Tallassee brought in a veteran coach to jump start its girls wrestling program.
Jason Taylor, who has coached for 13 seasons at Montevallo, Wetumpka and Elmore County, was hired to be the first coach in program history for the new girls wrestling team.
“I’m super excited about the opportunity,” Taylor said. “I’m looking forward to it but it’s going to be a challenge. Some of the girls on the team have wrestled in youth before, but we have to knock the rust off and get them into the swing of things. It’s going to be a fun time.”
Taylor has experience starting programs in his career.
While he was at Montevallo, he started the middle school program. He also coached the girls while he was in Montevallo, and even had a state championship wrestler during his time.
Alli Tryon won the state championship in the 185-pound class in 2022.
“I know what it takes to build a program,” Taylor said. “The biggest difference between then and now is that I have coach (John) Mask with Tallassee. He’s helped me so much already and working with him is going to be great with him on the boys side and me on the girls side.”
Taylor was already coming to Tallassee when he got the opportunity to join the wrestling staff. As he is dual-certified to teach both science and history, he came over on a TEAMS contract to take over a science position.
But as he’s worked with principal Drew Glass before, Taylor told Glass he would be interested in the opportunity to coach the girls team if the school was serious about starting the program.
Shortly later, he was offered the job to coach as well as teach.
“One thing led to another and I was in the right spot and was the person they picked for the job,” Taylor said. “I have the experience and I’ve coached against coach Mask for almost 14 years now. I’ve been coaching against the man my entire career and now I’m working with him. He’s already helped me so much.”
Taylor has coached at three different schools in Montevallo, Wetumpka and Elmore County. All three schools have cared and been supportive of wrestling, but it has never been at the forefront of the school.
All three schools have bigger sports, such as football, basketball, baseball and softball among others. Tallassee also has its eyes on those sports, but the wrestling program is one of the best in the entire state.
Tallassee has proved, year in and year out, that it can compete at the highest level. The wrestling team has finished runner-up two years in a row in the Class 5A duals championship and had a stellar season last year. The Tigers had three individual state champions in Land Bell, Mason Nelson and Ramon Lozada. They also had multiple state qualifiers and had a representative from every weight class in the state tournament.
Even before the season has started, Taylor knows it's a different feel around this job than his past wrestling jobs.
“What’s funny about this whole situation is that I’ve never done an interview before in my life before this job,” Taylor said. “We always joke about how wrestling is the red headed step child. That isn’t the case at Tallassee. Everyone at Tallassee knows how wrestling can benefit the kids and the community and even the other teams. It’s nice being part of this.”
Many of the details have still not been finalized with girls wrestling. As it’s just now becoming sanctioned, the AHSAA is still deciding on when and where the state championships will be held.
The team also doesn’t have a finalized schedule but will base some of the schedule off what coach Mask and the boys team has already planned out.
More details will come out following the AHSAA summer meeting.