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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — At first glance one might think that Taylor Alderman would be the prototypical volleyball player. 

But, at 6-foot-1 and now thriving on the team as a junior at West Forsyth, she didn’t even start playing the sport until the middle of her eighth-grade year at Clemmons Middle School. In fact, her first love was softball and she has played the sport since she was 4.  

Now, she’s playing both sports for the Titans at a high level. Even after practice at school, or with her travel softball team, which is called Nationals McDowell, which is based in King, is over, she does even more work. 

“Usually if there’s softball workouts during the volleyball season, I’ll either go straight from volleyball to softball. depending on what time softball ends,” she said. “Or if we don’t have volleyball practice, I’ll go to softball. But then, I also have travel softball right now during volleyball season. So, it’s usually I am at volleyball practice.” 

With Alderman in the lineup, West Forsyth has found success. Before Monday’s first-round Central Piedmont 4-A tournament game at home against Parkland, the team was 24-7 overall and finished 13-1 in the conference, tied with Reagan.  

Lauren Gillon, the head volleyball coach for the Titans, saw Alderman’s raw talent early on. 

“Yeah, I knew that she was pretty new to the sport,” Gillon said. “I think I watched her play in middle school once. And, obviously with her athletic build and her size, I mean, she looks the part 100 percent. She’s very strong, so I knew that she had a lot of potential.  

“Then, when I saw her, and she’s naturally very athletic. So, I knew that she had a lot of skills and like she really needed to learn the game a lot more. But I knew that she was young and new to the sport, which is kind of the sport of volleyball, middle school is about the age that kids really start playing.” 

Playing volleyball started on a whim for Alderman. 

“I followed my dad because he played baseball and softball,” she said. “But my friends just started playing volleyball and they kind of got me into that. So, I kind of only started volleyball because my friends told me at high school tryouts in middle-school to play in high school. So, that’s how I started playing volleyball.” 

Alderman only knew Gillon by name before going to West Forsyth.  

“I just like heard her name and like she’s just a volleyball coach and was one of the actual teachers at the teachers at the school, but nothing more than that,” Alderman said. “(It was) kind of mutual because she was at, the varsity volleyball team went to the eighth-grade conference championship, and like I kind of met them at that time.” 

The relationship between Alderman and Gillon grew from there. 

“She was a really nice person, and like cheerful and fun when I first met her,” Alderman said. “So, it made me want to do volleyball again.” 

Gillon just wanted to see Alderman reach her potential no matter what sport or sports she chose. 

“I remember to try to get her to come with some other friends that were her age, or even a year older than her, just, ‘Hey, come try out.’ What I saw in middle-school for really having just started to play there was some good amount of talent there. So, I was like, ‘Come on, you can play two sports.’ I’m all about the dual sports.” 

“I was really happy to see her enjoy it.” 

Once her freshman year at West Forsyth started, Alderman tried out for the volleyball team. 

“I made the JV team and I was a middle (blocker),” she said. “And then I played halfway through the season, I got moved up to varsity. And I was a right side (hitter). And they moved me there to block.  

“I actually picked it up pretty well. It was just a lot more intense from JV to varsity because the pace was a lot faster. You have to talk more, and you have to like be with your team instead of individually. So, it was a lot different.”  

Being called up to varsity on such a good team is no easy accomplishment. The Titans finished 18-10 that season. 

“We needed her size and she was growing in the sport fairly rapidly,” Gillion said. “So, we kind of knew that she had the mental toughness that was required to kind of be a varsity group that had a lot of upper classmen. Like we knew that she could handle that because it does take some social maturity to be able to handle that.  

“And we knew she was really coachable, so just kind of felt like it was a need that the varsity team had at time. We needed her on the right side and it just exacerbated her growth even more in the sport.” 

All the while, Alderman knew that she was definitely going to play softball for the Titans with Coach Kevin Baity. While having played for them the past two seasons, she’s played almost exclusively as a catcher.  

