Davion Taylor might have been great in high school, if he had played in games, rather than just practiced with his team.
Hard to really know.
The hints of the hybrid linebacker’s talent, however, may just be presenting themselves at Colorado this season.
As a Seventh-day Adventist, Taylor observed the Sabbath from sundown on Fridays to sundown on Saturdays during his high school days by resting and worshipping. Meaning, he didn’t play in Friday night games. So he didn’t star at South Pike High in Mississippi and instead helped fill water bottles before games, then headed home for prayer.
He didn’t give up on his dream, though.
Taylor adjusted his religious observances once he turned 18, attended Coahoma Community College, caught the eye of Colorado, and now everyone’s seeing what South Pike High’s best practice player looks like in the big time .
“I sometimes doubt myself since I didn’t play high school ball. But I know I’m good enough,” said the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Taylor, who had a fumble recovery in a win at Nebraska on Saturday as the Buffaloes moved to 2-0. “I know I made it here for a reason.”
Taylor hails from Magnolia, Mississippi. He’s the son of Stephanie Taylor, who was drawn to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in her early 20s and raised Davion and his older brother Ladarris on the teachings of the religion. Friday nights were for tranquility of mind in keeping the Sabbath. The family prayed, studied the bible and watched Christian programming.
And Saturdays were reserved for church.
“This was a way to keep us spiritually fed,” his mother said.
As a kid, Taylor frequently attended the youth practices of his friends — just to watch and study the game.
He eventually went out for the middle school football team. His coach, John Culpepper, can still recall the first time he spotted Taylor, who was all of 120 pounds at the time.
“A little bitty fella,” said Culpepper, who would later be his varsity coach his senior year at South Pike. “You sometimes overlooked them when they’re that small. But not him. You could see he had all the talent in the world.”
At South Pike High, he prepared like he was a starter and went through all the drills, even if he wasn’t going to see the field. He was like another coach out there.
For Friday night home games, the routine was pretty much the same: Prepare the Gatorade, help line the field and set up the equipment. He would have the pregame meal with the team, wish them luck and head home before sundown.
His friends texted updates. When he had a chance, he’d watch the game film.
“I know,” he said, “that I could’ve helped get us a win or make plays.”
In his senior season, Taylor suited up in one game, since it was an early kickoff and well before sunset. From his safety position, he remembers having an interception and 10 tackles.
Mostly, though, it was just the grind of drills.
“As I was practicing, I just kept thinking, ‘This will just make my story even better,'” said Taylor, a state champion sprinter and triple jumper in high school who missed the state meet his junior year because it was held on a Saturday. “I was like, ‘I’m going to try out somewhere.'”
When he turned 18, his mom left his path up to him — his decisions were his to make, she said. He wanted to play football on the next level even if that meant playing on a Friday or Saturday.
“You have to give them rope,” his mom said. “I always wanted to see him strive to be the best.”
Taylor wants this to be clear: He wasn’t choosing football over his faith. His religion remains of utmost importance to him. He was trying to make both fit harmoniously into his life.
“If I’m doing this good and making it this far, I felt like God is on my side when it comes to this,” Taylor said. “He wouldn’t bring me this far just to let me fail and not be on my side.”
The dilemma: Getting recruiters to take notice with basically no game film. Culpepper put in a good word for him at Coahoma, a school that was featured in an episode of the football documentary “Last Chance U” for a losing streak.
“I told coaches, ‘He’s an athlete. Teach him to play, he’ll be great,'” Culpepper said.
As a walk-on at Coahoma, Taylor was nearly cut. He said he earned one of the last spots.
His freshman season he started the final three games as he moved to linebacker. His sprinter’s speed and raw ability attracted the attention of the Buffaloes, who told him they were interested.
Taylor turned in a monster sophomore season with 87 tackles. He was rated the top junior college outside linebacker in the country.
More schools expressed interest: Ole Miss, Arkansas, Baylor and Vanderbilt, to name a few. He honored his commitment to the Buffaloes after they showed early faith in him.
Taylor enrolled last January and went through spring practice while also competing in track. He finished sixth at the Pac-12 championships in the 100 meters.
To improve on the track, he studies the technique of Jamaican standout Usain Bolt, the world-record holder in the 100 and 200.
To improve on the field, the junior watches the moves of Broncos great Von Miller. Taylor is a hybrid linebacker in Colorado’s scheme and came up with a fumble recovery in the 33-28 win over Nebraska.
“He’s really catching on,” Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre said. “Every day you see the light bulb go off a little more.”
