School: Cheltenham
Basketball
Favorite athlete: Jimmy Rollins
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Winning against Lower Merion to advance to the district finals at Villanova last year (2009).”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “During one of our games against Norristown last season, I got very excited after getting fouled and scoring a basket. I jumped up in the air and did a lot of over-excited fist pumps. It was very out of character for me, and my teammates have not let me forget it.”
Music on iPod: Alicia Keys, Justin Beiber, Fred Hammond
Future plans: Study biology at Stanford University and become a pediatrician
Words to live by: “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
One goal before turning 30: “Travel to another country to learn about other cultures and lifestyles.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I enjoy watching romantic comedies, but hate scary movies.”
Liz Taliaferro is made of all the right stuff.
Not only does the Cheltenham senior excel on and off the basketball court, she also is a quality person with a tireless work ethic.
So when the Lady Panthers’ speedy guard mentioned the idea of trying out as a walk-on at highly regarded Stanford University, her coach was all for the idea.
“I have communicated with the coach, and I told her what a top-notch, quality, intelligent, great kid she is,” coach Bob Schaefer said. “The coach is looking forward to meeting her.
“I told her Liz could help that team just by being a member of it. Whether she ever played or not, she would make their better players work even harder because of how hard she works.”
Taliaferro is generously listed as 5-5, but you can throw out the yardstick where Taliaferro is concerned.
“In our game against Norristown, Liz went up against a 6-2 girl in the middle of the lane, jumped up and got the rebound and put it back in,” Schaefer said. “She was above the other kid.
“She’s also fast. She was always going to run track, and she would be a star on the track team as well.”
Taliaferro – who could start on most teams - is the first player off the bench for a Lady Panther squad that compiled a 21-1 record in the regular season and is the top-seeded team in the upcoming District One AAAA Tournament.
“I’ve always called her my sixth starter,” Schaefer said. “In fact, when she goes in, it gives the team a boost. It makes us even better.”
It has the exact opposite effect on opposing teams.
“She loves to go in and just drive the other team’s point guard crazy, and she does,” Schaefer said.
Defense, it turns out, is a point of pride for Taliaferro.
“I heard an interview with Scottie Reynolds, who plays for Villanova, and he was talking about how he plays defense,” she said. “His goal is to wreak havoc on the other team.
“I kind of want to do that in any little way I can – If I can wreak havoc on the other team’s offense and that leads to somebody else getting a steal or us scoring points, it all works out for the best.”
In truth, it’s hard to believe that Taliaferro – an honors student - has time to play basketball, much less for a program that requires a serious commitment from its players.
“It is a big commitment, but I like that part of it,” she said. “I like the challenge of trying to get better. There’s such a feeling of accomplishment when you and your team perform well together.
“It’s sort of this feeling of unity, and the way you can all share the success – I really like that feeling. And, of course, I like to win, so it keeps you pushing forward more and more.”
Taliaferro approaches her work in the classroom in much the same way. A member of the National Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society, Taliaferro carries a heavy workload with several AP classes.
“I don’t get a lot of sleep, but that’s okay,” she said. “It all works out.”
Science is her passion, and after finishing second in the local science fair as a freshman, she finished first in the Pa. Junior Academy of Science Fair at both the local and state levels as a sophomore.
Taliaferro is especially fascinated with biology.
“I enjoy studying how living things function and all that good stuff that a lot of people take for granted,” she said. “I’m just really curious to learn how that actually works.”
She will be majoring in biology when she enrolls at Stanford this fall with a goal of one day becoming a pediatrician.
“Last year I became interested in the brain, so I may pursue pediatric neuroscience,” she said.
The opportunity to attend Stanford – one of the nation’s top academic schools – is a dream come true for Taliaferro, who began pursuing the idea from the moment she heard about the women’s basketball team the summer before eighth grade.
“I began learning more and more about it, and I realized they didn’t just have a good basketball team, but they were also an awesome academic school,” she said. “I really set my goal to go there, and God answered my prayers.”
Taliaferro applied early admission.
“I told my parents the only Christmas present I wanted was to get accepted into Stanford,” she said. “I was expecting to hear on a Tuesday, but the letter came on a Monday.
“I came home from school, and it was weird because my brother followed me into my room. I looked on my bed, and on my bed was an envelope from Stanford, and on the outside it said, ‘Congratulations.’
“I went nuts. I was jumping up and down. It was incredible. Sometimes I think about it, and I still can't believe it's actually come true."
***
Taliaferro has been playing basketball since she was in fourth grade. It wasn’t long before she was playing year-round with many of the same players who are her teammates on this year’s Lady Panther squad.
By the time she was in 10th grade, Taliaferro was playing varsity. Although she is capable of putting points on the board, the senior guard is best known for her ability to ignite the Lady Panthers’ defense.
“We’re built on – we’ll stop you on defense, and by the time you realize what we did, we’re down the court setting up to shoot or scoring a layup,” she said.
While there were some who suggested this would be a down year for a Cheltenham squad that lost its inside players to graduation, the players had other ideas.
“We work really hard, especially this year because we’re not tall at all,” Taliaferro said. “Our goal is to be faster and beat the other teams up and down the court.
“At practice, we’re not doing any drills that allow you to stand. Everything incorporates some kind of conditioning or cardiovascular, so you always push yourself throughout practice.”
Although Taliaferro is not a captain, she shares leadership responsibilities with captains Shayla Felder and Monet Constant.
“She leads by example, no question about it,” Schaefer said. “Whenever I need something done for the team, I call upon Liz, along with Shayla and Monet.
“She truly is the one who sees the value in being on a team and working hard, and at no point has it ever been an issue with her or her parents that she’s not a starter.”
That might be because it’s not an issue. Taliaferro enjoys her role off the bench.
“I get nervous before pretty much every game,” she said. “I usually just say a little prayer, and that helps me.
“I think that’s one of the reasons I like coming off the bench because I like being able to sit down and take a few deep breaths and say, ‘Okay, they got this started. Now let’s see- what can I go in and do?’ It settles my nerves a little bit.”
To say Taliaferro is coachable might actually be an understatement, according to her coach.
“I can ask her to take care of something, and I’m positive it’s going to be taken care of,” Schaefer said. “Liz – almost to a fault sometimes – does exactly what I tell her to do when she goes into a game.
“She hears me telling the other kids what to do, and she goes right out and does exactly what I’m telling them to do.”
Taliaferro has a great respect for the bonds she shares with her teammates.
“There’s such a sense of unity because a lot of the players have been together so long,” she said. “Not only are we a team in the sense that we have each other’s backs on the basketball court, but off the court as well, and I think that adds to our success on the court.
“It makes it an even better experience being a Lady Panther.”
According to Schaefer, Taliaferro just might represent everything that is good about sports.
“Liz Taliaferro is just so aware and down to earth,” he said. “I’ve spoken to her parents and said, ‘You must be so proud of this kid.’ Of course, her parents said it was very easy raising Liz. It wasn’t by accident that she’s like she is.
“She’s on top of everything. She’s just a great, great kid.”
