Nikita Taylor to play volleyball at Danville Area Community College
By FRED KRONER
Oakwood High School’s Nikita Taylor has taken the first steps to being a college athlete.
She is already a college student, and has been for part of the last two years.
Through a dual-credit program between Oakwood and Danville Area Community College, Taylor started taking nursing classes as a 16-year-old in the summer following her sophomore year.
When she officially starts her freshman year next August – Taylor was the first recruit to commit to DACC’s revived volleyball program – she will enroll with almost 30 college credits thanks to the college express program.
She already has her CNA license and passed her clinicals in June, 2023, and is a certified CNA.
“While doing that, I have been taking many of my nursing prerequisites,” said Taylor, who plans to apply to the DACC nursing program in the spring of 2024.
She won’t be like a deer in headlights next August.
“Over the years I have gotten to know the campus and positive environment pretty well,” Taylor said.
She clearly knows volleyball well. Taylor was a four-year varsity starter for the Comets and earned all-Vermilion County first-team status as a senior. She is in her third year playing for the Champaign-based Prime Time Volleyball Club.
“Nikita has really blossomed as a player,” Oakwood coach Lynn Anderson said. “She has always had the skills, but she had to understand how to use that skill. She is a very determined, focused, and smart athlete and is so naturally talented.
“Because of her athleticism, Nikita can play any sport.”
Besides volleyball, Taylor has also excelled in basketball and track and field for the Comets. In her younger years, she also played soccer and softball as well as doing six years of dance and nine years of cheerleading.
Volleyball wasn’t always her clearcut favorite.
“There were times I liked basketball more, and there were times I liked track more,” Taylor said. “I honestly feel like it depends on what sport I am currently in. During a time, I was an absolute baller at basketball, and it was something I was really interested in, but through it all, volleyball has been my more consistent favorite.”
Meanwhile, Armstrong-Potomac High School coach Shawna Remington was tasked with restarting the volleyball program at DACC, which has been in hiatus for more than a decade.
She wanted to recruit players capable of stepping in and making an immediate impact.
“If you get strong athletes like Nikita, it will be a good start and you will be stronger than people think (initially),” Jameson said. “I don’t want players who don’t see the same vision as I have.”
Hired less than two months before the high school season began – and 14 months before DACC would play a match – Jameson stayed with A-P in the fall season of 2023 before relinquishing those duties.
On Tuesday (Sept. 12), her Trojans played at Oakwood and eked out a three-set victory, winning the decisive final set by a two-point margin, 25-23.
Taylor pounded nine kills for the Comets.
The match turned out to be an audition for the Comets’ outside hitter.
Regardless of the outcome, Jameson had a pre-conceived idea how the night would end.
“I anticipated what I saw (from Taylor) was what I was going to see,” Jameson said. “She played a great game.”
Afterwards, Jameson floated the idea of being part of the volleyball revival at DACC.
Taylor was optimistic that an offer would eventually come her way, but not when it happened.
“It was a total surprise,” Taylor said. “I was hoping to impress her to eventually get an offer, but I had no idea she was going to do it then and there.
“When DACC offered me, it was a match made in heaven. I say that because I was already interested in the DACC nursing program. I was really happy to receive the offer.”
She didn’t need long to finalize her decision.
“I committed to DACC shortly after the offer in September,” Taylor said.
There was an additional bonus to joining the Jaguars besides taking advantage of her dual credits.
“This also meant I got to stay close to my family, which was also very important to me,” Taylor said.
For her part, Jameson was familiar with Taylor and her development as a high school player. Not only had she coached against her the previous three seasons, but her own daughter (Lilly) was also in the same club program (Champaign-based Prime Time) as Taylor.
Jameson got to see her future recruit as more than just an athlete.
“She has a good disposition, is a hard worker and coaches say good things about her,” Jameson said.
What she saw in the past was a player with potential. As a senior, Taylor had reached a new level.
“The last two years, she was growing,” Jameson said. “This year made me open my eyes. She had put in the work in the offseason.
“She can play on either side, can hit out of the back row, and listens to her coach. Her swing has increased as far as speed and effectiveness. Mentally, she seems stronger. Things don’t get her down.”
While Jameson had general knowledge about Taylor, she didn’t know everything.
“She had no idea at the time she offered me that I had taken any DACC classes much less accrued any DACC credit hours,” Taylor said. “It was a pleasant surprise to her.”
When she learned about the academic angle, Jameson said it just served to confirm that she made a good decision.
“It shows she’s an athlete who has her head screwed on, who knows what she wants and is going after it,” Jameson said. “I won’t have to worry about her academics.”
Taylor’s association with Jameson helped her feel comfortable with her new coach, one whom she had also seen during her years with Prime Time.
“I had played against her high school team (Armstrong- Potomac) all four years,” Taylor said, “and she had seen me on film as well as when I played Prime Time two years ago.
“The recruitment process for DACC was unexpectedly easy.”
Though Taylor said she held a goal “since seventh grade,” to play a sport in college, she said it was important to have it be a good fit.
