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Before he retired from the U.S. Army, Isaiah Taylor had risen to the rank of first sergeant and was in charge of a company of about 200 soldiers.

So Taylor, 45, should have little difficulty commanding a youth track and field team of 65 boys and girls.

“I attribute a lot of my leadership to the time I served in the military,” said Taylor, who retired in November 2020 after serving at Fort Stewart. “It gave me some great, great experience that I use to this day.”

Taylor was a track and field athlete in his native Hampton, Virginia, and competed at Christopher Newport University, also in Virginia. 

After moving to the Savannah area in 2016, he started the Coastal Georgia Track Team in 2017 with 10 boys and girls, with the eldest his son Jasai Taylor, then 11.

Jasai Taylor has grown up and recently completed his freshman season as a hurdler on the Troy (Ala.) University track team. CGTT has grown, too, to six-plus-times its original roster for ages 8 through high school seniors.

“I would say just word of mouth throughout the community,” Taylor said. “Parents basically speaking to other parents and spreading the word about the quality of the program that we have.”

The program has graduated talented athletes such as Richmond Hill High School alumnus Jasai Taylor, and from the South Effingham Class of 2023, Jamari Fields, who is going to Wingate (N.C.) University to compete in track.

The current roster recently concluded its summer outdoor track and field schedule and posted many standout performances at national meets.   

Jamari McIvory, now a senior at Savannah Christian, won the 400 meters in the Boys 17-19 division at the AAU Las Vegas Nationals on July 8. It was consecutive titles, as McIvory also captured the event in the 15-16 age division in 2022.

Jamari McIvory - Prep Sports Report

July 9,2023 - Coastal Georgia Track standout and SCPS state champion Jamari McIvory is a back-to-back National AAU 400m Champion.

Nathan Anderson, a Woodville-Tompkins 2023 graduate, was fastest in the 400 hurdles at the Adidas Outdoor Nationals on June 16-18 in Greensboro, N.C. Anderson was a late registrant for the meet and ran unattached, though he competed in other meets for CGTT, Isaiah Taylor explained.

Kendrick Joshua, now a Richmond Hill sophomore, spent that same weekend in Philadelphia at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor meet and won the 400 hurdles for freshmen.

Above photo - Kendrick Joshua (Brittany Joshua, Coastal Georgia Track Team)

Joshua, 16, didn’t stop there, as he triumphed in the same event at the AAU National Club Championships on July 11-15 in Orlando. Competing in the 15-16 division, Joshua also placed third in the long jump and seventh in the 200.

“He really cleaned up his technique in the hurdles,” his coach said. “He was already fast, but he didn’t have quite the technique in hurdles. Once that technique came around, that’s when he really turned the corner.”

Joshua had finished the 2023 high school season as the fastest freshman in Georgia in the 300 hurdles with his time at the GHSA Class 7A state meet (38.69 seconds). 

Taylor’s son Jayden, 15, accomplished the same honor for Georgia freshmen in the 400 sprint with his third-place finish at the New Balance Nationals (49.08). 

 Above photo - Jayden Taylor (Brittany Joshua, Coastal Georgia Track Team)

“Beyond the worth ethic, he’s just so competitive,” Isaiah Taylor said of Jayden, now a sophomore at Richmond Hill. “He might be one of the most competitive kids on the team, and that’s what drives him. He’s super, super competitive.”

Isaiah Taylor said probably the biggest surprise was the performance of Jermani Williams, 11, who in her first year on the team won a national title in Orlando in the 200 meters (26.39).

Williams also ran a leg on CGTT’s champion 4x400 relay team that was fastest in the country as indoor champions in March through the outdoor season for girls 11-12. They won in Orlando with a time of 4:03.08 with the efforts of Jamaika Sumpter, Williams, Kyla Shuman and Trinity Perine.

The CGTT 11-12 girls finished third in the 4x100 (50.94) run by Aryel Schaired, Sumpter, Williams and Shuman.

Shuman won a national title in the girls 12 in the 400 (58.25). The turbo javelin event was golden for Ja'Miyah Mainer (girls 8-under) and Marleigh Dailey (girls 9).

