ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050051
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
TYPE: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
A description of Radford High basketball player Charlee Taylor in the fourth quarter of a basketball game might be mistaken for one of those blaring cabl television ads for a high volume supermarket:
``Still fresh! Still crisp! Still delightful!''
Actually, Taylor's opposition may not be so delighted, although it is difficult not to admire one who is still fresh and continues to play crisp hoops when all others have wilted.
Tired? Not Taylor. In fact, she wants to do more, although many people might think she's going a little too far.
Nevertheless, she's volunteering for the cross country team.
``If they need me,'' she said.
Who wouldn't need an athlete of this caliber? Cross country isn't exactly this 12th-grader's gig, even if she did start dabbling in it last year a little bit. There is no doubt she can run, though. First place in the Group A championship 800-meter race this past spring established that beyond dispute.
The 800 meters is one of those races at which most people can only marvel. It's not really a sprint but neither is it a true distance race. Steadiness and physical fitness alone will not get it in this event as it might in some of the longer distances.
Hopefuls for the 800 must be tough as well as fast and Taylor fits that profile splendidly. It's an indication of her athletic versatility that she can handle cross country as well.
``Coach [Norman] Lineburg really gets us in shape during track season and I try to keep it up during the summer,'' she said. ``Then I just hope that I don't die during the basketball season.''
Actually, she blooms anew. She goes into her last season this fall 291 points shy of 1,000. That means if she averages 18 points per game (she came in at 18.6 an outing a year ago), she'll hit the milestone in the 16th game.
Based on early returns, Taylor will reach the magic number sooner than that. She had more than 30 points in each of the first two games of the season.
Taylor will be getting her 1,000, if that is to happen, the old-fashioned way: In three seasons. Taylor hurt a knee during a preseason scrimmage as a sophomore and didn't play another minute the rest of the campaign.
``My knee had been hurting when I was playing for an AAU team in Roanoke during the summer,'' she said. ``I don't know what caused it.''
Her parents, Chuck and Cheryl Taylor, knew how to finish it. Chuck Taylor was the first men's basketball coach at Radford University and later was athletic director there before stepping down this past spring to return to the classroom after 22 years. He'd had his share of knee problems and did not want to see his experiences repeated in his youngest child.
``They put their foot down and told me I had to get the knee fixed,'' Charlee said. ``I didn't even have a chance to argue with them.''
Not that she would be so inclined in the first place.
``As a player, Charlee is the way I'd want my daughter to be,'' said Radford girls' basketball coach, Brenda King. ``As a student, she is like I'd want my daughter to be. She's the type of person you like to be around.''
Should you have been around her during game time that long sophomore season of surgery and rehabilitation, you would have been around a very sad young lady.
``All I could do was sit there,'' she said. ``It was awful. I cried before some of the games. But it was good in one respect. I got to sit there and watch how Coach King did things and that gave me a new understanding of what we were trying to do as a team. That really helped me a lot when I came back my junior year.''
Which turned out to be one of the best ones Radford has had as a team in awhile. The Bobcats won 15 games, most impressive when you consider they'd won just 16 in the two previous seasons combined.
Taylor plans to sign with Radford University during the early recruiting period this fall.
``When I was little, I dreamed of playing for the University of Tennessee,'' she said. ``When I realized that that was unrealistic, I started looking at Radford more and that's when I found out that I really liked it.''
She's come quite a way.
``When I first started playing basketball, I was playing with my brother Chip and my grandfather,'' she said. ``A couple of times I got hit in the head with the ball and I started crying. My grandfather told my father that I'd never be a basketball player.''
Probably what he meant was that she'd never be just a basketball player.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: RAY COX/Staff. Based on 30-point performances in theby CNBfirst two games, Radford High's Charlee Taylor will reach 1,000
career points earlier than expected this season. color.