Tate Taylor's Coach, Kevin Schexnayder Reacts to Tate's Surprising Prefontiane Classic Victory
Coach Kevin Schexnayder reflects on Tate Taylor's Prefontaine Classic victory in the men's 200m and reflects on what it was like coaching him since his freshman year.
Video Transcript
At this point, yeah Talk to me about the race plan coming into today.
The race plan, we- all week we've been working on just making sure he's not doing too much on the curves, keeping short, just making sure his acceleration zone and his flow zone are what they need to be marked out at, and just making sure he has what he needs to go into that straightaway.
So- What was- Yeah what was that moment like for you when he really just sealed the deal?
When I seen him close the gap on, when, when he closed the stagger on Zarnelle on the time, I knew it was gonna be something special.
Um- Reef, help me 12 black once he got into that straightaway and I saw just the, the elasticity he was maintaining throughout, I, I just started screaming a little bit, started hanging on my guy, Lee Welling, who was next to me, and it was a surreal moment.
Still is.
Was it the start?
Was it the curve?
Like, what was so exceptional compared to what he did at U20s?
It was everything.
Everything.
He, he ran his race model perfectly.
he executed his, his block clearance, his perfect wave.
The, the adjustments were made.
he got through his drive on the turns.
That's the way we went through this past week.
So everything looked like practice, so.
That lane placement, was that something that you guys are happy about going into this?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
You know, we, we didn't wanna be super outside and definitely didn't wanna be in one or two.
but having him in a position to where we could at least see what was going on in front of us, give him just a little bit of a mark to accelerate off of, perfect.
We're, it was all smiles about lane three.
When I talked to Tate, yesterday, he was saying that some of the guys that he looked up to were Zarnelle Hughes and Tobogo, and now he's beating those guys.
Is that- Yep surreal to you?
Yes.
Very, very much so.
it was, like I said, a conversation between me and him before on what his expectations were, and without, I guess, put- putting his words out there, I ended that with, "Don't be surprised if you do go win this."
So- What do you feel like is the impact of this performance today on him going forward to, to U20s?
as far as U20s, I don't think it'll impact too much going towards worlds.
There's, it'll impact a big part of his future for sure.
definitely some conversations that need to be had in a little bit, but, um- Whether he goes to college even maybe, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
That's a, that's- He should be thinking about it that's gonna be a topic for sure that we gotta go over, but, but definitely.
Definitely.
Touch on the growth that you've seen when you first started coaching him to now.
when, when The first guy I coached in Tate Taylor as a, a freshman in high school.
it's a world of a difference, but at the same time, that's still the same playful, joyful kid.
at the end of the day, it's just a kid who loves life and wants to have fun in everything he d- in, in everything he does.
I mean, we came out here with all smiles, knowing there was absolutely zero pressure on him.
our favorite moments are to come out here and play the villain, and not, not be too worried about anything or a, a time or placement.
Just go out here and execute, and that's what it finally looks like.
We noticed he wasn't wearing glasses today in the 200.
Was that, was that I know- That, that was his call.
He, he warmed up and he looked at me and he said, "This is not a glasses race."
And I said, "All right, give me your glasses," and they're sitting in my backpack, so.
We'll be looking out for that, in future races- Absolutely as well.
Oh, definitely.
Thank you so much, Tate.
Thank y'all.
I appreciate y'all.
Great job you guys.