“During my eighth-grade year he would come to my middle-school games and watch me,” Alderman said of Baity. “And he was a really nice person. I was really excited for that softball season.” 

Baity did go see Alderman play at Clemmons Middle School. 

“I pretty much go watch all those girls when they play in middle-school,” Baity said. “I’ll go watch them. And she played with the Clemmons team that was very strong, that had I guess three of my seniors that are playing now. So, I actually specifically remember going to watch her play. Probably the first time was Southwest Little League.” 

Both Gillon and Baity are very supportive and accommodating of multi-sport athletes.

“Anymore, you don’t see it a lot (multi-sport athletes) because so many try to specialize in one sport,” Baity said. “I think a lot of times when coaches tell them that they should do, but I always tell the girls if they’re good enough to play more than one sport then I strongly encourage it because they only go through high school once. They need to enjoy it.” 

During her freshman season playing softball for the Titans, she helped them finish with an overall record of 20-4 and 13-1 in the conference. And that whole summer Alderman not only played travel softball, she played club volleyball to get ready for her sophomore season on the varsity volleyball team. 

“It was really good because like one of my best friends was the setter, so the setter-hitter connection was very good,” Alderman said. “And my blocking got a lot better since I was leading the team in blocks last season. And second in the conference with the most blocks, and that as an underclassman, felt really good, especially because there was only two sophomores on the varsity and I was one of them. And it just made my confidence go even higher.” 

The progression for Alderman in volleyball has become increasingly evident. 

“I have my expectation of all the players,” Gillon said. “But like I said, she is so mentally tough, and she does have a lot of drive to be good at whatever she does. So, for me it wasn’t necessarily like of these high expectations of what Taylor Alderman was supposed to be, but it was more like fostering her like to continue to get to the point that I know that she wants to be at.” 

This past spring, playing on the softball team as a sophomore, she helped the Titans to an overall record of 24-4 and 12-2 in the conference.  

“There is not any player that’s on West Forsyth’s varsity (volleyball) team that’s not very good because that’s a high level there,” Baity said. “So, yeah, I’ve seen her play several times. I think she also has improved quite a bit. You know, I think you sort of could tell that she picked it up, you know, later, but she has really improved the last year in volleyball.” 

As for this, her junior season in volleyball, the team went on an early-season trip to Florida and it helped the team bond. 

“At the beginning it was kind of shaky because we were all kind of nervous,” Alderman said. “But as the season has like progressed the whole teams trusts each other I think we trust the coaches more now, and they trust us more now. So, it’s made us more a bit better bond, like a better family. But it made us play better on the court.” 

The bond helped as it came from behind on Oct. 1 at home to defeat Reagan 3-2, which has been a conference powerhouse. 

“That felt really good,” Gillon said. “I knew they had it in them. And the first time we played Reagan, I think it, you know there’s such a stigma about playing a team that’s had so much success that they’ve had over the past couple years. Like it’s kind of hard to get that out of your head.” 

West Forsyth did defeat Reagan, helping it tie for first place in the conference. If they played each other in the conference-tournament championship this past Wednesday, the winner determines the top seed in next week’s NCHSAA Class 4-A tournament.  

Either way, and no matter how this volleyball season ends, Alderman still has another season of volleyball and two full seasons of softball at West Forsyth. 

“Her ultimate goal is to play softball in college,” Gillon said. “So, I think that she’s developed in a way to where resting her body with not playing volleyball and focusing on softball, it will actually benefit her, I think.” 

Playing catcher is a demanding position and Baity sees no reason Alderman can’t play in college. 

“I think she has realized her potential, and I think she has started working harder,” he said. “You know, I think she sees that she can play at the next level. Sp I think she has started working harder.” 

She has plenty of time to choose where she’d like to play in college, but she would prefer Western Carolina, and if not there, then Appalachian State. 

“I’m thankful to be a part of (volleyball and softball at West Forsyth) because a few other schools aren’t that well in other sports,” Alderman said. “So, I’m very thankful to be at West and have everyone here supporting me for both sports.”