GREENFIELD — For the Taylors, it’ll be one last time on the field together for football on a Friday night.
Greenfield’s Garrett Taylor and Trent Taylor are part of Friday night’s 57th Annual Murat Shrine North/South Football All-Star Classic to be held at Decatur Central High School.
Garrett is an offensive lineman representing Greenfield-Central for the South team. He played his senior season this past fall.
Trent is his dad, a longtime assistant coach at Greenfield-Central, who had planned on retiring from coaching after last season, but is now going to be the new head coach at Knightstown. Trent will be an assistant coach for the South.
“Wonderful. I’m not sure I can put it into words other than wonderful,” Trent said of having this week of all-star camp at the University of Indianapolis and a ballgame Friday night with his son. “After the (loss in the) New Pal game (in the sectional semifinals), it was tough.”
“It’s going to be an amazing opportunity for me,” Garrett said. “I’m not going to be playing in college so this is going to feel like a bit of a sendoff to try to end it all with a win, hopefully. I was extremely happy to hear (that I was selected). When I heard (my dad was going to coach), that was even better.
“It’s the best part of this entire thing to me. It was great to have him there by my side all four years. It’s going to be really fun to have him for one more game and be able to work with him for one more game.”
Trent Taylor will be entering his 25th season as a coach. He had been Greenfield-Central’s defensive coordinator the last four years under Travis Nolting, who nominated Taylor to be an all-star assistant coach. Taylor’s also had previous assistant coaching stints at G-C, as well as Mt. Vernon, Knightstown, Madison and Goshen Middle School. This fall will be his first as a head coach.
Though he has been a defensive coordinator recently, he knows a little about offensive line play, too. He was an offensive lineman when he played at Bluffton High School. His dad, Ted, a longtime head coach at both Southern Wells and Bluffton in the 1970s and 1990s, was an offensive lineman as a player.
That history, the coaching from family and the Greenfield-Central staff have been huge in Garrett’s development as an all-star lineman. He’s only 6-feet-tall and 210 pounds, not exactly the preferred size for a Class 4A offensive lineman.
He’s made it work with his technique, strength and his flexibility to play a number of positions up front. He was a starting guard the last two years, but has also been the Cougars long snapper and played some center.
“I always thought it was the best part of the game to be down in the trenches doing all that hard work,” Garrett said. “I knew it wasn’t always the glorious position but I learned from my dad and my grandfather that it’s one of the best. They’ve shown me a lot of stuff, especially my father when I was young. We’d go out in the yard, and I was a center when I was really little, so I’d be snapping with him and getting steps in. It’s always kind of where I wanted to be.”
Nolting and dad both praised Garrett’s work ethic to overcome his size disadvantage.
“He’s one of the hardest working kids I’ve ever coached,” Nolting said of Garrett. “He gave 100 percent on the field and in the weight room. He’s not the biggest guy out there, but his heart is huge and his ability is phenomenal. He’s the school record holder in the power clean. He cleaned 295 (in May), pretty impressive.”
“Garrett loves (being part of the all-star game),” Trent said. “He’s one of these kids that walked in as a freshman at G-C and the situation was not what we wanted. We were going to have to rebuild it. He never missed a beat, never missed a workout. … You could see him getting bigger and stronger and more refined as a lineman.
“He loves being in that trench area, just like his father did and just like his grandfather did. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. He loves playing and loves playing in that box with the other big guys.”
Garrett agreed.
At his size, you have to learn some things to battle with the behemoths.
“(Technique) absolutely has been my biggest point, especially in the early years of high school,” Garrett said. “I had to make sure my technique was as close to perfect as it could be. Also, those four years, I had to be as strong as I could be. I knew I was never going to get to the same height and weight as those other guys, but I knew I could get as strong and with better technique I had more than a fighting chance.”
He’ll get one more opportunity in the trenches and one more Friday night on the field with his dad, too.
“The past two seasons we’ve really felt like we’d had an opportunity to win a sectional and make some serious noise, especially this past year,” Trent said of his and Garrett’s last season at Greenfield-Central. “We felt like we were a deep enough team, a strong enough team, organized and disciplined. You don’t get it and you have that ending feeling. It’s tough, especially with your sons. Not only Garrett, but his older brother was part of the early part of the rebuild. It’s still nonetheless devastating and disappointing when you can’t get them where you feel like they can really enjoy it and win the title.
My dad as a head coach was the same … It’s been very rewarding (coaching my sons) but you want to do the best for your own, that really drives you. To get one more chance, and in an all-star game, it’s pretty awesome.”
