Taylor Forsythe has been recruited from the Leo Hayes High School Lions to the St. Thomas University Tommies women’s basketball team starting this fall.
Forsythe is a senior point guard and said she will have a brand new set of nerves to conquer next season when she comes across the river to play for STU.
Taylor Forsythe has been playing basketball for as long as she can remember, at age six or seven.
“I can’t really remember the first time I stepped on a basketball court,” she said. “But I remember being nervous because there were so many people looking at me.”
Forsythe said her basketball career started with her dad’s love for the sport.
“He played basketball growing up so he introduced it to my brother and I,” she said. “My brother is five years older than I am so I’d always go watch him play. I loved it.”
Forsythe remembers always having a basketball net outside of her house all year round. She would go watch her dad, Donnie, play pick-up, standing on the sidelines shooting and dribbling.
She cites her father as her biggest inspiration when it comes to basketball, saying she wouldn’t be the player she is today without him.
“He would tell me stories about him playing and how much basketball meant to him,” Forsythe said. “I knew when I was younger that I loved the game. He helped me fall in love with it.”
Even with her family’s support, Forsythe said her basketball career has always been smooth-sailing. There were times when she didn’t make teams she thought she would.
“I was heartbroken,” she said. “When I was younger and my parents told me that I never made the team, I would be so upset. I would sit in my room for a couple hours.”
Forsythe said now that she’s older, she has forced herself to learn from those hurdles. Since then, Forsythe has played for Basketball New Brunswick’s U15, U16 and U17 teams.
“They make me stronger. I wouldn’t get upset anymore. I would go out, workout by myself in a gym and just think to myself that I should make the coaches regret not taking me,” she said.
Forsythe’s decision to attend STU came from both an academic and athletic perspective. She liked the school and her brother also played for the men’s team. She had also known Head Coach Fred Connors for a while.
Forsythe was recruited by Connors earlier in the season. At that point, Forsythe said she didn’t have any clue what she wanted to do after graduating high school. After thinking long and hard about it on a snow day, she ended up contacting Connors.
“I wanted to see his coaching style,” she said. “I loved it. He was a hard coach but never degrading. He encouraged his girls and lifted them up when they were down. That’s the kind of coach I was looking for.”
Forsythe plans on studying arts, while taking some sciences at UNB. She hopes to go into dentistry after university.
Her eyes have opened to what comes next in her life, but for now, she hopes to bring lots of energy to the women’s basketball team this fall and be a good teammate on and off the court.
“Playing for STU, it seems like they aren’t just a team,” Forsythe said. “They’re family and that means a lot to me. The STU women’s team have been very successful the past couple of years and I want to be a part of that.”
