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If you look down the bench of the Oregon women’s basketball
team, you would see, among the team, Taelor Karr. And while Oregon is not the
first college Taelor has been at, she never gave up on the sport of basketball.
At an early age, Taelor always wanted to spend time with her older brother, so anything he was doing, she tried to do. If he was playing sports, so was she. He ended up introducing her to basketball and she says, “It was just something I picked up pretty easily.” Taelor grew up in a small town in Kansas, so when it came time to choose a college to attend, she chose to stay close to home and attend Kansas State University. At the time, she believed that Kansas State was a good fit for her and she “really liked the fact that her family could watch her play.”
But
after Taelor’s sophomore year, Kansas State threw her a curveball. They told
her that they would not be renewing her scholarship, and this forced her to
find somewhere else to go. Taelor searched the country for a school that would
suit her where she could get a good education and continue playing basketball.
In the end, Taelor ended up choosing to attend
Gonzaga University. When I asked her why she chose Gonzaga she responded by
telling me, “I had many schools contacting me during the process of trying to
find where to go, but from the first time I talked to Coach Graves on the
phone, I knew I wanted to go to GU.
Then, after I went on my visit and met the team, the rest of the
coaching staff, and saw the campus, it was a done deal.”
Taelor went to Gonzaga expecting to
have to sit out a season due to NCAA rules, but to her, and many other peoples
surprise, she was granted immediate eligibility and stepped in to fill a big
role at Gonzaga. Taelor first game for Gonzaga was a big one, as she entered
the school just after star point guard Courtney Vandersloot left the school.
Anyone who came in after Courtney knew they had big shoes to fill.
I asked Taelor how she felt about
being compared to Courtney and she told me, “It was pretty funny that people
thought I looked like CV and were asking for my autograph in stores. I knew I
would have big shoes to fill since I was coming in the year after she left, but
I was confident in myself and my abilities.
She’s a great player so I didn’t think of it as having to be just like
Courtney. I just went out and tried to do what I knew I was good at.”
This confidence led Taelor to
become one of the best three point shooters in Gonzaga history, and she became
a leader on and off the court.
Following a heartbreaking loss in
the NCAA tournament, Taelor followed her dream of playing professional
basketball and was signed to a team in France. “Playing professional basketball
was a dream come true! It was something that I had always dreamed about and
wanted to do since I was a little girl, so for me to actually have the
opportunity to fulfill that dream was very special to me. It’s such a great
experience to be able to play a sport in another country and learn about their
culture. It’s cool to be able to broaden your horizons and see how other
countries live and function.”
After one season in France Taelor
came back to the United States and moved to Oregon. With this move, Taelor
followed Coach Kelly Graves to his new coaching position at the University of
Oregon. She is currently the Graduate assistant coach at Oregon and is pursuing
a Division one coaching career.
Taelor does not believe that she
would have the opportunities she has today if she did not transfer to Gonzaga.
“Gonzaga helped open up a lot of doors with meeting new people and making new
connections that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
It helped me get my passion back for the game and want to pursue playing
overseas. It brought me and Coach Graves into contact and now I have formed a
great relationship with him and am working for him at Oregon.”
Taelor has dedicated her whole life
to basketball and cannot wait to see what the future holds for her. She has had
“the time of her life.”
