Next Saturday, hundreds of athletes from across West Virginia will be in Morgantown for the 2017 State High School Swim Meet. The best of the best, including Bridgeport High School, will be in attendance looking to bring home state championships.

 

With all due respect to every single person in that pool this coming week, it can be argued that the best performance already took place this past Saturday at the Region III meet on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College. The ironic part is that the person that turned in the performance didn’t win her event.

 

Bridgeport’s Taylor Steele not only didn’t win the girls 100 meter breaststroke, she didn’t qualify for the state meet. She didn’t finish in the top 5. For that matter, she didn’t finish in the top 10.

 

When Taylor Steele came up from the water in Buckhannon, the Notre Dame High School senior saw she had placed 15^th out of 25 swimmers that started the event.

 

Her time of 1 minute, 41.42 seconds was more than 20 seconds behind the winning pace. Yet it wasn’t her journey across the pool that day that made her effort impressive, it was her journey over the course of her 18 years on this earth to get into the pool that made what she did arguably the best showing of not only the regional, but perhaps the entire state swim season.

 

Taylor Steele, the daughter of Chuck and Kellie Steele, was born with Diaphragmatic Hernia. It is described as a birth defect in which there is an abnormal opening in the diaphragm, which is the muscle between the chest and abdomen that helps you breathe. The opening allows part of the organs from the belly to move into the chest cavity near the lungs.

 

This, as you’ll soon read, is serious. In fact, not everyone survives being born with the condition. Before getting into the details, we’ll go back to the day of her birth when the Steele family was already aware that problems would likely greet the birth of their daughter.

 

It was Christmas Day, 1998 when Taylor Steele came into the world. Two days prior to that, when feelings of giddiness were still there, the family was told that major issues was almost a certainty. And the doctors were spot on.

 

“What they thought they saw in the womb was exactly what it turned out to be,” said her father Chuck. “Diaphragmatic Hernia doesn’t sound serious, but it is.”

 

As mentioned above, with organs in the chest cavity, it was creating problems with the newborn’s lungs.

 

“The doctors were honest with us and told us that a third of the babies die, a third of the babies live and the other third they don’t know what will happen,” Chuck said. “The main problem that comes from this pulmonary hypertension and high lung pressure. This isn’t an issue that takes care of itself.”

 

Mother and father had to remain strong. Both, however, admit it was a trying time – particularly with what should have been their most joyous time during what many consider the most joyous time of the year.

 

“It felt like an out of the body experience. I’d see the doctor talking and moving his mouth, but almost nothing registered. It just didn’t feel real,” said Kellie, a 1987 graduate of BHS. “When you have a baby and at one point early in their life you see her needing resuscitated there’s a feeling you can’t describe and one you would hope no one ever has to go through.

 

“I look back and wonder how we managed to get through,” she continued. “What you realize is the whole thing was something where God just had to carry you through.”

 

While the Steele’s leaned on their faith, the problem in the left lung required surgery. It required Taylor Steele being on a ventilator. It required the realization that this little child may not make it.

 

“The day she was born, we had her baptized. She just wasn’t getting better in those early days,” said Chuck.

 

It was on Jan. 19 – 25 days later – surgery was done on the diaphragm. The goal was to get Taylor’s lung pressure stabilized. It didn’t happen immediately as hoped. Problems continued and it would be days, weeks, before strides began to take place.

 

“On March 5 we brought her home,” Chuck said. “What’s unique is that we were still worried, but we had found some inner peace.”

 

The peace, came Chuck said, when Kellie prayed for her newborn shortly after surgery. She told Chuck that they would walk in and see the ventilator turned down from 100 percent to 65.

 

“That seemed like an odd thing to say, but when we walked in to the NICU, after the ventilators being set at 100 percent the whole time, they were down to 65,” said Chuck. “You can call that coincidence if you want. We saw it as something bigger than that.”

 

From that point forward things didn’t go smoothly, but things began to get to the point where the March 5 take home date became possible. From the point where Taylor was on oxygen at home for 24 hours to where they could take canisters of oxygen when going out, the Steele family’s optimism abounded thanks to their faith.

