The high school years can be formative in so many ways, but for athletes, the development that takes place during this time is critical in helping them reach their goals.
The path is rarely linear, with plenty of ups and downs testing one's ability to overcome adversity.
But for Cambridge right-handed pitcher Jordan Taylor, he spent most of that time not playing at all.
A bad experience with a team when he was in Grade 9 soured his experience with baseball and he decided to step away from the game, for what he thought was for good.
"I was first introduced when I was 10 or 11 years old, my dad introduced me to the game and I fell in love with it immediately," Taylor said of when he first picked up a baseball.
"As I kept playing, I kept getting better. I started to get really good and I started to play for more elite teams in Mississauga. I ended up playing for one team and didn't have a great time and left baseball for four years."
With each passing year spent not on the diamond, the itch to return always lingered.
Watching former teammates and friends playing the game they love and finding success, Taylor knew he was good enough to join them.
"I missed it, a lot," Taylor said.
"Seeing all my friends from back then being committed and where they are now, I missed being on the mound. I felt like I needed to get back out there."
So, he grabbed his glove, hopped on an indoor pitching mound and threw a bullpen to see what he had left in his athletic tank.
From the first pitch, the passion and love that first drew him in had fully returned.
The St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School graduate then joined the Mississauga-based High Performance Program Tigers and after several U.S. tournaments, Taylor landed a scholarship at San Jacinto College in the baseball hot-bed of Texas.
For someone who had a previous poor experience with a team, it was the coaches and culture at the school that sold Taylor on the program.
"It's been different for me than everyone else because I'm new, sort of," he said of his recruitment process.
"I started getting contacted by schools and San Jacinto came in towards the end of the summer and immediately they liked me. Conversations went on for about two months and I decided to commit there."
Armed with a 94 mile per hour fastball, Taylor believes his best pitch is actually his slider. With missing so many years of development, he hopes to arrive on campus next fall a more polished pitcher through a winter of hard work.
And while those years off the field may not have helped his game on it, it certainly provided him with valuable lessons.
"It taught me that as much as you think you're prepared for working hard, you're really not," Taylor said.
"It's such a huge commitment. It's every day for a year, two years. There's sacrifices you have to make along the way. You have to be mentally and physically prepared."