For the second straight year, Taylor Claggett has earned a UFV Cascades Female Athlete of the Year nod.

The senior forward from Mission, B.C. capped her five-year career with the Cascades women's basketball program in memorable fashion, leading her squad to a 16-4 regular-season record and a run to the Canada West quarter-finals.

Claggett led Canada West in rebounding (10.4 per game), finished second in the scoring race (19.6) and added 3.4 assists per game – she was the only player in Canada West to rank top-10 in all three categories. For her efforts, she was voted a first team conference all-star and a second team U SPORTS All-Canadian, and was named CW female athlete of the month for January.

Over the course of the campaign, Claggett became the Cascades' all-time leading scorer (1,474 points), and set CW records for career minutes per game (33.9), career free throws (521), and free throws in a season (145).

To commemorate Claggett's Female Athlete of the Year nod, we asked her head coach Al Tuchscherer to tell us the story of the first time he saw her play, and trace her development from that point into one of the Cascades' all-time greats.
AL TUCHSCHERER: "The first time I saw Taylor play was when she was in Grade 8. I'm pretty sure the game was at Mouat (Secondary), but I don't remember what tournament it was. She was playing for Sam Hawkes – Sam (née Hill) was an alum of ours, and I knew her team (the MEI Eagles) was pretty good.

"Taylor was a good player even back then – she's always been an advanced player at her age. She stands out because of her red hair, too, so everybody knows who she is. I remember seeing some of the same things that you see now (in her game). She had that kind of ruggedness where she could take a hit and still make plays. It was obviously at a Grade 8 level, but those elements were there – she could rebound, and she liked to run. Those elements have been there for a long time."

TAYLOR CLAGGETT: "At that point, water polo would have been my main sport – basketball was just something I did for fun. University coaches would have never been on my mind. I just went to the gym, played the game, left, went to water polo practice. Playing post-secondary wasn't on my mind at all.

"Running the floor and playing aggressive, that mindset came from all the other sports I played. Water polo helped me to play aggressive and tough – that's the toughest sport I've ever played. I also did track and field, and soccer, so I like to run. That's the reason I ended up picking basketball over water polo – I liked running more than swimming.

"It just kind of all fit together to be a pretty good basketball player."

AT: "We tried to get her involved with the Junior Cascades, but that didn't happen initially. She did provincial teams instead. We played her provincial teams a couple times with the Junior Cascades, and that was fun – she always stood out there. In the summer going into Grade 12, she joined the Junior Cascades. We had a great team that summer, and I got to coach her. She committed soon after that club season was over. And the rest is sort of history, I guess."

TC: "I decided to play Junior Cascades, because, at the end of my Grade 11 year, me and Amanda (Thompson) and Kate (Head) and a few others were such good friends, we all wanted to play together and stay at home. That was my first reason for joining Junior Cascades. When I was there, seeing how Al coaches and how much he cares about you as a person and not just a player, I knew I wanted to come to UFV. That summer solidified it."

AT: "I think there was a little bit of doubt whether her game would translate to the next level. It wasn't anything vicious – it was just a wondering in the basketball community in general, whether that's university or high school coaches. The type of game that she plays, she's an undersized (5'11") post. She would score a lot of points off of putbacks, she drew a ton of fouls. Could she rebound, draw fouls, and score at the next level as an undersized post like she did in high school?"

TC: "There was one moment where I was so upset, I almost decided to be done with basketball. After Grade 9, I played on the provincial team that summer. There was this system of (Basketball BC) regional training centres, and then there was the Canadian performance centre. The regional training centre was for the players who weren't good enough to make the Canadian performance centre. Pretty much everyone from my provincial team the summer before made the Canadian performance centre except me. I'd been a starter on the provincial team, so I asked them – what's the reason for me being the only one not making it? And they said that a player at my size playing in the post wasn't going to cut it down the line. They wanted me to work on being a guard instead at the regional training centre. That's why I got cut – because of my size. 

"I felt like I was getting overlooked, because I thought I was good enough. But after a week of moping around, I decided I was going to going to work even harder to prove them all wrong."

AT: "When you recruit somebody, you don't know 100 per cent yourself how it's going to go. You kind of have a vision for a player, but we were stuck in a funny situation with her – she was part of a super-hyped recruiting class that fell apart at the last minute. So the original plan for her and that entire group never came to fruition. But for her, it was one of things where one door closes and another opens. There were a couple of injuries on the team when she was a freshman, and she got to play a lot. 

"I don't remember an exact moment, but she was playing with Kayli (Sartori, former Cascades All-Canadian) and Kayli kind of, in her own way, accepted her. So that was a big moment for her. Kayli could see that she was someone she could play with and have success with. And Taylor had some really big moments for us early on in her career."

TC: "Kayli, for sure, beat me up every practice. Katie Brink beat me up. Shayna Litman beat me up. But it definitely made me tougher. 

"I kind of realized, in my fifth year, what Kayli and them went through when I was a rookie. Some of the things the vets know, you just don't know as a rookie. You're just more experienced (as a veteran) – you know how hard you need to work. As rookies coming out of high school, you don't realize how hard it is (to play at the university level) and how much harder you can work. When you look at it, university to high school – high school was easy. But as a fifth-year player, you know that all those little things, they do matter. You realize those things as you get older.

"Looking back, the first couple years didn't go how I thought they would. But now, being at the end, you get to look at all of it. It all happens for a reason, and I don't think it could have ended any better . . . it was a great year wins and losses-wise, but also the friendships. That's one thing that's better than any individual award – the friendships that come out of it."

AT: "Taylor's individual career has gone probably even better than we expected it to. I said to her at the end of this season – a lot of players peak in their fourth year, and I didn't know how much more she could give us as a senior. But she took another step forward and continued to grow as a player and a person, and that's really rewarding to see."
 

View this post on Instagram

???? | Taylor Claggett is our Female Athlete of the Year! Taylor capped her career with an incredible senior season, leading the Cascades women's basketball team to a 16-4 record and earning Canada West first team all-star and U SPORTS second team All-Canadian honours in the process! Check the link in our bio for a feature on Taylor — head coach Al Tuchscherer reflects on the first time he saw her play, and her development into one of @ufvwbb's all-time greats. #CascadesAwards #WeClimbWeConquer

A post shared by UFV Cascades Athletics (@ufvcascades) on Apr 14, 2020 at 8:50am PDT