 Above photo - Kyla Shuman  (Brittany Joshua, Coastal Georgia Track Team)

The CGTT 15-16 boys were national champions in the 4x100 relay run in 43.31 seconds by Alejandro Higareda, Jeremiah Chance, Melik McLaughlin and Stanley Smart Jr.

If these teams seem like they perform with military precision, well, the coaches are military veterans, said head coach and team founder Taylor, whose wife Belinda’s rank also is first sergeant. She’s assistant coach and administrator.

Jamaine Sumpter (Jamaika’s father) is an assistant coaching sprints, as is Timothy Alston Sr., whose son Timothy Jr. is on the squad. Isaiah Taylor’s brother, Grady Dailey, is the field events coach.

Asked if he bosses his brother around, Taylor said, “a little bit. He’s younger than me, so he’s used to it.”

Taylor is also teaching health and physical education at RHHS, where he is an assistant football and assistant girls basketball coach. 

He said the athletes are on a six-week rest following the summer season and are starting back with a weight training program under strength and conditioning coach Jon Moore at the Richmond Hill YMCA. 

The team will head outside in September in preparation for the indoor season in December. CGTT trains mainly at RHHS with some sessions on the turf fields at DeVaul Henderson Park in Richmond Hill.

His advice for aspiring young track and field athletes interested in joining the team:

“I tell them that they need to come rested and hydrated and with a positive attitude because it is going to be very demanding,” Taylor said. “I do a grace period for three practices before they actually are joining the team. Because a lot of the times people think that it’s fun and track may be for them, but they find out within those first three days that the training is very, very demanding and, in fact, is not for them.”

Coastal Georgia Track Team’s top-eight finishers from the AAU National Club Championships on July 11-15 in Orlando, Florida

Marissa Palmer (girls 17-18) – 100 meters, 3. 12.12 seconds; 200, 3. 24.65 seconds.

 

Aryel Schaired (girls 11) – 100, 5. 13.29; 200, 3. 26.82.

 

Jeremiah Chance (boys 15-16) – 100, 3. 11.21.

 

Jayden Taylor (boys 15-16) – 400, 5. 49.22.

 

Kinley Gibson (girls 14) – 200, 6. 25.34; 400, 4. 57.87.

 

Trinity Perine (girls 12) -- 400, 3. 1:00.31; 800, 2. 2:26.93.

 

Jayla Lawrence (girls 17-18) – 400, 5. 1:06.15.

 

Shania McLain (girls 12) -- 1,500 race walk, 5. 11:56.37.

 

Kinzey Speed (girls 9) – 1,500 race walk, 8. 13:32.74.

 

Neviah Schaired (girls 12) – Discus, 5. 15.68 meters; shot put, 6. 8.41 meters.

 

Darrel Stoney Jr. (boys 10) -- Shot put, 4. 7.55 meters; turbo javelin, 6. 21.90 meters.

 

Ja'Miyah Mainer (girls 8-under) -- Turbo javelin, 1. 13.39 meters.

 

Marleigh Dailey (girls 9) -- Turbo javelin, 1. 18.14 meters; shot put, 7. 5.89 meters.

Carson Stoney (boys 8-under) -- Long jump, 5. 3.50 meters.

 

Jermani Williams (girls 11) – 200, 1. 26.39 seconds.

 

Kendrick Joshua (boys 15-16) – 400 hurdles, 1. 54.98 seconds; long jump, 3. 6.64 meters; 200, 7. 23.06 seconds.

 

Kyla Shuman (girls 12) – 400, 1. 58.25

 

15-16 Boys 4x100 – 1. CGTT, 43.31 (Alejandro Higareda, Jeremiah Chance, Melik McLaughlin, Stanley Smart Jr.).

 

15-16 Boys 4x400 – 5. CGTT, 3:31.18 (Alejandro Higareda, Melik McLaughlin, Robert Davis III, Stanley Smart Jr.).

 

11-12 Girls 4x400 – 1. CGTT, 4:03.08 (Jamaika Sumpter, Jermani Williams, Kyla Shuman, Trinity Perine).

 

11-12 Girls 4x100 – 3. CGTT, 50.94 (Aryel Schaired, Jamaika Sumpter, Jermani Williams, Kyla Shuman).

Cover photo credit - Brittany Joshua, Coastal Georgia Track Team 

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