Four years ago, Sarah Taylor walked onto the Rollins College campus in Winter Park with so many basketball games left to play.
She was coming off a good high-school career at Lake Mary, which included helping the Rams win a state championship. She had not scored the first of her 1,142 points yet for the Tars, and the future was measured in years, not days.
“[College] is like a vapor,” said Taylor, a senior guard-forward. “It’s there, and then it’s gone. I can remember my first day here moving in, and to think that I’m about to graduate in May is unbelievable.”
Taylor will begin play in her final Sunshine State Conference tournament when second-seeded Rollins (21-5) faces No. 7 Barry at 5 p.m. Thursday at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee. Regardless of how they fare in the SSC event, the Tars and Taylor likely will advance to a region tournament for the fourth year in a row.
“When she came in as a freshman, she didn’t act like a freshman,” Rollins coach Glenn Wilkes Jr. said. “She’s always been very mature, always been a very good role model both on the court and off the court. She’s a winner.”
Said Taylor’s father, Vince: “I have seen her develop a much better sense of confidence about herself. Her conversations are much deeper, much richer. She came as a young girl. She’s leaving as a young woman.”
Taylor made the All-SSC second team, released Wednesday, after averaging 10.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Along with leading scorer Emmalee Schill, Ashley Losch and Lyman graduate Kathleen Browne, Taylor is part of the Tars’ four-senior core.
Lake Mary coach Rick Weyers has fond memories of Taylor, especially of a region final in 2009 when she was an underclassman and hit a late 3-pointer to eliminate Gainesville Buchholz.
“The whole place went crazy,” Weyers said. “[Fans] stormed the court, and this is little sophomore Sarah. She sent us to state and saved our whole season.”
The Rams lost in the state final that season, the first of three in a row they reached with Taylor. Lake Mary won the Class 6A championship in 2010.
Taylor has two brothers and one sister. One brother, Woody, played basketball at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg and graduated in 2013.
“Sometimes she cares too much, but that’s something we preach in our family,” he said. “You’ve got to care. Even if people don’t care about you, you’ve got to care about them.
“That’s the big thing about Sarah. She cares.”
That won’t stop, even after Taylor wears a Rollins uniform for the final time. Whenever that may be.
“They say, ‘You go to college and meet your friends for a lifetime,’ and it’s very true,” said Taylor, who will graduate with a communications degree. “These are people that are going to be coming when I get married.”
