country: Diljeet Taylor and the power of believing – Deseret News

A snow-dusted Y Mountain overlooks Clarence F. Robison Track on this early November morning, as the BYU women's cross-country team warms up ahead of practice. Fortunately for the runners, the snow from the day before didn't stick around, but the freezing temperatures did.

"Is it cold out there?" head coach Diljeet Taylor asks her team.

"My toes are cold," one of the women responds with a smile.

Taylor is prepared for the 31-degree weather. She's dressed in a matching beige pair of Nike sweatpants and hoodie under a long brown coat. Beige and cheetah print Jordans, a gold necklace and black sunglasses complete her outfit.

As music blasts through the track's speakers, Taylor converses and laughs with "her women" — as she refers to her athletes — before they start their workout for the day.

Taylor then tells them about today's workout, and the newly crowned back-to-back Big 12 champions get to work.

With a yellow stopwatch in each hand, Taylor rarely moves from one spot on the track, watching and coaching the three groups of women. But occasionally, she'll run a few meters as runners pass, cheering them on.

After an impressive finish by one of the groups, a pumped Taylor tells them, "Not many teams can do that!" The affirmations Taylor yells to her women are a playlist of their own: "Beautiful, beautiful," "nice work, nice work," "you're good, you're good" and "finish strong."

The phrases are all part of the type of coach Taylor wanted to be when she started her coaching career two decades ago.

After being a three-time All-American in indoor and outdoor track and field at Cal State Stanislaus, Taylor ran post-collegiately for the Nike Farm Team in Palo Alto, California. There, she was coached by Frank "Gags" Gagliano for three years, and he showed her the importance of building up runners as people, not just as athletes.

"You can change the trajectory of someone's life by believing in them. I believe that because someone did that for me, and that's really the kind of coach I want to be. I want to stay true to that, and I know performances will come if you build the people," Taylor said.

Taylor had been coaching at her alma mater, Cal State Stanislaus, for nine seasons when BYU lured her away in 2016.

Ed Eyestone , BYU's director of track and field and head men's cross-country coach, first made note of Taylor when he was sitting with her and other coaches at breakfast ahead of a competition in Seattle and she asked him how things were going in Happy Valley.

It wasn't just Taylor's knowledge of Utah and its culture — her husband is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — that stood out to Eyestone. He also admired her success at a Division II school. She'd coached 16 All-Americans and a national champion in the 1,500-meter.

Taylor's potential as a rising star in the sport of track and field coupled with the talent and resources available at BYU was "a positive ticking time bomb" with "a very short fuse," according to Eyestone.

"When you see someone with that kind of passion, you know that they are going to give it 110%, and the odds of them having success are probably pretty good, as long as their X's and O's are in the right place," he said.

Not only is Taylor passionate about her athletes, she is passionate about expressing her belief in them. So much so that she wrote a book on the subject, "Believe in HER," which was published this year.

Taylor says belief is the "magic ingredient" in coaching.

"The easiest way to fuel self-belief and instill self-confidence in your athletes is by expressing that belief and letting them know that you believe in them. It's really important, too, that there's the second part to it: when that belief is then coupled with women who want to chase excellence and who want to perfect their craft and are obsessed with their passion for the sport. Those two things combined, I believe, is the perfect recipe," she said.

One of the ways Taylor expresses her belief in her women is by writing prerace note cards for each of them ahead of every race.

The process takes Taylor multiple days. She's superstitious and doesn't allow her athletes to see her writing them. Each card is personalized, but they all end with the phrase "I believe in you."

"If you believe in someone, but you never tell them, they don't get the benefit of it, of that belief," Taylor said.

The idea for the note cards originated from a card Taylor received from her high school coach before a meet. She remembers how that card made her feel and wanted to replicate that with her own athletes.

She added to her plan when, as a young coach, she attended a coaches' leadership convention and the keynote speaker taught that the four most important words a leader can say are "I believe in you." That phrase has since become the cornerstone of her coaching philosophy.

Olympian Courtney Wayment , who runs for On Athletics and continues to be coached by Taylor, told the Deseret News that she takes Taylor's card with her to her races and, before she warms up, she reads it one more time to "remember that I know that I have coach Taylor's full belief in myself."

"I really look forward to each of the cards that we get because it tells me all the tiny things that she wants me to do for the race, about all the things she reminds me of, all the things that I've done to get to that race, and how much she believes in me and how much she believes that I can be successful," she said.

Wayment added, "This simple four-word phrase ('I believe in you') has changed the trajectory of what I even thought was possible for myself."

Courtney Wayment on Diljeet Tayor Wayment has been coached by Taylor for nearly a decade at BYU and now professionally. The steepler made her Olympic debut in the women's steeplechase this summer with Taylor by her side.

