Bound for Greatness
2/19/2018 12:00:00 AM | Softball, My GW: Celebrating our Stories
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One look around the GW softball locker room said the group needed a pick-me-up. There were plenty of those tough moments in the early days of the program as it went through its growing pains in the early 2000s.
In the lead up to this particular doubleheader, Elana Meyers had a plan. The best way to loosen everybody up, she'd decided, was a poem -- more of a rap, really -- that name-checked each of her teammates.
As Meyers made her way down the roster in lyrical rhythm, cheers and howls of laughter filled the room, the tension lifting with every verse.
"It was so Elana to bring the team together that way," teammate Ashley Horner Jarl remembered. "That was sort of a down moment in our locker room, and that was her way of rallying the troops."
The eyes of the world will be on Elana Meyers Taylor once again this week as she goes for bobsled gold at the PyeongChang Olympics. The GW alumna is a familiar face by now after winning bronze in 2010 and silver in 2014 representing Team USA and being featured in a slew of national advertising campaigns leading up to these Games.
Meyers Taylor's former softball teammates are hardly surprised that she's made it here. The sport might be different, but the characteristics that have pushed the GW Athletic Hall of Famer to Olympic glory were already evident during her time in Buff and Blue.
"I always knew she was bound for greatness," her GW roommate Rebecca Schumer Lee said. "It was never in question that she was going to go to an extremely high level with whatever sport she chose. It's just amazing watching her excel at the highest level possible and representing our country and representing GW as well. It's amazing."
As GW's inaugural softball season approached in 2003, then-head coach Leslie King-Moore passed out Lego blocks to make a point: This group represented the first bricks in the foundation of a new program.
Using that metaphor, Meyers Taylor was the cornerstone. GW's first recruit would serve as captain all five years on campus, proving strong, steady and worthy of building around every step of the way.
"There was definitely a lot of weight on her," said Jaclyn Sanderson, a pitcher on the first GW squad. "And she never buckled under it."
Meyers Taylor had played slow-pitch softball, plus four other sports, at Lithia Springs High School in Georgia, but she put in the work to make a seamless transition to the fast-pitch college game, both as a shortstop and pitcher.
Meyers Taylor is credited with the first hit and run in program history and also recorded the first strikeout and win in the pitching circle.
The Colonials went 3-36 that first season, but their captain's attitude throughout set the tone for a group learning what it took to compete at that level.
"She wanted to win," Sanderson said. "It didn't matter that we were 3-36. She went out there wanting to play her best, for the team to play our best and to win. It didn't matter what the standings were."
Meyers Taylor's leadership was important through tough times. When GW's second season was cut short after seven games due to injuries, the Colonials leaned on her example for pushing forward.
Meyers Taylor wasn't known as the most vocal leader, but she'd speak up when necessary. This was one of those times. There were no games to play, but there was still work to do.
"Elana kept us together," Horner Jarl said. "She was the voice in the locker room when we were all looking at each other and wondering what to do next. She was the voice in our heads saying `Guys, we've got to stick together.'"
On the other side, GW was ready to pick up the building process. Recruiting represented a major part of that plan, and there was no one better than Meyers Taylor at selling the future of the program.
Often, Meyers Taylor would be charged with hosting recruits on official visits and leading the pitch touting GW's combination of athletics and education.
"She just has this relentless positivity," said Elisa Van Kirk, who joined the program for the 2006 season. "I know I can remember thinking `If everybody's this nice, then this is a great place to be at.'"
Meyers Taylor continued to grow her game in step with the program. To those closest to her, it was no surprise her statistics surged. They'd seen all those extra reps in the batting cage and ground balls on the infield and marveled at her athleticism in the weight room and on the intramural basketball court, where she was a multi-time champion.
Jackie Yaniga arrived at GW in 2005 to play softball and volleyball with the intention of being the hardest worker on both squads. With Meyers Taylor around, she always felt like she was playing for second.
"I always thought that I needed to work just as hard as E if I wanted to be just as good as her," said Yaniga, who still ranks second on the program's all-time home run list. "I think that was always a bar to attain: Am I working as hard as Elana?"
Horner Jarl remembers being quite shocked when Meyers Taylor decided to become a switch hitter before her junior season and less shocked when it worked out for her to the tune of a .414 batting average and All A-10 honors in 2006.
"You will never find -- and I just can't overstate this -- in any sport, men's or women's, at any level an athlete that is more committed to her craft than Elana," Horner Jarl said. "To this day, she's one of the most hard-working individuals I have ever been around, and that was inspiring as a teammate."
In 2007, Meyers Taylor was a fifth-year senior on the GW club that won a then-program record 23 games and finally broke through to qualify for its first A-10 Tournament. She earned All-Conference honors again, hitting .413 and leading the team in both runs scored and RBIs.
It was the perfect way to cap a career filled with so many program firsts.
"She was just so excited," said Van Kirk, now the head coach at St. Lawrence University in New York. "I remember that was one of the coolest things about it. It was like a culmination. She really got to see things go full circle."
Upon her graduation with a degree in Exercise Science, Meyers Taylor was a two-time A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year and GW's all-time leader in nearly every offensive category, including batting average, hits, stolen bases and runs scored.
Those feats that helped move forward a young program, in addition to her Olympic success, are why her No. 24 is retired and hangs down the third base line at the GW Softball Field on the Mount Vernon Campus.
"She was just a level above everybody in everything that we did," Schumer Lee said. "She was special. You could just tell."
These days, Meyers Taylor's former teammates are among her biggest fans.
Sanderson watches every event she can, even though she finds it hard to believe Meyers Taylor has devoted her life to a sport on ice. She remembers how much her teammate hated playing in the cold, particularly when they had to shovel snow off their field to get it ready for practice.
After training at Team USA's Lake Placid facility, Meyers Taylor will often stop for a visit at Horner Jarl's house in New York, where there's a framed copy of the poem that pumped the Colonials up before that doubleheader more than a decade ago.
Van Kirk plans to interrupt a morning class she teaches at St. Lawrence to show the students her former teammate going for gold live.
Then, there's Yaniga, who gleefully sends Meyers Taylor Snapchat messages of her commercials when she sees them on TV.
"I never had any doubt," Yaniga said. "When she said she was going to try bobsled, I was like `Of course, you are. You can pretty much do anything. You're like Wonder Woman.' It's amazing. It just puts you in awe."
Schumer Lee had a chance to meet up with Meyers Taylor a few weeks ago when she was in Baltimore during her final preparations for these Games. Even with so much to do to get ready, the Team USA Star was eager to take a walk down memory lane and celebrate her time in Buff and Blue.
"She hasn't changed," Schumer Lee said. "None of this stuff is getting to her head. She's still down to earth and focused on the goal. She's still the same old Elana."