Midland Dow grad Ellie Taylor heading home to play at Northwood
Ellie Taylor is going home — both literally, and figuratively.
While all too often an athlete is described as having ‘grown up’ somewhere, or doing something, Taylor actually DID more or less grow up in the Bennett Center on the campus of Northwood University, where the shooting guard will spend the next three seasons playing basketball close to her Midland home.
On Thursday, the Timberwolves program announced its signing of the Midland Dow graduate, who is transferring back to her hometown after one season at St. Louis University.
“It means a lot to me to be able to play in front of my family and community that has supported me throughout my basketball career,” Taylor said. “I’m excited to join a successful program with great people.”
And it’s home, in so many ways.
Her father, Bob, was the men’s basketball coach at Northwood from 1997 to 2010, compiling a 169-183 record in 13 seasons. Jeff Curtis, her new coach, was Bob Taylor’s lead assistant on the men’s coaching staff before taking over as the women’s basketball head coach in 2004-05.
Depending on if you take the back or front entrance to campus, it’s either a four-minute or five-minute drive from the gym at Midland’s Herbert Henry Dow High School — where Taylor broke nearly all the school records, and her sister Maizie is a rising senior — to Northwood’s Riepma Arena.
Either way, it’s less than two miles.
That means her family will get to see her play now, something they couldn’t do as often at St. Louis.
“We only got to see three of Ellie’s games last year, so we’re very excited to have the opportunity to watch her this upcoming season,” said her mom, Kristen Taylor, who played Division II basketball herself, at Oakland University.
There wasn’t a lot to see of Taylor playing last season, unfortunately, a part she admitted in an interview earlier in the summer was at least a minor factor in her transfer. She played just 21 total minutes, spread over eight games, and attempted one shot and two free throws.
Considering the situation the two-time all-stater is getting into, finding playing time shouldn’t be an issue. The Timberwolves — who have been over .500 each of the last five seasons, and made the league tournament eight of 10 years — are coming off a 17-11 season in which they finished third in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference South Division (12-8), and lost in the league tourney semifinals to eventual champ Ashland.
But the T-Wolves lose sisters Hannah and Lindsay Orwat (Grand Ledge), Ashley Campbell and Maddy Seeley (Alma) to graduation in the backcourt alone, along with forwards Karli Herrington (Hemlock/CMU) and Taylor Craymer (Grand Haven). Those six accounted for three quarters of Northwood’s total points scored last season.
“I’m so fired up for the new addition to our team,” Curtis tweeted out on Wednesday, with the hashtags #joinedthepack and #differencemaker tacked on.
Taylor could have transferred to another Division I school — although most of the DIs in Michigan had already allocated their scholarships — and had to sit out a year, but heading to D-II Northwood means she’ll be eligible immediately.