She thinks having a coach believe in you as much as Taylor believes in her athletes is "the difference of being good versus great."

"Knowing that I have someone who's in my corner that wants me to succeed in all areas of my life, that can change the trajectory of your life, and it has for me," Wayment said.

Taylor's approach goes beyond just believing in her athletes when they win. It's believing in them throughout the process, regardless of the outcome.

"Being on the journey with them, focusing on the process, making sure that they understand and they hear those words from me, and as they try to chase these big goals and chase these dreams that they really feel like they're not doing it alone," Taylor said. "Because when you believe in someone, you invest in them, and so then that becomes not a one-person goal. It becomes our goal."

Wayment has felt the totality of Taylor's investment in her multiple times, especially in moments of disappointment and frustration. At the 2023 Diamond League in Zurich, Switzerland, Wayment finished 11th of 14 in the 3,000-meter women's steeplechase and was ready to end her season early.

But Taylor intervened.

She told Wayment that she needed more hope, "hope in your faith, hope in your running, hope in a lot of things." To find that hope, she told the steeplechaser to look up talks and quotes on hope from leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the faith to which Wayment belongs, "that would help fill my soul with hope."

"That's an example of even when things aren't going right, she's still doing things for us to be able to see positivity, and a light, and faith and hope," Wayment said.

Moments when things aren't going right is when athletes need their coach the most, said Gagliano, who coached 15 Olympians in his 60-year career.

"Everyone's not going to make the Olympic team, and there's times when someone finishes fourth in the Olympic trials by a tenth of a second, or two tenths of a second," Gagliano said. "You got to make sure that you're there, to be there to give them a hug, and you know, just say you were there."

Returning BYU women to national relevance Taylor's coaching philosophy has paid off for BYU.

She has returned the school's women's cross-country program to national relevance. The program had a history of success with four national titles and three runner-up finishes from 1997 to 2003, but its success had since dropped off.

Eyestone said a new coach typically has a five-year plan "to get the team back to these glory days," but Taylor's plan led to significant improvement right away.

The year prior to Taylor joining BYU, the team finished 23rd nationally. In her first year, the team finished 10th.

Three years later in 2019, BYU was the runner-up. The Cougars and Taylor followed that up with a national championship win in 2020 and then finished as runner-up in 2021.

"When you have someone of the caliber of the individual of coach Taylor, I think (it) was going to be inevitable. I just think the speed for which she was able to accomplish that was kind of what amazed me," Eyestone said of BYU's turnaround under Taylor.

He acknowledged that yes, Taylor had runners like Wayment and Whittni Orton Morgan , who were incoming freshmen recruited by the previous coach, "but the fact that she was able to develop them and then add people on a consistent basis, and then take those that maybe weren't in the same Olympic caliber as those two and be able to instill a belief in them and the confidence in them to be able to accomplish greatness, that usually takes a little bit longer to establish a winning culture, and so, I think that was one of the remarkable things that she accomplished."

Now, the back-to-back Big 12 champions are ranked No. 1 in the country and focused on the NCAA Mountain Regionals this Friday and a shot at another national championship on Nov. 23. Eyestone thinks the team "has a good chance of getting another title."

Taylor has coached BYU women cross-country runners to 16 All-American honors, seven All Big 12 selections and 49 All-WCC selections. That's in addition to the 94 All-American honors from both her indoor and outdoor distance runners and their six individual national titles.

"I think she was able to reinstall culture, a winning culture, winning attitudes, empowerment of female athlete(s)," Eyestone said. "As a father of six daughters, I recognize the importance of belief and empowerment of women so they can ultimately reach their best, and I think they see in her an example of a powerful woman who is very capable and all the things that she does."

Not only has Taylor brought success to the BYU program, but through her passion and love for her athletes, the "BYU women have a home with Diljeet," Gagliano said.

It's rare for professional runners to continue being coached by their collegiate coach, and it's Taylor's connections that have led to her continuing to coach Wayment, Morgan and Anna Camp Bennett in the professional circuit after their time at BYU has ended, according to Eyestone. All three runners were NCAA champions before becoming sponsored professional runners.

"There is not a coach out there that is like coach Taylor. She believes in me, she trusts me, she knows my strengths, she knows my weaknesses, and on top of all that, she knows me as a person," Wayment said.

That last part was especially important for Wayment, who hadn't initially considered running professionally. Taylor helped her believe she could be successful at the professional level.

And Taylor was right. Wayment made Team USA's World Athletics Championships teams in 2022 and 2023, and then made the women's steeplechase final at the Paris Olympics this summer.

