Season Interrupted: Norco’s Taylor Shorter has improved by leaps and bounds
Throughout the spring, The Times will interview high school seniors whose athletic careers were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.
Name: Taylor Shorter
School: Norco
Sport: Track and field, hurdles
Key stats: In 2019 Shorter finished second in the state 300 meters hurdles final
Fall plans: Will attend Nevada Las Vegas
A look at the high school sport standouts whose seasons were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.
On the season being canceled:
“I was looking forward to the season because I wanted to break a few school records. It was hard mentally because I wasn’t training for anything.”
On last year’s state meet:
“It was nerve-racking. I didn’t have any teammates out there. I had my five coaches and parents. After all the races, it was exciting.”
On her passion for competing in the hurdles:
“I used to be a gymnast. [Track] became my life because I realized I was good at something that I had been thrown into. I started falling in love with it. When I first started hurdling, I was going over plastic hurdles and doing leaps and splits because I had no idea what I was doing. It was, ‘You could tell she’s a gymnast.’”
Norco softball standout Sarah Willis ponders what comes next while dealing with the coronavirus outbreak: “It’s about being in the real world now.”
On new things she’s discovered during the sports stoppage:
“Skateboarding.”
Where she sees herself in 10 years:
“My big dream is to run for [Team] USA.”
On the most valuable lessons she’s learned:
“I’ve learned how to handle situations that you can’t control, hanging in there mentally and keeping myself as busy as possible.”
Video interviews of each athlete can be found at latimes.com/sports/highschool.
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