Inside Taylor Washington's journey from USL to Nashville SC mainstay in MLS
The strangers met on a high school field wearing mismatched gear with one heater to combat the freezing rain. It was February 2018, before the start of Nashville SC's inaugural season, and the team's training hub was a shipping container.
The elements of any good underdog story are there. But as Taylor Washington reflects on that experience six years later, doing so from the club's state-of-the-art training facility in Antioch which he likens to the headquarters of the superhero group The Avengers, he relays a different narrative.
"It's crazy to think God took me from a shipping container to a place I need my fingerprint to get into," Washington told The Tennessean. "... Do I have a chip on my shoulder? No. But I've been called into situations where I've seen myself grow. Whether it was playing from a shipping container, sleeper busses for eight hours in Pittsburgh, it was all preparing me for now and what is to come."
Washington is Nashville SC's lone remaining player from the club's beginnings as a United Soccer League franchise. While he doesn't think about that status much, his life has drastically changed since then. He has four dogs, a girlfriend, friends both inside and outside the team and an overall "great life." And in 2024, his age-30 season, Washington has been a revelation on the field as well.
A reserve for most of his first four MLS seasons, Washington has started seven times and appeared in 10 of Nashville's 11 games. The left back has been crucial for a side that's dealt with constant injuries, especially along the backline.
"He's been as consistent and as confident as I've seen him in MLS," Nashville coach Gary Smith said after a March win over Charlotte FC in which Washington had an assist.
Taylor Washington from USL to MLS
Washington started regularly in the second-tier USL, but his role changed when Nashville joined MLS and he was one of four players from the USL club to remain with the team. He started just 34 games from 2020-23 and came into 2024 having played 2,516 league minutes, not far above the 2,273 he played in 2018 alone.
"Going from USL to MLS is an adjustment," Washington said. "When I signed my contract, (general manager Mike Jacobs) and Gary were both like, we're bringing in excellent leaders, excellent guys around you who are going to help build you up. And that's exactly what they did. Guys like Dax McCarty, Dan Lovitz. These are guys that always took me aside, and still take me aside, teach me little things and nuances."
With a condensed schedule due to Nashville's first CONCACAF Champions Cup appearance and the sporadic availability of defenders including Lovitz and Walker Zimmerman, Washington has risen to the challenge. His 580 minutes across all competitions are the seventh-most among outfielders and not far off his totals from all of 2022 (794) and 2023 (838).
To assistant coach Steve Guppy, Washington is showing what he's always been capable of. Guppy, who worked with Nashville during the USL days in an unofficial capacity, remembers thinking Washington was "dreadful" at first. That opinion completely shifted after a couple weeks working with him, and when Jacobs and Smith were deciding who to bring from the USL to MLS, Guppy was one of Washington's advocates.
Guppy now calls his relationship with Washington a "love-hate" one. The hate, though, is more frustration that Washington, despite solid technique, plenty of toughness and impressive pace, is sometimes reluctant to display it in full. But Guppy thinks consistent playing time, a luxury Washington has rarely had, has helped bring some of it out of him in 2024.
"His crossing has improved massively," Guppy said. "When that first touch is positive, he can break lines with it, he can get his head up and see the pitch. That's a constant thing I'm always trying to remind him of. ... He's put the work in, his attitude is always spot-on. When you work with a player who offers you those things and meets you halfway, then you're willing to go that extra mile for them."
Washington once wanted to be a surgeon, and views his career as an athlete with a similar purpose. In college, Washington remembers watching a Make-a-Wish video where Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart met a child with cancer. He watched the child's face "literally be changed" by interacting with his role model.
Washington has worked extensively with the Nashville Rescue Mission, helping the city's homeless community, and organizations such as Kickin' It 615, Bridge Ministries and the Special Olympics. Last year, he was named Nashville SC's Humanitarian of the Year.
MORE: Number of early season injuries is preventing Nashville SC from fielding stable lineup
Not long after Washington moved to Nashville, he was hanging out with some friends in a pizza restaurant. His friends gushed over his new home — "You're gonna be in bachelorette party central!" — but while Washington's life has changed, it's not because of the Broadway nightlife. For Washington, a New Yorker by birth, Nashville has "softened" his heart. He only wants to give the same Southern hospitality back.
"Whenever I meet someone, if they recognize me from the team or whatever, I just want to give them a belief and a joy and a real interaction," Washington said. "As a Christian, we're called to love our neighbors. God's given me a beautiful platform, and I pray every day that I use it to the best of my ability."
Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Taylor Washington a fixture in seventh season with Nashville SC