"I know that for me, professional running and doing what I can to be as successful as I can at the highest level, takes me having a coach who has bought in in all the areas of my life. I have to be valued as a person before I am an athlete, and coach Taylor is the epitome of investing and valuing people before the thing that they are," Wayment said.

Living her faith at BYU Taylor doesn't discuss her faith much, but she acknowledges that "there's a huge spiritual side to my coaching."

She sees similarities between her relationship with God and her relationships with her athletes. In both relationships, the more you trust and lean into the relationship, the more it grows, she said.

"That's why I talk a lot about Christlike coaching because ultimately, the greatest coach we all have is God, and he sees us for not where we're at but the potential of who we can become. It's the same thing I do with my athletes. I don't see them for where they're at but in the potential that they have for who they can become in sport and in life," she said.

Taylor, the daughter of Punjabi immigrants, grew up practicing the Sikh religion. She now coaches at a faith-based university sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It may sound like an odd fit to some, but for Taylor, it's perfect. She jokes that one of her biggest fears is losing "that little spiritual touch" she feels at BYU if she were to ever leave.

"Living your faith is embraced here," she said. "It's also a lot easier to teach people how to believe because they've been believing their whole life."

One of the ways Taylor incorporates faith into her coaching is through her tradition of praying with her athletes ahead of nationals — and in the case of her professional runners, before the Olympic trials and their Olympic events.

But the tradition started before Taylor came to BYU at the NCAA Division II track and field championships in Allendale, Michigan, 10 years ago.

It was prelim day for the 1500-meter event. Two of Taylor's athletes were Christians and they prayed before their races. She noticed they were nervous ahead of the race as they looked at each other, seemingly wondering who would say the prayer ahead of this stressful race.

Taylor had the thought that she should go over and pray for them, but she felt uncomfortable praying aloud — and still does — in part because she grew up praying differently than her runners. So, she ignored it and watched the women pray and then race. The two ended up qualifying for the final.

Right before the final, Taylor noticed a similar scene. She then had the "same inspiring feeling" from before, but this time, she acted on it.

"It was really uncomfortable for me, but my women felt excited and inspired, I think," Taylor said.

The women went on to finish first and second, winning the school's first national championship in outdoor track and field since 2005 and selling Taylor on her new tradition.

′′After that, I was like, yeah, I'm praying every national championship. That is what I'm gonna do because it worked," Taylor said.

Taylor's rising star In 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor texted Wayment a photo of the Olympic rings and wrote, "We're gonna chase this." Four years later, Taylor was in Paris coaching Wayment and Morgan in their first Olympics, where both women competed in the final for their event as BYU's first women track and field Olympians in 20 years.

In the Stade de France this summer, Taylor was a minority, and that's been the case at World Championships, too, where she is "one of the only female coaches there period amongst a plethora of men," Wayment recalled.

It's a similar situation at the collegiate level. In the 43-year history of the NCAA women's cross-country Division I national championship, Taylor was only the fifth female head coach of a winning team. North Carolina State's Laurie Henes has since become the sixth after winning the last three titles.

"I have a responsibility as a female coach that's been in the arena for a long time to make sure that I show that it can be done, that there doesn't have to be a moment in your career where you have to choose between coaching or motherhood, that you can find an environment that fully supports you as a woman and as a coach and as a mom, and the visibility that hopefully I provide is a source of inspiration for other women who are pursuing this career path," Taylor, a mother of two sons, said.

Taylor's success in the sport isn't going unnoticed. Nike invited Taylor to be a part of its first coaches cohort of its think tank as the track and field representative.

She is joined by coaches Emma Hayes, the head coach of the U.S. women's national soccer team; Dawn Staley, who has led the University of South Carolina women's basketball team to three NCAA titles and counting; and Jenny Lang Ping, who coached the Chinese women's volleyball team to Olympic gold in 2016. Athletes involved in this year's think tank include stars Alex Morgan, Nelly Korda, Oksana Masters and Laurie Hernandez.

In Nike meetings, these women collaborate and discuss what needs to be done to elevate women's sports in conversations with industry leaders. Those meetings continued in Paris during the Olympics, where Taylor did double duty as an Olympic coach and member of the think tank.

"I walk away from every single one of those opportunities more empowered to continue to fight for the next generation of girls in sport, and to continue to fight and advocate for my women in sport," Taylor said.

As Taylor's star gets brighter, one might wonder what it means for her own goals and dreams. But "there isn't a next step" for Taylor, who admits she "never, ever imagined that I would even have the opportunity to do what I'm doing."

While it may all seem overwhelming at times, "ultimately, I couldn't write this life story better," Taylor said.

"I'm pretty proud of what I've done this far and just hope to continue to help invest in these other dreams, and as I do that, they become mine," she said. "I'm living my dream every day. I feel like I don't work a day in my life."