Weber State College Comment, April 1989, Page 8 ‘Lady Cats head coach, Carla Taylor, applauds her team's play. by Nan Holyoak Assistant Sports Information Director end a letter addressed simply “C.T,” North Powder, Ore. and it will get to Weber State’s new head women’s basketball coach. Of course, it helps that Carla Taylor’s dad is the postmaster general, and that North Powder, Ore. only has a population of 430. “A real small town,” observed Taylor. Taylor picked up the C.T. nickname as a freshman on the women’s basketball team at Weber State. The appellation stuck, spreading even to her hometown in northeastern Oregon. Taylor has come a ways from her small town beginning to become head coach of the Lady Wildcats. “I’ve always loved basketball. Before I was even in school I dribbled a basketball everywhere I went—down to the store or down to see Dad at the post office,” Taylor said. She played a lot of round ball with her older brother and his neighborhood friends on a hoop her dad put on the side of the barn. It didn’t seem to bother her that she was the only girl. Taylor is still the only female athlete out of Powder Valley High School to receive a Division I scholarship. While at Powder Valley she was All-League and a member of the District All-Star team for four years. She was initially recruited by Weber State’s former women’s track coach Bob Hill as a javelin thrower and just by luck caught the attention of former women’s basketball coach Jane Miner. She had been offered a scholarship by Idaho State, Washington State and Utah State for basketball and was on the verge of signing with Utah State when Coach Miner called her after viewing a homemade film highlighting Taylor’s basketball abilities. “I felt coach Miner cared about me as a person and a player,” Taylor said. “The things she said were things that a small-town girl wanted to hear. She told me she cared about her players, and about the type of people they would become.” Taylor signed with the college as a point guard, and during her years at Weber State (1980-84) was a four-year starter and a two-time captain, averaging 10.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. She is currently seventh among the All-Time Scoring leaders with 1,122 career points and tenth among the All-Time Rebound Leaders with 416 career boards. She spent five years, instead of four, at Weber State due to a knee injury that kept her sidelined during the 1980-81 season. She had reconstructive surgery on her left knee and sat out her sophomore year. The next season she started every game and helped lead the Lady Wildcats to their first-ever conference championship. In 1982-83 Taylor helped the team to their best-ever record of 22-10, which earned them a berth in the Women’s NIT. In the last game of that NIT tournament she re-injured her left knee and required surgery. She was back the next season, however, averaging 14.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. “T really have fond memories of my years at Weber State,” Taylor said. “Especially the friendships I developed with my teammates and other students, as well as with some of my professors.” “It’s really exciting to be back at Weber State so I can renew some of those friendships,” she added. “It’s kind of like I have to do well in my job to show them they did a good job of training and educating me.” After graduation from Weber State in 1984 Taylor spent a year as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Utah under coach Elaine Elliott. At the end of that year, she took a job at Morgan High School as head girls volleyball and basketball coach and head coach for boys and girls track. During the 1986 season Taylor led the Trojan girls’ basketball team to a fourth place finish in the State 2A Tournament. In her last season at Morgan her girls basketball team captured the top spot in Region 9—the first such victory in that school’s history. “IT always wanted my first coaching job to be at a small high school so I could go in and develop it the way I wanted,” Taylor said. “When I took the Morgan job, I rented a small house and just loved it. It was so similar to where I grew up in North The women's basketball team had their best season since 1984 under new head coach Carla Taylor. Powder.” At the end of her second year at Morgan High, Taylor was offered a full-time assistant coach position back at the University of Utah. “I accepted the Utah position even though I didn’t feel I was quite ready for the college level,” she said. “But having already worked under Elaine (Elliott) and knowing the opportunity might not come along again for a while I took it.” “It was good to go to a different program and philosophy after spending five years at Weber State. As an assistant at Utah I was given a lot more responsibility and was involved in all aspects of college coaching. I learned a lot more technical things about the game while working for Elaine,” she said. Taylor had only been at the University of Utah for one season when the Weber State job opened. She was not sure she was ready to make the move to head coach, but she applied for the position, she said. “It had always been my dream to ultimately come back to my alma mater and coach. When the job opened up last spring it was like a dream come true for me.” “My career has happened so fast,” Taylor added. “I haven’t had time to catch up with it. There are still so many things Ineed to learn. Iam really happy at Weber State and would like to coach here for a while. I am a people person and I enjoy my team both as individuals and as players and want to help them develop.” Taylor so enjoyed her stay in Morgan that when she got the WSC job she immediately found a home in Morgan County, she said. ‘Looking out my backyard across to the mountains reminds me of home,” she said. “The hardest thing for me in my job is to be 462 miles away from my family. I go home every chance I get— Christmas, school breaks and in the summer. They are my best vacations.” During these so-called “best vacations” Taylor does a girl’s basketball camp every summer at her old high school in North Powder. ““T enjoy doing these camps for the local kids. [t gives me a chance to do something special for them because I never had the opportunity to attend camps when I was growing up.” Now that Taylor is back at Weber State the Lady Wildcats had their first winning season since her last year as a player in 1984. The Lady Cats ended regular season with a 17-8 overall record, 10-6 in Big Sky Conference action and earned a fourth place seed at the Big Sky Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament. All in all, not a bad season for a first year head coach. Welcome back, C.T. ne Weber State's two first-year basketball coaches score winning seasons 1