Especially in practice, where he’s long excelled.
“I just see myself getting better and better,” Taylor said. “It just gives me more and more belief that I can make it.”
Arthur Mitchell, who broke barriers for African-Americans in the 1950s as a ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet and who would go on to become a driving force in the creation of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, has died. He was 84.
Mitchell died Wednesday at a New York City hospital according to his niece, Juli Mills-Ross. She said the death came after renal failure led to heart failure.
Born in Harlem, Mitchell started dancing with the New York City Ballet in 1955 under famed choreographer George Balanchine.
Arthur Mitchell, co-founder of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, is interviewed in New York, Thursday Oct. 21, 2004, when a $2.4 million shortfall forced him to cancel the company’s season and was about to close its school. In late November 2004, six week after the school closed, the 70-year-old ballet master announced that classes would start again with the help of $1.6 million in donations. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Balanchine put him in several leading roles, including one pairing him with a white female dancer in “Agon” in 1957.
In a January interview with The New York Times, Mitchell recalled the daring of that choice.
“Can you imagine the audacity to take an African-American and Diana Adams, the essence and purity of Caucasian dance, and to put them together on the stage?” he said.
In 1968, impacted by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Mitchell started a dance school that grew the next year to include the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Anna Glass, the executive director of the Dance Theater, told The Associated Press that Mitchell “truly was a visionary.”
“He believed in a world where all people could have access to this beautiful art form,” she said. “He really sought to ensure that all people saw themselves in” ballet.
Among those recognizing his impact following his death was Misty Copeland, the first African-American female principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre.
In a post on Instagram, she wrote, “You gave me so much, through our conversations, your dancing and by simply existing as a brown body in ballet. But you were so much more than a brown body. You’re an icon and hero.”
Choreographer and television producer Debbie Allen tweeted, “The world has lost another visionary” with Mitchell’s death.
“Arthur Mitchell claimed ballet as an American art form,” she said. “His legacy lives through all of us.”
Mitchell was born in 1934, and grew up with four siblings. He started formal dance training in high school, and upon graduating, took the offer of a ballet scholarship with the School of American Ballet, founded by Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein.
His dancing years also included choreographing his own works, performing on Broadway, and working with dance companies in other countries. The Dance Theatre of Harlem performed internationally and has been artistically acclaimed even as it went through some periods of financial upheaval. He stepped down as director almost a decade ago.
Glass said Mitchell had most recently spent time at the company last month, during a two-week residency in which he restaged one of his older ballets to be performed next April as the company marks its 50th anniversary.
“This was a moment that all of us were looking forward to,” Glass said. “I know we will miss him tremendously.”
As Georgia’s top elections official runs for governor, a federal judge said the state has stalled too long in the face of “a mounting tide of evidence of the inadequacy and security risks” of its voting system.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican, is in the midst of a closely watched race against Democrat Stacey Abrams, a former state House minority leader who’s trying to become the country’s first black, female governor. He has repeatedly insisted that Georgia’s current voting system is secure.
Voting integrity advocates sued last year, arguing that the touchscreen voting machines Georgia has used since 2002 are vulnerable to hacking and provide no way to confirm that votes have been recorded correctly because there’s no paper trail. They sought an immediate change to paper ballots for the midterm elections while the case is pending.
U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg declined to grant that request Monday, saying that although voting integrity advocates have demonstrated “the threat of real harms to their constitutional interests,” she worried about the “massive scrambling” required for a last-minute change to paper ballots. Early voting starts Oct. 15 for the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
Kemp said in an emailed statement that his office will continue to prepare for “a secure, orderly election in November” and will move forward “to responsibly upgrade Georgia’s secure — but aging — voting system.”
“As I have said many times over, our state needs a verifiable paper trail, but we cannot make such a dramatic change this election cycle,” he said.
Abrams, who was campaigning Tuesday with former President Jimmy Carter, did not specifically reference the judge’s ruling in an emailed statement.
“As the founder of a nonprofit dedicated to registering voters and as the former House Democratic Leader, I know Georgians are hungry for leaders who will make sure every voice can count at the polls,” Abrams said. She promised that as governor, she would “continue to ensure our elections are safe, secure, and accessible.”
Georgia is among five states, along with more than 300 counties in eight other states, that exclusively use touchscreen voting machines that provide no paper record, according to Verified Voting, a nonprofit group focused on ensuring the accuracy of elections.
Elections experts said the judge’s criticism is unlikely to influence voters’ decisions in the gubernatorial race. Democrats will likely use it in mailers or television ads, perhaps even adopting some of the judge’s language, but most voters have already made up their minds, said Emory University political science professor Alan Abramowitz.
