Taylor WILLIAMS

Taylor WILLIAMS

Howland Basketball

It won’t be all that hard for Taylor Williams to adjust from high school to college. First off, she won’t have to trade in her Howland Tiger orange and black for a different color and mascot. Williams will remain playing basketball, while staying a Tiger — at Princeton.

“They’ve had a really successful team these past few years, so it’s really going to be really competitive fighting for a spot,” Williams said. “It’s great playing for a team that not only has a reputation for being a prestigious school, but also a good basketball team.”

Reigning as The Vindicator’s girls basketball player of the year, Williams always strives to get better. Coming into her senior season, the 6-foot-2 center wanted to expand her role on the team and developed her front court and ball handling skills.

“I have the never-satisfied mentality that if I have a weakness, that’s what I’m going to work on in the offseason,” she said.

Williams was named second team All-Ohio in Division I after averaging 18.1 points per game and leading Howland to a 22-2 record. She surpassed the 1,000 point mark in an early season game against Canfield and she holds school records in scoring, rebounds and blocks.

“With any sport, especially basketball, you learn rules and develop a mentality that you take with you throughout life.,” she said. “Especially with a lot of hard work and the passion people put into it, you kind of just learn to work hard towards something you want. Coach [John] Diehl has always had hard practices and kind of leads by example. If you want something you have to chase after it. We do a good job of working hard for what we want and we keep working towards it.”

Williams is still undecided on what she will study at Princeton, but may have it narrowed down to architecture or global studies.