Auburn's Taylor takes special interest in father-son camp

Trooper Taylor loves his mother.

He also misses his father.

And he knows that no matter how hard his mother tried, she couldn’t fill the void left in the ventricle of his heart after his father’s passing when

Taylor was just 12 years old.

There’s just something about a father and a son.

That bond.

That relationship.

Unfortunately, sons don’t get to pick their fathers. And even worse still, they don’t get to decide what happens to them.

That’s in God’s hands, says Taylor.

But so is compassion and love. And, said Taylor, so is the opportunity for a young boy’s life to be forever changed with just one man taking time to make a difference.

“If it wasn’t for men in my life who weren’t my father, I wouldn’t be where I’m at,” said Auburn University’s wide receivers coach. “I believe God placed men in my life along the way to help me make choices and good decisions. Most of the time they weren’t the same color as me and didn’t have the same last name as me, but they treated me like family. And the only thing they ever asked me to do was my best.”

That’s Taylor’s message. The same one he’ll be sharing Sunday at the Sports Academy’s Father-Son Baseball Camp, which will be held from 1-5 p.m. at the Lee-Scott Academy baseball field.

The camp, the brain child of Sports Academy co-owner Mark Fuller and his wife, Lori, is nothing more than what it says.

“To bring father and sons together and hear a great story about a father and son and to share Jesus Christ,” Mark Fuller said. “That’s the bottom line. That’s the main mission. Fathers and sons with the glove on, playing catch, in this world with dads who work too much and boys who are alone.”

The camp’s not just for sons and their “real” fathers, Fuller said. It’s for any boy who wants to come out and learn about baseball, while being around men who care about them and their future.

“We don’t want any boy to feel like they can’t come because they don’t have a dad,” Fuller said. “Anyone can come. We really want those moms who are out there busting their humps to know that their son can go to this. He won’t be left out because his dad is not involved.”

And that’s where Taylor comes back in. He’ll be one of the mentors at the camp, coming to support those boys whose fathers can’t or won’t be there.

He, along with a handful of other men from the area — some athletes and coaches — will spend their Sunday making a difference in a young man’s life.

Like his high school coach did for him.

“There’s no way I could have made it from a Dairy Queen, one-stoplight town with 15 brothers and sisters to be doing what I’m doing now if it had not been for people God placed strategically in my life,” Taylor said. “If you can share that, or if some kids that is in your similar situation can hear that then they think they have a purpose, too. And they believe that.

“It may motivate just one. I don’t know what the numbers will be, I hope a bunch come out. But if it’s just one, I know it plants seeds, because it did for me.”

But Taylor hasn’t forgotten his father. Far from it. He honors his father, every day with the way he wears his hat backward — a story he’ll share Sunday at the camp.

Taylor, who has a son and daughter of his own, also knows how important it is to be a father.

And says he’ll do whatever he can to make sure young men understand what it means to be a dad. Even his players at Auburn.

“I’m teaching my guys that just because you have a tattoo and a picture doesn’t make you a father,” he said. “Just because I have a tattoo on my arm or a picture of her up in my locker, that’s not what a father does. A father provides and takes care and is accountable for his son or daughter. And not on a convenient basis, like it’s a puppy, when you want to show it off to everybody, but when times are hard. And being there to teach and bring that child up the right way. That’s what it takes to be a father.”

Sunday’s camp is a great opportunity to do just that.

“Our vision is boys and dads and men and mentoring,” Fuller said.

And what better way than on the baseball diamond?

mszvetitz@oanow.com | 737-2513

Camp Info
Sunday at Lee-Scott
1-3 p.m.: Baseball skills camp ; 3-3:30: Trooper Taylor speaks; 3:30-4:15: Father vs. Son game

$30 per father-son; scholarships available

Homers For Haiti
The Sports Academy is also hosting a home run derby to raise funds for the Baptist Haiti Mission & Samaritan’s Purse after the camp.

***Call 334- 749-4040 or visit SportsAcademyAuburn.com for more information