“It certainly doesn’t help Brian Kemp,” he said, but added, “I don’t think it’s going to have a big effect one way or the other.”
Kemp campaign spokesman Ryan Mahoney didn’t respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment on what the ruling says about the two-term secretary of state’s leadership abilities at a time when he’s seeking a higher leadership position.
Totenberg chastised the state, saying it had been slow to respond to “serious vulnerabilities of its voting system,” as well as software and hardware issues that have long been evident, and said “further delay is not tolerable …”
The judge noted a general consensus among cybersecurity experts and federal officials about the insecurity of electronic voting machines with no paper record. She pointed to a Sept. 6 report from the National Academy of Sciences that says all elections should be conducted with “human-readable paper ballots” by 2020, with every effort made to use them in this year’s general election.
“Advanced persistent threats in this data-driven world and ordinary hacking are unfortunately here to stay,” she wrote, adding that state elections officials “will fail to address that reality if they demean as paranoia the research-based findings of national cybersecurity engineers and experts in the field of elections.”
Kemp, who rejected federal offers of assistance with election system security in 2016, established a commission earlier this year to look into a change. Last month he called for proposals to implement a system with voter-verifiable paper records in time for the 2020 presidential election.
Meanwhile, lawyers for the state filed a notice Tuesday that they intend to appeal Totenberg’s denial of their request to dismiss the case entirely.
Coalition for Good Governance executive director Marilyn Marks and attorney David Cross, who represents a small group of voters, said that even though the judge declined their paper ballots request they were encouraged by the tone of her ruling. Both said they’re reviewing the decision to decide whether to appeal.
Totenberg also said the state did not seriously address the impact of a breach of a state election server in its arguments.
Security experts last year disclosed a gaping hole that exposed personal data for 6.7 million Georgia voters, as well as passwords used by county officials to access election-staging files. That hole still wasn’t fixed six months after it was first reported to election authorities.
Kemp’s office blamed the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University that managed the system. Ultimately, officials there reported to his office.
Nearly two years out of the White House, former President Barack Obama is facing another political test.
To the delight of many Democrats, he’s stepped back into the fray that former presidents often try to avoid, campaigning for Democratic candidates ahead of the midterms and blasting the political culture of the Trump era. He attracted a large, adoring crowd this past week in Ohio and will be in Pennsylvania on Friday campaigning for Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
But Obama’s return poses challenges for both the former president and his party. For one, Obama has struggled to turn admiration for him into votes when he’s not on the ballot. Democrats lost significant ground in the 2010 and 2014 midterms and his enthusiastic campaigning for Hillary Clinton didn’t carry her across the finish line in 2016. Perhaps more importantly, Obama’s public re-entry into politics could serve as a motivating factor for Republicans, potentially handing the GOP a gift at a time when they face an uphill battle to maintain their grip on Congress.
“This is perfect for us,” said Rep. Lou Barletta, the Republican challenging Casey for the Senate seat. “It will energize Republicans as a reminder.”
The former president will also “energize those blue-collar Democrats who worried about their jobs under Obama and went out to vote for Donald Trump,” Barletta added.
For their part, Democrats say an Obama visit is a huge boon. Massive crowds give candidates and the party a chance to organize, update contact lists, motivate new donors and boost volunteerism.
Michael Halle, the campaign manager for Richard Cordray, the Democratic candidate for governor in Ohio, said Obama’s visit sent a message about the stakes of the race, which could have implications for redistricting and voting rights in the future.
“First and foremost, it’s important for the people who live in Ohio,” he said. “But secondly, there are also significant national implications, and I think the (former) president weighed those in making the decision.”
An aide to the former president said Obama is aware that he does not have a strong record of aiding Democrats in midterm elections and that his presence can have the effect of galvanizing Republican voters. The aide said Obama would take a strategic approach to the midterm races and pointed to the light footprint that the former president kept earlier in his post-presidency. That’s when he recorded a get-out-the-vote robocall for Democrat Doug Jones, rather than travel to Alabama to appear with Jones ahead of his upset Senate victory. The aide cast the decision as an example of how Obama could still lend his voice in a part of the country where he is less popular.
The aide lacked authorization to discuss publicly Obama’s thinking and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Scott Mulhauser, who served as Vice President Joe Biden’s deputy chief of staff during the 2012 election, said Obama left office as the “most admired man in the country, and his popularity has only increased since.”
