People say that you always have to watch out for the quiet ones. With junior transfer Allie Taylor, that saying has been proven. Taylor started playing basketball when she was in the fourth grade and one of her friends asked her to join her team on the practice squad.
“I couldn’t really play with them and I worked my way up,” Taylor said.
She has made herself a better player over the years by playing at camps in games against guys, who she said are taller and more rough than girls.
“They are taller, they are stronger, so I have to be almost as tall as them, try to play as tough as them and when I play with girls,” Taylor said, “it is just a little bit easier because I’m so used to playing against something that’s harder.”
Taylor joined the Plattsburgh State women’s basketball team this semester as a transfer from Onondaga Community College, where she said the games were different in some ways.
“The only thing different between Plattsburgh and Onondaga is we used to kill teams by 50 points, and no one would go to our games,” Taylor said.
Taylor decided to come to PSUC as a last ditch effort. She didn’t know anything about the school until she reached out to head coach Cheryl Cole. She then found out the school had her major, so she decided to come, and she said she heard about the basketball team which also attracted her to the school.
One of her teammates, junior forward Devona Paul, said that Taylor has been a tremendous addition to the team this year.
“Allie is a great teammate,” Paul said. “She’s always there, she doesn’t get flustered easily, and she is the freaking most athletic person I have ever seen in my entire life, and it is awesome playing with her because she really loves basketball.”
Cole shares the same opinion as Paul in saying that Taylor is the most athletic woman on the floor, who can do everything to help the team win.
Cole said, as an example of her athleticism, during a game against New Paltz the ball got stuck between the rim and the backboard, but the officials weren’t able to get it down.
“Allie is about at the three point line and she takes off running and pops it out of there,” Cole said. “Everybody in the gym was like, ‘Wow, that was pretty impressive,’ because she is only about 5’10”, 5’11”, so that gives you an idea of her athleticism.”
Cole said that as a person, Allie is laid back, completely different than she is on the floor.
“She is a different person on the floor than I think hanging out. She is a real competitor on the floor, but as a person, she seems to have gotten along well with our team, fit well into our chemistry and she is feeling her way,” Cole said. “But she is definitely a laid-back kid who looks to see what’s coming.”
Paul and Taylor have a good friendship. Paul said something you might not know about Taylor is she is one of the best cooks on campus.
“Every year over winter break, our coach has each level have a competition for each on to make dinner,” Paul said. “Allie is on the phone in the middle of the night calling her grandma for this secret recipe and she is stuffing garlic cloves into this huge slab of meat, she’s got crockpots everywhere and we have the dinner like three days later and it was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted and she does it only using three words. She’s like a fish in water when she is in the kitchen and it has its benefits, I can tell you that.”
Paul looks forward to having another year with Taylor on the team and in her life. She said she is glad that Taylor came to PSUC.
“She is definitely a huge addition to our team and not in a mushy way, but definitely our lives, and I am glad to have met her and also have another year because she is my year,” Paul said. “I look forward to becoming closer to her and also seeing us grow as teammates as well as friends.”
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Email Nick Topping at sports@cardinalpointsonline.com.