 

Of course, her physical development would be a step behind. She didn’t start walking until 23 months and with a smaller stomach as the result of surgery, Taylor didn’t eat a lot.

 

“She was behind the growth curb, but from that point there to where she is today is a happy story of a normal girl. The thing with her lungs is that I might have 100 percent capacity and use just 60 percent of it, while she may be at 60 percent and use 55 percent,” said Chuck. “She’s never going to be a long distance runner and we told her she can’t smoke, but there’s not too much she won’t do.”

 

As for Taylor, she said her father’s assessment of “normal” is correct.

 

“I don’t even think I was aware of my situation until I was probably 10 or 11. To be honest, it’s not very noticeable through anything that I’ve done,” said Taylor.

 

And she’s done plenty. Along with being involved with the standard fare while growing up in the Bridgeport school system, she’s continued that once she transferred to Notre Dame during her sophomore year. While at NDHS, it’s clear that she’s well past the issue involving her birth defect.

 

She’s a member of the National Honor Society, the senior class secretary on student council, a member of the performing arts conservatory that includes the thespian troupe and show choir among others, including the dance line. And she’s also a member of the swim team and the tennis team among a host of other activities.

 

Perhaps it’s knowing what she’s been through is what makes her strive to be involved and do her best. I think it’s safe to say it’s shaped a very healthy perspective on how she approaches sports and how she approached her final swim meet ever in high school.

 

“I knew before I left for the meet I wasn’t going to states no matter how well I did, and that’s okay. Right before I went off the block, I realized it was my last time to race,” said Taylor, who still goes to a pulmonary specialist in Pittsburgh every two years to make sure everything is okay. “I was just thinking as I was underwater, trying to savor the moment, to reach and pull the hardest I could. I didn’t know that I had did something special it until I finished.

 

The time showed, as mentioned, 1 minute, 41.42 seconds. Not close to qualifying, but in her final swim meet Taylor Steele not only had her best performance ever in her event, but she had done so by shaving four seconds off of her previous best time.

 

“That was the best feeling,” she said.

 

Perhaps mom Kellie summed it up best and why, even if she didn’t have the condition that slows her down, she has a healthy mindset that will serve her well as she moves on in life.

 

“We live in a day and age of competitive kids and parents pushing those kids, but Taylor knew from the beginning she knew she wasn’t going to win. It was a victory when she didn’t come in last and I was always proud of her for that attitude and never cared that she finished, just that she finished,” said Kellie. “It was her about her own personal best and nothing else factored into it.”

 

Chuck, a 1985 BHS graduate, agreed.

 

“Initially, I thought that she just wasn’t as good as the others, but then I saw how she looked at it and that was to be as good as she can,” he said. “It was important for her to get better and not once as she ever used her condition as excuse. I take pride in knowing that about my daughter.”

 

Everyone can have an excuse. Not everyone can take the cards that life has handed you and turn it into a full house. Taylor Steele has already turned the trick ahead of her high school graduation, ahead of her enrolling at WVU and studying strategic communications and ahead of whatever else life throws at her.

 

Her determination is born of what she’s gone through. And it’s born of having a mother and a father who also know what she’s been through and have made sure she understands

 

“I absolutely feel so blessed and so lucky,” Taylor said. “To go through everything that I went through and be able to do what I’m doing is the greatest of blessings. Having my life turn out as it has and have my family and friends involved in wonderful. I guess I didn’t start out life strong, but I’m going to finish it strong.”

 

Just as she did in the pool last Saturday. She was strong. Most important, however, was that she finished. Because of where she came from to touch the wall, she’s already had the best effort the state will see this year.

 

“Winning a race doesn’t really matter. What matters is she’s here today and if you’re a parent that’s witnesses what we did, you get a different perspective if you nearly lose that child,” said Kellie. “She’s walking, talking and breathing and that’s more than enough. Everything else, no matter where she finished in that race, is just a bonus.”

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Taylor Steele being held by her mother shortly after birth. Second photo and fourth photos show Taylor posing for senior swim photos, while in the third picture Taylor, right, is with her biggest fan - her 14-year-old sister Rachel.