Taber’s ultimate makeover is the result of sacrifice ... and hard work
Groton It began, as all the great weight loss stories do, with The Epiphany.
"After volleyball season ended in November," Carolina Taber was saying Monday afternoon, "I looked at myself and thought, 'I'm sooo out of shape.' I'd become complacent about working out on my own. I thought, 'Wow, if I want to play (softball) in college, I can't go like this.'"
And so now it's six months later for Taber, the whiz kid pitcher at Fitch High, and it's more than coincidence her teammates call her "Line." Sure, short for "Caroline." It's just that she's become thin as one, too, a makeover that's resulted in more stamina, strikeouts and strength for the Princeton-bound right-hander, who appears to have more energy now than United Illuminating.
Taber, the reigning state Gatorade Player of the Year, followed Fitch alum and former Gatorade Player of the Year Brianna Turgeon to Advantage Personal Training in Mystic. Turgeon, who recently graduated from Fordham, was famous for her workouts with owner (and Fitch alum) Greg Drab. Turgeon used to grab the "Tornado Ball," a medicine ball with thick, top quality rope molded into it, thus allowing for various swinging motions. She would partake of "wall slams," mimicking a hitter's swinging motion, walloping the Tornado Ball between two brick walls. Her core strength was such that the ball's explosions were Fourth-of-July quality.
Now here's Taber, stronger as games progress, all because of in-
creased upper body mobility, better core stability and the Princeton of work ethics.
"When she came in, all her goals were performance-based," Drab said. "Increased power and flexibility. Weight loss was kind of secondary." It's 30 pounds later. "What's cool about Caroline is that with most athletes, when the game is over, they're done. Home. Dinner," Drab said. "She comes in here. This is a Division I mentality. She deserves everything she gets. She has the work ethic to do great at the next level."
Taber and the Falcons completed the regular season perfectly Monday, following a 7-0 win over East Granby, which made the Class S finals last season. Taber struck out 17. (Although she did run off the mound after there were two outs, not three). Still, perfection. Perfection that included a shutout at Southington, snapping a 77-game win streak last month. Taber got more unhittable as the game progressed.
"Honestly, I don't think my goal was ever to lose weight," Taber said Monday. "I just wanted to get in shape. Everything else followed."
Just not immediately. Taber discovered what everyone else at the gym does, sometimes the hard way. You can sprint on treadmills, bench press dump trucks and swing kettlebells until midnight. But you can't out-exercise a bad diet.
"I had been going for a month or two and wasn't seeing the results I wanted," Taber said. "But that's because I was still eating (poorly). Once I realized I had to cut out the junk food, I could lift heavier, have more energy to go to the gym and not feel like I have to take a nap after school.
"By January, I was really starting to love the gym, but I didn't always have the energy to go. I thought 'you need to start taking better care of yourself.' How can I expect to go to the gym when I come home and eat fries? I still eat junk food, but instead of a whole pint of Ben & Jerry's I have a quarter cup. When you eat that way, food tastes better than when you eat mindlessly."
Taber is awash in mountain climbers on the slide board and pull-ups. She and her teammates are in pursuit of the program's third state title since 2009. Opponents better get her early. The later it gets, the stronger she becomes.
"Sometimes, I still have the eye black on when I get to the gym and Greg's like, 'Well, she's here again.'" Taber said. "It really helped in the NFA game (that lasted eight innings). That could have been a 14-inning game. And in the eighth inning, I felt great. I'm thinking 'I can pitch as long as NFA wants to keep playing.'" This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro