http://miac-online.org/news/2012/2/17/WBB_0217121333.aspx

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. -- There are as many styles of leadership as there are leaders. Some are vocal, using inspiring words and exhortations to inspire their team. Others are more subdued, and lead by their deeds and actions. Taylor Sheley has a unique brand of management, reaching out and engaging her teammates, involving them in the game and setting an example that includes enjoying what they are doing.

This inspirational leadership is one of the key reasons why the Bethel University women’s basketball team has been challenging for one of the top spots in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) much of this season and is an important consideration of why Sheley is a strong candidate for the league’s Player-of-the-Year award.

“Taylor is among the handful of top players I have ever had the honor of coaching over the past 22 years,” said Royals' coach Jon Herbrechtsmeyer. “A lot of our success is because of Taylor’s leadership and how she has grown over the last four years. She sets a great tone for us. She has been leading our team in a variety of ways, on and off the floor, really, since she was a freshman. She didn’t realize she was, but she was.”

Her passion for the game has helped her become one of the all-time greats to wear the blue and white, as she will close her career in the top five among Bethel’s all-time leaders in scoring and assists, as well as one of just five Royals to receive All-MIAC honors three or more times.

“She is one of the rare players who know when to take over a game or the battle will be lost and when to step back and allow her teammates stay engaged and involved,” Herbrechtsmeyer added. “A great example of that was our St. Thomas game this year when they were really trying to deny her the ball and not allow her opportunities. She sat back and waited for her teammates to make plays. When they didn't, she stepped up in the second half and scored 28 in the second half to bring us from 21 down to down one and we had a shot at the end to win the game.”

Sheley has been a vital part of the rejuvenation of the BU program from her first days on campus. Herbrechtsmeyer expected great things from her from the start and by midseason of her freshman year as she had taken over a spot in the team’s starting lineup.

Emerging as the teams’ third-leading scorer, Sheley averaged 12.2 points per game and leading the team in assists. Sheley helped Bethel to a 13-9 MIAC record and a fifth-place finish. They upset Gustavus, 75-59, in the MIAC Playoffs before losing to Saint Benedict to close the year 15-12. Sheley ranked among the league leaders in scoring, assists, steals and field goal accuracy and was named to the All-MIAC First-Year Team.

The Royals dipped to 10-12 in conference play in Sheley’s sophomore campaign, missing the MIAC Playoffs in an 11-14 season. Sheley led the team in scoring and assists, and garnered All-MIAC First Team honors.

Last year, Sheley led Bethel back to the MIAC Playoffs with a 13-9 conference record. She ranked among the league leaders in scoring, assists, blocked shots, steals, free throw and field goal accuracy and three-pointers. Sheley was a repeat honoree on the All-MIAC First Team, although Bethel lost in the opening round of the league playoffs.

This year, Sheley leads the MIAC in scoring (19.9 ppg) and ranks in the top 10 in virtually every meaningful offensive category. She is a major reason behind BU’s success thus far. Entering the final game of the season, the Royals are in sixth place but are assured a berth in the league playoffs, which begin on Tuesday.

For her career, Sheley has tallied 1,397 points with at least two games remaining. She is currently sixth on the all-time scoring charts at Bethel, needing 25 points to move into fifth place. She also has 243 assists, the seventh most in school history. Her 475 points this season leaves her just 37 away from the all-time best single season performance by a Royal.

A personal highlight for Sheley came on Dec. 3, as she scored the 1,000th point of her career in a 60-52 win over Macalester.

Sheley is a nursing major, sporting a 3.70 GPA and will graduate in May. “I will take a one week prep class before taking the Boards,” she said. “Once I pass that, I am an R.N.”

She is in the process of putting her resume together. “It's hard to do much in the way of job searching until you’ve passed the Boards,” said Sheley. “I’d like to stay in the Twin Cities, ideally, and find a position in either Pediatrics or E.R. I will be interning at Abbott-Northwestern Hospital this spring in a program through Bethel. I will be doing the full clinical rotation there.”

The same compassion that has inspired Sheley’s career choice motivated her participate in a mission trip to Juarez, Mexico last year. ACE Hoops, a faith-based program that uses basketball as a platform to reach out to urban youth both locally and abroad, coordinated the trip. “It is led by Tim Anderson, who was an assistant basketball coach at Bethel my freshman year,” noted Sheley. “The program supports a church and orphanage down there. There were four of us from the basketball team and about a dozen others who went down to Juarez for 10 days in the summer. We helped out on various building projects but mostly we shared the word of God through basketball.”

Sheley was raised in Backus, Minn., a town of under 300 located 40 miles north of Brainerd. “I have an older brother, Tucker, who graduated from St. Olaf last spring. He played basketball there,” she said. “My younger sister, Tatum, is a junior in high school and also plays basketball.”

She attended Pine River-Backus High, and was a two-time All-Conference honoree for her play on the volleyball court and garnered All-Area honors from the Brainerd Dispatch in her junior and senior years. The Dispatch further honored Sheley as its Area Player-of-the-Year following her senior season.

Basketball has always been Sheley’s sport of passion. She was a four-year starter for the Tigers, earning All-Conference honors each season. Sheley was also named to the Dispatch All-Area team all four years and was the paper’s Player-of-the-Year as a senior. PRBHS was knocked out of the playoffs in the middle rounds of Section play in each of Sheley’s seasons. She reached the 1,000-point plateau and has since been joined in that exclusive club by her sister. “Tatum has already passed me and she’s only a junior,” Sheley stated.

She also played AAU ball in the summer in a league in Brainerd and also filled on a team in nearby Bemidji.

Surprisingly, few colleges recruited Sheley. As she began looking at colleges, her mother suggested she look at Bethel. “Mom told me about Bethel and I decided to look it up,” she recalled. “I liked what I read and it sounded like a good school. I filled out a recruiting form for the basketball program online. [Herbrechtsmeyer] contacted me, and kept in touch. He came and watched me play.”

Herbrechtsmeyer convinced Sheley that Bethel was the right place for her and that she could be a vital part of the BU program. “I didn’t look much at other schools,” she admitted. “Bethel was the only place I looked at seriously.”

The four years Sheley has spent at Bethel have been beneficial to both her and the BU program. The Royals have grown into one of the better teams in the MIAC with Sheley on board and she has made Herbrechtsmeyer’s recruiting job easier. “She is that rare player who continually is getting better,” the coach stated. “However, it is the fact that she is an even better person than a player that makes her truly special. She is always making sure that her teammates are doing ok and having fun.”

For Sheley, being at Bethel, “allowed me to push myself, academically,” she said.”I’ve seen what I can do outside of sports. Being here has given me the freedom to grow as a player and as a person.

“I chose Bethel for the school it is and I got lucky that basketball came as part of the deal.”

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