Temple’s Shantay Taylor returns to the court after two lost seasons

Shantay Taylor joined her brothers outside their Columbia, S.C. home as soon as she could dribble a basketball.

While playing two-on-two matchups with family and teaming up with neighborhood kids for larger street games, Taylor developed a tough mentality.

“I always like to kind of mimic what my brothers do,” Taylor said. “That’s kind of how I got started with basketball.”

Taylor maintained the tough frame of mind she learned from her brothers and applied it to a basketball career filled with injuries and setbacks. Now, after sitting out for two seasons, she returns to the court for her sixth year on the Temple women’s basketball team.

Having basketball taken away from her made Taylor realize she’s the only one who can work to get it back — which ultimately shaped her love of the game.

When Taylor was a sophomore at Spring Valley High School, she tore her ACL and MCL in practice. But after the injury, Taylor wanted to advance her game to the collegiate level.

“By recovering from that, that’s when I realized how much I loved it,” Taylor said. “I want to take it even further. When I first started it was just for fun, so after that, it really opened my eyes.”

Taylor wasn’t doing the extra work to improve her game before her injury, like going to the gym and lifting weights. After recovering from her knee injuries, Taylor was dedicated to basketball and would work on her own time with her brothers and father to develop at the center position.

But that didn’t stop further injuries from striking. In the 2019 season, Taylor played in five games for the Owls before she suffered a knee injury during a workout. Owls players were given the choice of running on the track or kickboxing. Taylor went with kickboxing, but her knee shifted during a drill.

After recovering from her injury, Taylor was looking for a comeback as a fifth-year senior in 2020. However, during practice, she landed awkwardly on her leg and tore her Achilles tendon.

Taylor found it hard to be optimistic that day. But she was prepared to embrace the healing process as she sat out the 2020-21 season.

“Keep the future in mind, but do not like to dwell on it,” Taylor said. “That’s where I went wrong with the injury like before my Achilles, I always think about next year, next year, but I need to try to think more of the present.”

After dealing with two injuries, Taylor started listening to her body and being vocal with trainer Christina Kennedy about when she experienced pain.

Coach Tonya Cardoza has noticed Taylor’s rehab efforts and focus on improving her diet.

“From day one, she’s been super mature,” Cardoza said. “She wants to be out on the floor, so she’s smarter and making sure she speaks up when something is bothering her, where a couple of years ago she might have just ignored it.”

Although Taylor hasn’t been on the court, she has found a new role on the sidelines and in the locker room as a vocal leader. Taylor tries to stay in her teammates’ ears, offering ways to fix their game and picking out the flaws of their opponents.

Cardoza often asked Taylor what she saw at halftime. She trusts Taylor’s insight and IQ.

“She’s like a mother figure to them,” Cardoza said. “She’s able to give wisdom to what success is supposed to look like because she’s been a part of that.”

When Taylor was a freshman, Temple went 24-8 overall, finished second in the American Athletic Conference, and received a bid to the NCAA Tournament, where the Owls lost to Oregon, 71-70. Taylor contributed by hitting 2 of 4 shots in the paint during her 12 minutes played.

Now, Taylor is the only player on the team who has played in a postseason.

“She’s been able to watch the process,” Cardoza said. “As a freshman, she saw what the people around her brought to practice every day and how they competed and how they went about their business, so she’s able to voice that to the newer guys.”

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Cardoza knew with Taylor’s size she would make a physical post player and could finish around the room, which is exactly what Cardoza has planned for her this season as long as she remains healthy.

“All of us are going to be excited about that when she’s able to step on the floor,” Cardoza said. “But the goal is for her to go out and have a successful year, make sure that she goes out the same way that she came in.”

Taylor, who is finishing her graduate degree in management, received an undergraduate degree in recreation therapy and a minor in public health.

Although she hopes she can stay healthy to have a successful season and potentially play overseas after college ball, Taylor plans to get involved in the health field in recreational therapy after her season as an Owl is over.