King's Academy volleyball coach Christy Taylor resigns after pioneering tenure
WEST PALM BEACH — For the first time in a decade, King’s Academy volleyball will be looking for a new coach.
After coaching first the girls and then the boys for a combined nine years, Christy Lee Taylor is resigning.
“You know you’re going to miss it,” Taylor said before tearing up once more. “They’re incredible kids, and I enjoy it, and I love them. I’m going to miss them. I’d love to come back and help if I can. I’d love to still be involved. I definitely want to go cheer them on in games.”
For every tear shed, there was a life impacted — and the only thing that could pull Taylor away from her “adopted children” was the very same volleyball needs of her own kids.
Taylor has the full support of King’s Academy, with Athletic Director Adam Winters noting that the longtime coach was integral to the success of a very young boys program.
“Coach Christy Taylor has been a very impactful coach for us at TKA the last few years, as both the head girls and boys volleyball coach,” Winters said in a statement to The Post. “Coach Taylor not only coached volleyball well but also spoke into the lives of her athletes which is so much more important.”
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“Coach Taylor's pioneering of the boys varsity volleyball program brought enthusiasm to the sport at TKA, while creating a winning culture from day one,” Winters continued. “While we hate to see Christy go, we understand her need to be available and support her three athletically gifted children in their pursuits.”
As Taylor’s children — Logan, Britain, and Brielle Taylor — begin to enter crucial junctures of their own journeys in the sport she grew up loving, Taylor simply wants to be along for the ride.
Britain and Brielle just won their second beach volleyball national championship last week, adding to their rapidly expanding lists of accolades, and Logan is committed to play at North Greenville University.
While Logan was the leading scorer on King’s Academy’s boys squad under Taylor’s watch, the veteran coach felt that her girls drew the short end of the stick more often than not, especially as the Lions' boys team made a playoff push.
“I’m an all-in person,” Taylor said. “This year, during the boys’ season, they kind of got pushed to the back burner a little bit — a lot, to be honest — but I knew that team had the potential to go to states, and I just wanted to give them everything I had.”
“My daughters, thank the Lord, completely understood that,” she continued. “They were really encouraging and supportive, which was awesome. But this next year is their recruiting year and it would not be fair to them to be put on the back burner again.”
Having the freedom to travel and see Logan play in college and the availability to be a part of her girls’ junior seasons represents the next chapter for Taylor, but that doesn’t mean that the decision to step away from the sideline has been an easy one.
“The biggest reason I coach, to begin with, is hoping to have an impact on the kids,” she said. “The purpose of a coach is to have an impact, not just on the court but in their lives. You want them to become better volleyball players, but in the process, they need to become better human beings.”
Over the course of her last two seasons, players already were returning to help the program, not just because they loved the sport but because they were returning to the family atmosphere that Taylor had so hoped to foster.
“To me, that’s winning,” Taylor said. “Winning on the court, winning on the scoreboard, that’s winning in one way. But having those relationships and seeing that I made some small impact on these kids, that’s so much more important at the end of the day.”
In searching for a replacement, King’s Academy has some big shoes to fill — but the next leader for the boys volleyball program will have the benefit of a successful springboard.
“The King's Academy has talked with and will search for a varsity boys volleyball head coach candidate that will raise the bar of excellence at TKA,” Winters said. “The last two boys volleyball seasons were exceptional, setting a strong foundation for the future. We certainly want to build on that foundation and hire the right person who can continue to build and pursue our mission of providing excellent athletics with eternal impact.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Longtime King's Academy volleyball coach Christy Taylor resigns
