When Corey Taylor was in school at Atlantic Christian College (now Barton), he remembers helping dole out snacks and drinks to boosters in the Hall of Fame Room in Wilson Gymnasium.
He recalls saying to himself some 20 years ago: “It would be great to be in here one day.”
That “one day” has arrived. On Friday night, Oct. 21, Taylor and five others will be enshrined into the Barton College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Taylor, a soccer forward/midfielder for head coach Gary Hall from 1990 to 1994, scored 34 goals and added 23 assists in an illustrious career with the Bulldogs. He teamed with such greats at Patrick O’Boyle, D.J. Grisewood, Scott Cruikshank and Mike Burleson to lead Barton to undefeated regular-seasons and NAIA Carolinas Conference Championships in 1991 and 1993, when the Bulldogs shared league titles. During his career, Barton posted a sensational record of 42-24-8 overall and 18-5-3 in the conference.
“It was a big surprise to get the call from Coach Hall,” Taylor said of his enshrinement. “It is something I had always hoped would happen, but didn’t think it would.”
Taylor, a speedster from Jacksonville, N.C., with excellent ball-handling skills, graduated from Barton in 1994 with majors in Business and Psychology and a concentration in Management. He currently resides in Monroe, N.C., with his wife, Sherri and sons Cameron (8 years old) and Nicholas (4), where he is the Branch Manager for PSL Management, a finance company.
He was born the son of Sandra and Arthur Taylor on April 7, 1972, in Jacksonville. His parents split when he was 12 and his mother remarried four years later to Ricky Jones, who was a constant presence on the sidelines during Taylor’s soccer career.
“Baseball was my first love,” Taylor recalled. “I kind of came across soccer by accident. I was running around the house and probably driving my Mom crazy one day in second grade when she asked ‘Why don’t you just go across the street and go to soccer practice with Carlton (Steinmetz)?’ I had run track and played basketball and baseball, so when the soccer ball came to me for the first time, I started kicking it and running after it and nobody could get it from me. The coach asked: ‘Who is this kid? And why isn’t he on our team?’”
From that point forward, soccer was a focus of Taylor’s year-long schedule. He played school ball and Classic Soccer until signing a scholarship to play at Barton. He did play baseball through his junior year at White Oak High School, where he was a star second baseman.
As a prep, he scored more than 30 goals per season his last two years and led White Oak to the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A/2-A State Championship his junior season, when he was named State Player of the Year and First Team All-State (all divisions). White Oak, coached by Colon Ballance, made it to the state semifinals his senior season. His highest scoring output was five goals in one game.
He also starred with the Jacksonville Cardinals Classic Under ’70 team, and said Coach Hall was present at a number of his matches.
“I first met Coach Hall at Campbell Soccer Camp,” he said. “He was genuinely just a nice guy. My scholarship was signed to play for him at Campbell, but then he was hired as athletic director and soccer coach at Atlantic Christian, and he asked me to come check out the campus. He told me it was closer to Jacksonville and that my parents would be able to come watch me play more often.”
He made his visit on the same day at Jonathan Shugart, who played for rival Jacksonville High School.
They both signed with Barton and joined a talented freshman class that included Joey Chaffee, Cruikshank, Burleson, Shannon Shuskey, Jamie Adams, Jamie Covington and others.
“Patrick O’Boyle and D.J. Grisewood were two of the first people we met on that visit,” Taylor said. “There was just a different feeling here at Barton. Something just felt right. I was comfortable with the surroundings and the people. The guys on the team were welcoming and I could tell that they were building something special. The school had the scholastic opportunities I was looking for as well, so it all kind of made sense.”
He admits being the kind of guy who doesn’t care about statistics, only about results and relationships.
“I played the sport because I loved it, and I was blessed to play with a bunch of good guys and for some great coaches. And we had a lot of success. My mom raised me to be very humble, so stats are not what I remember. I remember the friendships and the people I have mirrored myself after … and the family that was Barton. That core group of guys we had just meshed well together. It’s an old cliché, but we loved each other a great deal and would do anything for each other. We were not always the best team, but we had a lot of heart and determination.
“You didn’t want to let anyone on the team down, so we pushed each other and made each other better. We also had a coach (Hall) who believed in us and worked hard. I think we had a lot to prove and we held our own against the best.”
By the time his career as a Bulldog concluded, Taylor was a three-time All-Carolinas Conference pick, twice named All NAIA District 26 and All-Area VIII, Conference Freshman of the Year (1990) and runner-up for Conference Carolinas Player of the Year in 1993. He was named to six all-tournament teams and was the 1990 recipient of the prestigious Ernest Brewer Award given annually to the non-senior Barton student-athlete best combining athletic and academic performance. He was an active member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity chapter as well.
Taylor was — and is — known as a humble man. He was the first family member from a single-parent home to attend college. He has an older brother, Eric, and they shared their home with cousins Shatanya and Danika Smith after Taylor’s aunt died in her 30s.
He has always attributed his success to his mother and her tireless devotion to providing for her family.
“Going to school at Barton was just an amazing experience for me,” Taylor said. “The four years there just went by so fast. The day after graduation, I was sitting in my apartment and it hit me that my college career was over. I broke down and started crying. It just meant so much to me to be able to walk across that stage and get my diploma on Mother’s Day. It was the greatest gift I could give my Mom because she did so much and sacrificed so much for all of us. I love her so much.
“There are a lot of people I learned so much from at Barton. There’s Coach Hall and so many others there that definitely helped make me the person I am today. They all really wanted to see me succeed when I left school. That is one thing I really love about Atlantic Christian/Barton. Joey Chaffee and I were talking about that one day, about how our coaches and professors were not just teaching us about X’s and O’s, but teaching us how to be productive members of society.
“They taught us how to be humble and to appreciate all the opportunities you have. In that sense, Barton was an extension of my mother.”
