Tae Floyd’s monster senior season ends with Ocala Gazette Defensive Player of the Year honors

Tae Floyd wanted to make a change for his senior season and get prepared for the next level.

After three years at West Port High School, the 6-foot-3-inch, 240-pound edge rusher decided to transfer to Forest High School for his final season.

Floyd and his mother, Chenika Brown, decided Floyd would attend Forest based on how comfortable they felt when talking with head football coach Eoghan Cullen and Principal Lamar Rembert.

Floyd had to hit the ground running at Forest since he did not join the team until the end of the summer and had to ingrain himself within the team and program quickly. It did not take long for Floyd to make an impact on his teammates, however, and they elevated him to a leadership role after a few weeks.

“We had been working as a team from February to August, so we had team captains established by the time Tae came in. Through his actions and work ethic, he earned the respect of his teammates and was made a team captain through a silent vote by his teammates,” Cullen said.

“They started to look up to him because they saw what he could do on the field and how serious he was about practice,” he added.

Great players like Floyd make an impact beyond the playing field and always look for ways to make their team better. According to Cullen, a loss in the preseason classic and first two games of the regular season put pressure on the team, and Floyd was among the leaders to step up and right the ship.

“We weren’t finding much success; we just didn’t finish those games. As we got into week four against Belleview, Tae and VJ (Vimel Poole Jr), their actions swung the team to show them what they need to be doing. We started seeing results on the field with wins so his leadership is something that I can point to and say contributed to our success,” Cullen said.

After a 1-3 start, Floyd and the team won four of their final six games to finish at 5-5. The five wins were the most for the program since 2017.

Floyd was cognizant of the lessons he learned from the process of becoming a leader during the season and feels he can use them for the rest of his life.

“Just becoming a leader and knowing my role on the team. It’s going to take me a long way, as far as the workplace, I’m learning how to be a leader and how to cooperate with any future managers,” he said.

His skills on the field were easy to see as Floyd dominated any offensive line he faced and was a force to be reckoned with. He set the school record with 36 tackles for loss and 22 sacks, both of those numbers were the highest among Marion County high schoolers.

Floyd said he could not have done it without the support of his mother, siblings, coaches and staff at Forest, including Rembert and guidance counselor Shirley Thomas.

“This year has been tough, but I have a great support system. They all helped me through a lot and can’t thank them enough,” Floyd said.

The senior credits his mother as being his rock through adversity as he juggles school and two sports.

“She is my number one and is my everything,’’ he said. “She has always been there for me and if I ever need anything, she is there to help without any hesitation. Words can’t explain how much she means to me.”

Floyd is currently a starter for the boys’ basketball team at Forest (averaging 14.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game) and is working hard academically to be eligible to play football at the NCAA level next season. His GPA now stands at 2.6, but Floyd said it will be over a 3 by the time the school year ends.

Floyd has big plans for himself after high school and said he is aiming for a football scholarship at the Division I level and getting a degree in kinesiology with a minor in marketing.

Cullen knows that whatever college lands Floyd will not only get an outstanding football player but an overall fantastic person.

“I tell every coach that I speak to there is always a kid who is a great athlete but….when it comes to Tae, there are no buts. He is a great young man, great student, he participates in church every Wednesday and Sunday. There is just a lot of positives for him and whatever school gets him will be getting a gem,” he said.

Cullen compared Floyd to Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente because of his ability to go from a gentleman off the field to an uncaged animal on the field.

“It’s not the finish line for him, it’s just the starting line. He’s about to go out and start his life and this kid can play football for as long as he wants to. He’s one of those kids where in four to five years we are retiring his jersey number here,” he said.