleyball sneakers to bounce observe. Jackie agreed to provide it a strive. Jackie spent the subsequent two seasons making an attempt to study the game however struggled to indicate off her innate skills.
It wasn’t till that summer season day in Rodriguez’s health club that the household may see glimpses of one thing greater.
Rodriguez remembers one thing Garcia Haley informed him later: “I felt like Sean was telling me that that is the place for her.”
THE MEMORY REMAINS a snapshot in Ira Childress’ mind. The Gulliver Prep volleyball gamers had been goofing round after observe when somebody requested Jackie Taylor about her leaping abilities. The previous Gulliver athletic director remembers the 14-year-old saying, “Watch this,” after which flying via the air to a basketball hoop and grabbing the rim.
“I assumed, ‘There is no woman in a 100-mile radius that I do know, at this age, that may do this,”’ Childress says. “And that opened my eyes to love, ‘Oh, this younger woman is gonna be particular as soon as she figures this out.”
Childress additionally remembers the time, throughout a Gulliver soccer sport, when the halftime leisure concerned a gaggle of individuals making an attempt to catch punts from a JUGS machine. There have been the boys, flailing and lacking, whereas Taylor wowed the gang by catching a excessive, spinning soccer.
So after all, Childress needed to level his new volleyball coach towards Taylor. When Rodriguez heard she was Sean Taylor’s daughter, his curiosity piqued.
Taylor was a sophomore and had but to study the basics or superior terminology, however that was OK. She had fallen for volleyball and needed to maintain taking part in. “It is like the one sport that is actually so team-oriented,” she says. “You want all six folks to be able to win the sport. I simply love the game itself.” Rodriguez ran a profitable membership group known as Miami Hype and had a pathway to success and a attainable Division I volleyball scholarship.
He used that picture, the one which turned heads within the health club throughout that first summer season clinic, to persuade Jackie and her mother that she had the athleticism to maneuver from outdoors hitter to center blocker. Rodriguez informed them there wasn’t sufficient time to develop all the talents — back-row protection, serving and serve receiving — that an out of doors hitter would wish to impress Division I coaches. But when he put her at center blocker, she may showcase her vertical leap, blocking and pace.
Taylor was hesitant — center blockers are typically taller. However they could not leap like she did.
He informed Taylor that in the event that they had been going to do that, they’d have to have a “violent push” into ultra-competitive play on the membership journey scene. Rodriguez would elevate the online two to a few inches each observe so she’d need to work tougher to search out success. Taylor would pile on further exercises all through her highschool, then membership seasons. When Taylor went on a household trip, she’d take a coach along with her.
“She has been on the web, come off a block and landed on a child and rolled her ankle,” Rodriguez says. “And earlier than she will even complain about her ankle, I am like, ‘Jackie, rise up and stroll it off.’ And she or he’ll rise up. You possibly can solely do this with a sure kind of child as a result of numerous children aren’t sturdy sufficient.
“Then she would pop proper up and chew her lip and form of stroll across the health club, after which she was proper again in.”
Gulliver received 11 video games in Taylor’s preliminary season on varsity. She wore No. 1 — the identical quantity her dad wore when he performed soccer there many years earlier. She went via the anticipated bumps when membership competitors rolled round, however by the tip of the season, it was clear that her sport had advanced. Her quickness and explosiveness, Rodriguez says, allowed her to catch up rapidly. After one intense 12 months, Taylor belonged.
Her highschool group received 26 video games her junior 12 months, and with the success got here consideration. Folks needed to know the story of Sean Taylor’s daughter. She understood the pure curiosity however most popular to shift the eye to her teammates who had banded collectively for Gulliver’s turnaround.
Ryan Clark, who has gotten to know Jackie higher over the previous few years, stated it is robust to be the reminiscence of somebody who died in the course of greatness.
“I feel that is troublesome for a younger woman who truly does not know that particular person, hasn’t grown up with that particular person,” says Clark, who performed with Sean Taylor in Washington. “And clearly this particular person was superhuman in sure methods … However as she grew into herself — you would see her at Gulliver Prep and begin to perceive what his legacy meant.
“So you bought that top from him, ? You bought a few of that athleticism from him. You bought that smile from him. And I feel as soon as she began to come back into her personal it was simpler to additionally embrace his legacy.”
THE NOTEBOOK IS greater than a decade outdated and stuffed with quotes that Sean Taylor jotted down. Jackie’s mother acquired it out of his outdated playbook folder and gave it to her when she began taking part in highschool volleyball. It was one of many first tangible home windows into her dad’s life, containing his ideas, his handwriting.
It was round that point that she devoted herself to volleyball.
Childress needed it to final, so he flooded the zone with a gaggle e mail to a sea of college-coaching inboxes.
Hiya, Coach —
Sometimes, a student-athlete bursts onto the scene with plain athleticism and potential greatness. At Gulliver Prep in Miami, FL, that student-athlete is none aside from Jackie Taylor …
Throughout Taylor’s junior 12 months, her mother reached out to a mutual good friend who linked her with former Olympic setter Lindsey Berg. Garcia Haley needed Berg to judge and probably mentor Taylor.
Berg flew to Miami to work along with her individually for per week. Berg, who’s 5-foot-8, knew what it was wish to be missed due to her measurement — the questions and criticism stalked her all through her profession. It motivated her to show folks unsuitable.
“I’ve seen it break folks,” Berg says, “and Jackie just isn’t one to be damaged. She is only a fighter and is aware of her value and is keen to work as nicely. She needs to show everybody unsuitable, and he or she has.”
The primary time she noticed Taylor play, Berg stated the presents from her dad and mother had been evident — she noticed a fluid and athletic participant who had caught as much as the sport in only one season. Berg requested what Taylor needed in a university, however round that point, she was solely garnering curiosity from the smaller colleges.
Berg was enlisted to assist her get seen. The highest gamers are recruited as early because the eighth grade, so Berg knew discovering the precise match can be difficult.
North Carolina coach Mike Schall was simply getting began, too. He was promoted from assistant to go coach at UNC in February of 2023, and he remembers getting a observe from Taylor’s camp within the recruiting course of. It stated that Taylor hadn’t been taking part in for very lengthy, however that she was going to be superb.
Schall sought her out when he went to his first membership event as head coach, and he says he instantly felt as if she was any individual who may assist the Tar Heels succeed. Her athleticism was apparent, however the factor that caught with him was her interactions along with her teammates and coaches.
“You might inform there was extra depth to her than simply being good,” he says. “There are many good athletes taking part in volleyball. However we spend numerous time evaluating what these interactions seem like. Are they going to be an ideal teammate? Are they going to answer errors in a optimistic method? Are they going to compete actually onerous when the sport is on the road? Every little thing we noticed in Jackie form of checked the bins for us.”
Taylor narrowed her selections to Tennessee and North Carolina. Her mother — whom she considers one in every of her finest associates — inspired her to go away to high school, away from the College of Miami.
“[My mom] went to Miami, and he or she knew how a lot she relied on her dad and mom,” Taylor says. “She was in the identical state that she grew up in, the identical metropolis. She was like, ‘It is so necessary to depart and to fulfill new folks and be outdoors of your consolation zone.'”
In Jackie Taylor’s senior 12 months at Gulliver, she led her group to its first state championship — identical to her dad did in soccer in his senior 12 months at Gulliver in 2000.
WEARING THE NO. 21 on her Carolina blue jersey, Jackie Taylor approaches from the center for a fast set and hammers a kill.
She is now not the misplaced, fast-tracked woman who rapidly rotates out of a sport. Schall says her function has been enhanced previously 12 months, and Taylor has develop into a dependable server. He thinks about her huge ceiling, as a result of she’s solely 60 matches into her faculty profession and continues to be studying.
Her first faculty season was a whirlwind — the Tar Heels made it to the NCAA event for the primary time in three years, and Taylor performed in all 31 matches. She completed with 145 kills and 111 blocks, together with 11 aces and 40 digs.
UNC libero/defensive specialist Julia Bohlinger, who’s Taylor’s roommate, says the 2024 season was like “ingesting from a fireplace hose” for the freshmen. However Taylor made it simpler. They each worth their households. Taylor calls herself a homebody, and Bohlinger additionally considers herself considerably “low-key” socially, typically preferring to remain in and watch a film over going out. Bohlinger’s dad performed within the NFL, too. Rob Bohlinger was a left deal with for the Carolina Panthers in 1998.
But it surely’s completely different. Julia Bohlinger just isn’t acknowledged or related to what her dad as soon as did. Some matches, Taylor will see folks within the stands carrying her dad’s No. 21 jersey. They’re going to sometimes method her for autographs, and he or she indicators with extra precision than her outdated “JT.”
“She handles it very well,” Bohlinger says. “She’s very type and loving. If folks come as much as her, she’s not like, ‘Oh no, do not speak to me.’ She’s very like, ‘Oh, hello, how are you?’ She’s simply heat and welcoming. So I feel it makes it simpler for folks to come back and speak to her.
“I feel she needs to hold among the stuff of her dad, like his nice qualities. She needs them to see that via her too.”
Taylor, who has grown to 6-foot-1, stated she now not feels the stress to reside as much as his legacy. And it makes her really feel good that folks have not forgotten about him.
“There is a deeper which means in all this for her,” Schall says. “It is like how she was raised by her mother, by her stepdad. However her father’s legacy is basically necessary to her. So this consideration for her just isn’t one thing that she’s like, ‘Have a look at me, have a look at me.’ She needs to have the ability to say, ‘That is what I do.’
“And there is a real humility about it. And our gamers adore her. I imply, they love the child … I perceive it may go sideways actually rapidly, however the best way she is with the group, there isn’t any animosity concerning the consideration that she will get via her story.”
This season, the Tar Heels went 21-8 and earned their second straight journey to the NCAA event. They play their first-round sport Thursday in opposition to UTEP. Taylor has tallied 152 blocks, fourth-most within the ACC. In a program that is not as a lot of a family identify as Texas or Nebraska, Taylor garners numerous consideration due to her father. She is aware of lots of people have a look at her and, very similar to Rodriguez did, see Sean Taylor.
However now they see Jackie Taylor, too.
“There is a goal behind finishing up his legacy,” she says. “But additionally discovering my very own identify and discovering my very own path.”
ESPN producer Blake Foeman contributed to this story.