Taylor Rogers
Taylor is a 2009 graduate of Ashland High School. Taylor lettered all 4 years of high school for both softball and basketball. During high school, Taylor played softball in the spring and played travel league during the weekends in the summer. She played basketball year round, playing in a fall league in Wooster, and attended basketball camps weekly throughout the summers. Taylor was also involved in multiple clubs, wrote for the Panorama (AHS newspaper), and was a member of the Arrow Inner Circle, which was a leadership group for athletes across the OCC.
Taylor became seriously devoted to the game of basketball after her freshman year, where she began committing her summer and fall days to basketball in addition to the regular season. Taylor began dedicating 2 hours a day, every day of the summer to conditioning and shooting a minimum of 1,000 shots a day. The neighbors often said the sound of the ball hitting the driveway was a comfort to them at night! She traveled to camps held by other teams in the OCC, local OAC and GLIAC colleges, and camps out of state, including the greatest highlight of all: Pat Summitt’s elite basketball camp held at the University of Tennessee where she got to meet Pat herself!
While playing for the Ashland Girls Basketball Team from 2005-2009, she did many great things on the court – broke a 30 year old school scoring record at that time finishing her career with 1,068 points, 346 assists, and 512 rebounds. She started on the varsity as a freshman and in her sophomore year was All-OCC honorable mention, and honorable mention with the News Journal and Northwest district. Taylor was OCC player of the year in her junior year, AHS MVP and All-Ohio honorable mention. In her senior year, Taylor was again OCC Player of the Year, TG Player of the Year and Mansfield News Journal Player of the Year, Division 1, All-Ohio 3rd Team, AHS MVP and selected to play in the North-South Girls Basketball Classic. She averaged 19.7 pts., 6.5 rebounds, 5 assists, 3.7 steals and shot 47% from the field. She also participated in softball for the Arrows and was a 4 year starter and letter winner on the varsity, was All-OCC honorable mention and MVP defensive player at AHS. She also played on the varsity volleyball team at AHS for one year in 2005.
After high school, Taylor went to Lake Erie College and played 3 years of basketball for the Storm. In college Taylor majored in English with a minor in Political Science. She worked in Lake Erie’s writing center as a writing assistant, and was also involved in theatre. One of Taylor’s proudest accomplishments was being a main founder of “Skittles,” Lake Erie’s first LGBTQ-Alliance group!
During her last semester of college, Taylor began working for Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, and has been employed with Enterprise Holdings since January of 2013. Taylor began her career, like many college athletes, as a management trainee and quickly worked her way up the ladder. After her first 5 months with Enterprise juggling work, coaching two SMAAC travel basketball teams, and 2 night classes, Taylor’s sales success got her promoted to Top Gun at the Akron-Canton airport. From there Taylor poured her heart and soul into her career. After 6 more months, she was promoted to an assistant manager in Mansfield, and 7 months later a branch manager in Warren. After just a year of strong performance, she was then promoted to one of the largest stores in NE Ohio: Boardman, OH. After 19 months managing the flagship location in Boardman, OH, Taylor was promoted to the prestigious position of Area Rental Manager. She was 1 of only 10 area rental managers in NE Ohio! She oversaw stores in the Summitt/Portage/Cuyahoga county areas. Taylor managed 7 Enterprise locations, 25 full-time, and 20 part-time employees. She was responsible for managing 1000 cars and hundreds of accounts, oversaw the generation of profits, growth, employee development, and customer service within her area and the NE Ohio group. Taylor is a mentor to dozens of employees and was proud to be a strong female and LGBTQ leader. After 5 and a half years, she decided to take all her experience and knowledge and pursue a different career path. Taylor is currently working at Orangetheory Fitness in Hudson, Ohio where she continues using her skills in sales and customer service and loves working out using the Orangetheory fitness program.
Taylor would like to thank first and foremost her parents, for supporting her not only mentally and emotionally through the years, but also financially. Their hard work and dedication to her dreams helped her accomplish more than she ever thought possible! Through the good and the bad, her parents were always there for love and support. Taylor would like to thank her siblings for their unwavering love, support, and making her tough by ganging up on her throughout the years. Lastly, she’d like to thank the coaches and awesome teammates over the years who helped her develop and grow, and for all the tears, laughs, and memories!
Nominated by Ramona Rogers