“Part of his success is being strategic in his approach to campaigning — coordinating with campaigns to maximize his impact and minimize any blowback, stumping where it makes sense and avoiding where it doesn’t,” Mulhauser said, noting Obama’s role in the Jones campaign. “He’s rightfully out on the trail for certain campaigns, taking a pass on others and recording calls and sending emails on behalf of those that want to use him and his popularity in a targeted manner.”
In Pennsylvania, Obama returns to a state he carried twice but that swung to Trump in 2016. The state features critical contests for Congress and governor. Rep. Dwight Evans of Philadelphia, where Obama will campaign, said that the former president’s presence will be important for his ability to motivate African-American voters, college-aged voters and the poor.
“I think that he can help Democrats, and I think it needs to be really targeted,” Evans said.
Both African-Americans and college-age voters were crucial to Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012, and because Obama was the first black president, Evans said, “he can say some things to the African-American community that cannot be said by anybody else.”
While in Philadelphia, Obama will fundraise for Senate Democrats in general and in particular, Casey, who was among Obama’s earliest Senate backers when he sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
While Obama’s full schedule is taking shape, aides say he is weighing how to best engage on behalf of Democratic candidates across the nation. Earlier this year, he endorsed more than 80 Democrats across more than a dozen states, and aides say a second wave of endorsements is expected this fall.
Brenda Boots, 42, who attended the Ohio rally, said Obama is a welcome presence and hoped he would inject the governor’s race with new life.
“How could he hurt?” she asked. “I don’t think he could hurt.”
Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, right, and moderator Marilyn Pettes Hill attend a gubernatorial candidate forum organized by the NAACP and an associated sorority in Albuquerque, N.M., on Friday, Sept. 14, 2018. Lujan Grisham and Congressman Steve Pearce are competing to become the state’s next governor, amid campaigning about solutions to poverty and improving public schools. GOP Gov. Susan Martinez cannot run for a third consecutive term. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
Candidates for governor of New Mexico responded to concerns about a limited opportunity for African Americans in state government and the private sector, at a Friday-night forum organized by the NAACP and an associated sorority.
Republican Congressman Steve Pearce and Democratic Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham are competing to become the state’s next governor in November elections, amid campaigning that has focused on solutions to poverty and improving the state’s public education and criminal justice systems.
Hundreds of spectators packed into a hotel ballroom to hear the candidates field questions about pay disparity for African-American women, equal access to jobs among racial and ethnic communities, and the dearth of African Americans in Cabinet-level positions and on the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
Pearce highlighted the need to “make sure women of color — that everyone — has access to the best education possible.”
Lujan Grisham said new legislation may be needed to ensure pay parity.
“It’s doesn’t have to do with the educational status, it has to do with the fact that we allow discrimination in the workplace,” said Lujan Grisham, followed by sustained applause from the audience.
Pressed for solutions to New Mexico’s low rankings on student achievement, Lujan Grisham reiterated her support for increasing teacher pay, tapping the state’s sovereign wealth fund and following the guidance of a state district court ruling in July that found insufficient state spending to provide an adequate education for students from low-income and non-English speaking families.
Pearce acknowledged the importance of the judge’s decision, which has been appealed by the administration of GOP Gov. Susana Martinez, but said pay is not the only issue.
“I will do everything in my power to enforce the judge’s decision,” he said. “Let us make no mistake, pouring money into the classroom is not going to cure a lot of the ills that face us.”
Questions at the forum came from a panel of NAACP members and alumnae of the African-American sorority Delta Sigma Theta. They raised concerns about African-American children being disciplined at higher rates in school and of the African-American community being lost in the dominant tri-cultural narrative about Hispanics, Native Americans and non-Hispanic whites in New Mexico.
Fewer than 3 percent New Mexico residents identify themselves as black or African American.
Lujan Grisham seized on the forum as an opportunity to condemn the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children and parents when families illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. The policy has been stopped.
Pearce said he disagreed with Trump’s handling of the situation, but that President Barack Obama “made some mistakes that were just about as bad,” referring to the past treatment of unaccompanied minors from Central America detained at the U.S. border.
The forum came amid a flurry of negative political advertising that paints both candidates as corrupt or beholden to special interests. But Pearce and Lujan Grisham were both cordial and exchanged compliments when asked to name a positive aspect of the other’s political platform.
Pearce complimented Lujan Grisham on her tenacity, while Lujan Grisham praised Pearce’s work in Congress on affordable housing initiatives.
Republican Gov. Susana Martinez cannot run for a consecutive third term.
