Matthew Taylor '26 Recruiting Profile

My name is Matthew Taylor, I am a six’4 basketball player from Chincoteague, Virginia, who comes from a family where sports have always been an important part of life, particularly basketball and lacrosse. Basketball being more available. I consider myself a hardworking player. This is not only on the court, but in my knowledge and study of the sport and its well-known players. My favorite part of basketball is team bonding, because eventually you know them like family, and play more cohesively. My highest accomplishment in basketball is the maturity that my parents say I have shown throughout the past two years. Maturity on the court, being a team player, realizing basketball is a game that requires more than physical capabilities. I am also proud of a recreational league game, where I was able to score twenty-eight points for my team against one of the better teams in the league. I started with our combined school’s junior varsity team once in middle school. I requested to stay at junior varsity my freshman year. I suppose my confidence in my own capabilities was not in me yet. Now believing more in myself, I am capable of playing at higher levels. This belief is igniting my love of the sport of basketball. I work with my skills in any venue I can. On the small-town island where I live, there is not much for local youth to do, but I play in my driveway, at a local playground, and on the school’s outdoor court. When considering where I would like the sport of basketball to take me, it is difficult to see past high school. But I am willing to go anywhere and am in the middle of road as to what type or division of college. My parents say I can go anywhere I want; the world is a great big place. My goals are to continue to play basketball at higher levels and eventually coach. To be able to coach and teach others about the love of basketball, playing it and more, would be a great gig. There has always been an emphasis to me that basketball is a game, there is going to be a winner and a loser for lack of better terms. In the scheme of things, it is more important to know you played your best, learned something, or taught something, and maintain good sportsmanship on and off the court, whether a “winner” or a “loser.”