Makenna Taylor named AA Female Athlete of the Year

It is a couple of days before her high school graduation and Makenna Taylor can’t quite put together the phrase she is searching for. 
She’s talking about the best piece of advice she’s received as an athlete at Dorset Collegiate on Pilley’s Island in Notre Dame Bay. 
A couple of seconds pass and she puts it together. 
“My best piece of advice I’ve received is ‘don’t ever say you can’t because you can always do it,’” said Taylor. 
It isn’t extravagant or profound.  
It's a phrase that's simple and to the point. After all, the best pieces of advice always come that way. 
You could say those words drove her to be named the School Sports Newfoundland and Labrador AA Female Athlete of the Year. 
As top athlete in her school’s classification, the 18-year-old Taylor beat out dozens of others for the award. 
She didn’t learn of the nomination for athlete of the year until badminton provincials. It was something she wanted to apply for but, as it turns out, someone beat her to it. 
A couple of weeks passed from learning of her nomination. Taylor was called into the office of the Pilley’s Island school. 
The news that awaited her caught her off guard. She wasn’t expecting to be told she had been named female athlete of the year for her school’s classification. 
It was surely an exciting time for Taylor, who could be considered the quintessential student-athlete. 
When she isn’t practising for the wide range of sports she participated in during the school year, chances are you’d find her hitting the books, preparing for her next scholastic challenge. 
A work ethic like that lends itself to academics and sports. 
Taylor figures she competed in every sport she could at the high school level. There was cross country running, softball, ball hockey, volleyball, table tennis and badminton. 
For most of the school year, her weeks played out much of the same. She would jam an hour of studying after school before heading to practice for a particular sport – depending on the time of year. 
She’d complete practice and then go through another hour of studying. During the school day, Taylor would sometimes forego relaxing during recess and lunch to complete school work or study. 
That hard work paid off, both academically and athletically. 
Taylor has been accepted to Memorial University for the fall where she plans to complete her first year of studies before an interest in psychology and human behaviour will draw her towards the behavioural neuroscience program. 
Her work on various playing fields helped Dorset Collegiate achieve a top-10 finish among AA schools across the province. 
“I found that if I could budget my time, I could do it,” she said. “It wasn’t too difficult. I’m pretty good at time management.”