UNION CITY – Taylee Woodbury signed with the Georgetown College Lady Tigers basketball program to continue her education while taking her basketball skills to the next level.
“Real excited about Taylee,” said Georgetown College head women’s basketball coach Jeff Nickel. “She had a spectacular high school career. We followed her for a little over a year, and she has been real steady, rebounded from a tough injury, had a great senior year, and didn’t slow her down at all. A testament to how hard she works, the type of kid she is, the type of character she has.”
Woodbury is the daughter of Kristen and Derrick Woodbury and plans to study Marketing with a minor in Business.
“I am going to miss my family and friends, but I’m excited to start this new journey,” Woodbury said, “and keep playing basketball, and meet my new teammates and new coach … just excited.”
Woodbury, a four-year varsity starter for Mississinawa Valley girls basketball program, is the Lady Hawks’ all-time leading scorer and assist leader. She was WOAC Athlete of the year her junior and senior years, First Team her sophomore year, and Second Team her freshman season.
“Taylee is a better person than she is a player,” said Mississinawa Valley coach Michael Paige. “Taylee is going to be missed. I got to watch her grow throughout her career in high school. She is amazing as a player. She’s a leader; she can do it all on the floor. Georgetown got a steal to have a point guard of her caliber with all that she can do, and for her to be such a good teammate, I think she will have a wonderful career.”
Woodbury had plans to visit Kentucky Wesleyan until Georgetown’s Coach Nickel texted her.
“I didn’t think I was going to visit Georgetown, and then the coach texted me,” Woodbury stated. “I was going to visit Kentucky Wesleyan, and they are both in Kentucky, so I was like, we’ll just do a two-day trip and one night, so we went down and I absolutely loved it. I told Mom we don’t have to visit Kentucky Wesleyan. I said we can just go home because I wanted to go there right away.”
Coach Paige and Coach Nickel believe Woodbury will do well playing at the next level for the NCAA DII Georgetown College Lady Tigers.
“She is a point combo, she can handle the ball, she has great range, she can shoot the three, she can go both directions and handle it, so using her as a playmaker, a kid that can stretch the defense and shoot the three,” said Coach Nickel. “That’s probably the best way to play her; that’s her strength.”
“I think she will be a great point guard, being a freshman coming in,” Paige said. “I know they have a lot of freshmen, they lost a lot of seniors last year, but coming in as a freshman, I don’t think she will be a scorer like she was for us, but her ability to facilitate, she will probably be one of the top assist getters in the conference.”
Woodbury thanked the many who helped her reach her dream of playing college basketball.
“I want to thank my dad (Gary) and my grandpa (Gary Woodbury), and my family, my grandma (Maureen Woodbury), my mom (Kirsten), and my coaches,” Woodbury said. “They have always been there for me and helped me through this whole thing. I want to thank Tony Cox, my physical therapist after my knee surgery, and my friends and all my teammates.”