“Academics has always been the most important thing for me,” Taylor said. “As my high school career progressed, I decided to only pursue and/or entertain an athletic scholarship (volleyball or otherwise) if it met BOTH criteria.
“I found this to be difficult because I am interested in Nursing/Nurse Practitioner. Not all schools have decent academic programs for this.”
Taylor declined an overture from Shawnee College for volleyball because it didn’t fit her academic needs. She also had a scholarship offer for track and field from another school before deciding to focus her attention on volleyball.
“As I got older, I realized I really liked volleyball,” she said. “It was something that was so special to me.”
Unlike many athletes, who have a decade of experience in the sport by the time they graduate from high school, Taylor is more of a newcomer to the sport.
“I started my volleyball journey when I was in seventh grade, a little late compared to most,” Taylor said. “I began as a middle, but then transitioned into a left side hitter.
“Recently, I have been dabbling in some right side. Outside is my favorite position to play and what I’m best at, but I enjoy playing right side because I get more of an opportunity to block.”
Taylor stuck with volleyball even though she wasn’t a natural at the outset.
“As you can expect, I was not very good when I first started volleyball,” she said, “but I eventually joined my first AAU club (Stateline), where I began to get some official training on how to actually play the game and not just be a ‘hack.’
“This made me so much better on the court and made me feel like I belonged. What drew me to the sport was its fast pace and extreme team-based environment.”
While at Oakwood, Taylor amassed 440 kills, 118 digs, 86 service aces and 52 blocks.
Taylor doesn’t consider hitting, serving, blocking or even defense as the area where she is best.
“As I evaluate myself, I think my biggest strength is my attitude,” she said. “You can’t always control how your team is playing.
“Maybe the sets are not good that particular night, or maybe the other team just has an immaculate hitter. There is nothing you can do to change that.
“But you CAN control how you react to it. Attitude is everything. When it comes to tough games, a positive attitude can be the difference in winning or losing and keeping team chemistry.”
Taylor was selected to play in the recent All-Area All-Star match, held at Parkland College in mid-December.
Besides demonstrating a competitive spirit, Taylor also has fun with volleyball.
“Nikita has this sense of humor on and off the court,” Anderson said. “One can’t help but love her as a person.”
She recognized early that setting a goal to compete in college didn’t mean the dream would come true.
“I feel like it’s every young athlete’s dream to be a college athlete,” Taylor said, “but as you get older you realize maybe it was harder than you thought.”
Now that she has earned a place at the next level, who won’t be content. The goal is more than just to be a name on the roster.
Taylor would like to make an immediate impact with DACC.
“I hope to fit in with my new DACC team by being a leader and great teammate,” she said. “The coaches told me I have been recruited as an outside hitter, but may spend some time as right-side, too.
“I have been working on improving hitting form as well as defense. I feel that all coaches will teach me and make me grow as a person and as a player.
“I love the idea of stepping right in and making a positive contribution.”
Jameson expects to see noteworthy contributions from Taylor.
“I anticipate her being on the left side as a go-to,” Jameson said, “and she can play defense as well.”
To reach this point, she credits the effort of numerous coaches who have had an impact.
“There have been many key factors that led me to where I am today, all starting with SHV,” Taylor said. “Coach Evan (Hook) taught me how to actually approach the ball when I was hitting. This was a huge jump for me, but it was time to move on.
“My first club team was Stateline Pride. Coach (Nicole) McFarland and Coach (Emily) Franklin taught me a ton of basics about volleyball there, not just about hitting, but about blocking, tooling, passing, and most importantly what it’s like to be on a real team.”
Joining the Prime Time program, and coach Sidney Heck, three years ago, Taylor said, was “a hard transition for me. Everyone at Prime Time was so fast-paced and amazing at volleyball.
“I eventually grew as a player and really stepped up my hitting and defense. This has all contributed to the player I am today.”
The contributions of her parents, Mike and Linda Taylor, can’t be overlooked.
“It’s important to not forget the support I had from my family,” Taylor said. “My mom and dad were always there to drive me to practice and to encourage me, even if I didn’t feel like I was playing well.
“My Dad used to take me to the local baseball park and practice my approach to the ball. Then, we progressed to making me hit and serve into the baseball diamond’s chain link fence. This helped me work out my hitting swing, too.”
Competing at a college less than 20 minutes from her hometown is an aspect that Nikita Taylor considers important.
“I am so close with my parents, it would have been so hard to leave them cold turkey like that,” she said. “I have never been away from them for long periods of time.
“This will definitely make my transition easier.”
Besides Taylor, DACC coach Jameson has commitments from Villa Grove setter Kalyn Cordes and Georgetown-Ridge Farm’s Kendall Roberts along with athletes from Terre Haute, Ind., and Covington, Ind.
Cordes, an all-conference first-teamer, set five school records for the Blue Devils: career assists (1,195), career digs (619), season digs (254), career aces (118) and season aces (56).
Roberts is a dual-sport athlete (volleyball and basketball), who has played volleyball since sixth grade. She was an All-Area honorable mention choice – as were Cordes and Taylor – by The News-Gazette.
