| 
| 
| |
04/11/2020
220 | 
0
by: David Gray | The News
Posted: Nov 2, 2020 / 11:19 AM CST / Updated: Nov 2, 2020 / 11:20 AM CST
Photo Submitted
LIVINGSTON, La. (The Livingston Parish News) – Instead of a softball or basketball uniform, Sydney Taylor now competes in an evening gown.
Instead of running around the bases or up and down the court, she walks down a runway.
Instead of answering post-game questions from sports reporters, she answers questions from a panel of judges.
Taylor has come a long way from her days at Doyle High, where she starred as a two-sport athlete, always competing as part of a team.
Now, the LSU sophomore is competing by herself against 50 other pageant beauties from across the country, all vying to finish atop the field on a national stage.
But despite the change in scenery, Taylor’s goal is the same.
“I really want to win,” said Taylor, who is hoping to pair a championship crown with her championship ring.
Taylor, a native of Livingston Parish, will compete for the Miss Teen USA title at Elvis Presley’s world-famous home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee, this week.
Originally slated for spring 2020, the competition was pushed back to Nov. 7 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The competition will be hosted by Allie LaForce and Cheslie Kryst, two former beauty pageant titleholders.
The pageant will be livestreamed on the Miss Universe Organization’s social media channels, culminating with reigning Miss Teen USA Kaliegh Garris of Connecticut crowning her successor.
If all goes to plan, that will be Taylor, who surprised friends and family alike when she announced she was trading her softball cleats and basketball shoes for high heels.
“No one believed I was serious,” Taylor said with a laugh.
The upcoming competition signals another chapter in the fast rise through the pageant ranks for Taylor, a graduate of Doyle High who until two summers ago had never competed in a pageant.
As Taylor said during an interview with The News, she wasn’t your “typical girly girl.”
“I played sports all my life, and I went hunting with my dad, but I was just not really a typical girly girl until I got older,” she said. “I would do my makeup and hair, but I was never super into that stuff. Until I started pageants.”
Taylor spent her high school years playing basketball and softball, racking up the accolades with every bucket or run scored. She was an all-district performer in basketball, but softball is where she truly excelled, chasing flyballs from her spot in centerfield or cranking out hit after hit.
During her years on Doyle High’s softball team, Taylor was named first-team All-State, a district Co-MVP, and parish offensive MVP, among a lengthy list of honors. The highlight came during her junior season in 2018, when she batted in one of three runs to help give her school its first state championship during the Tigers’ thrilling 3-2 win over Mangham.
Taylor’s sports career ended when she graduated in 2019, but her days of competition were far from over, even though she didn’t know it at the time.
Shortly after graduating, a former teacher mentioned Taylor’s name to Ross Walters, a pageant coach out of Lafayette who messaged Taylor to see if she’d be interested in competing in an upcoming pageant.
Though she was searching for something new to focus on with sports no longer in the picture, Taylor said she was hesitant about stepping into the pageant world and needed some convincing.
“At first, I was like, ‘Absolutely not,” Taylor said. “I just never thought I would do a pageant or be a pageant girl. Then my mom kept telling me I should try it out, so I did.
“And I ended up loving it.”
She also ended up winning: Three weeks after Walters, who now serves as her coach, messaged her, Taylor was being crowned Miss Teen Lafayette, which secured her a spot in the Miss Teen Louisiana contest in October 2019.
Despite winning her first pageant, Taylor said her nerves walking before the judges “were all over the place.”
“I was very nervous and really wasn’t expecting to do well, especially when I did the interview portion with the judges,” she said. “I didn’t think of myself as a good speaker, so I didn’t think I had a shot. I was really just doing it for fun.
“But once I won, I was just like, ‘Now I have to win the next one.’”
With four months to prepare, Taylor ended up winning the Miss Teen Louisiana contest, her priceless reaction captured in a photo she later posted on her Instagram page with the caption, “… one of the best moments of my life.”
Though she never envisioned herself competing in pageants, Taylor said she’s had “more fun than I ever thought I would,” adding that it has helped her gain new confidence, particularly when it comes to speaking.
Her newfound speaking skills led Taylor to change her major at LSU from engineering to mass communications, something she credits to pageants.
“I never expected any of this to happen,” she said. “But once I started doing pageants, I realized it was really fun. I love the competition part of it, and it’s made me such a better speaker and communicator and that has given me so much more confidence. So I really appreciate what it’s done for me already.
“Pageants are a lot like sports, honestly, because when you’re there, it really is a competition. It feels like I’m in a game, so it’s worked out perfectly.”
Taylor’s reign as Miss Teen Louisiana has been much different from her predecessors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited the number of public appearances she was able to do. She did, however, get to enjoy a sendoff party at her parents’ home in mid-October.
“It was so bittersweet because I didn’t really expect that many of my friends to come,” she said. “Of course pageant people came, but then a lot of my friends from school and high school came and it was very fun to hang out with all of them. For them to be there for me meant so much.”
Taylor said she’s been surprised at the outpouring of support she’s received as the competition pageant draws closer. On the morning she had her Miss Teen USA interview with the judges, Taylor said her phone buzzed “constantly” with all the well-wishers sending their support.
“It means so much to me because I didn’t realize how many people I had behind me,” she said. “But when I started getting all these texts and calls, it really just meant so much.
“I’m just so grateful to have this opportunity, no matter how I got it. It’s been such a blessing for me, and I’m really excited to see how I do.”
COMENTÁRIOS - Clique aqui para fazer o seu
