Staff report
Sidney High School senior Celena Taborn, who rewrote the school record book in girls basketball in her career, announced recently that she has signed to play next season at Furman University in Greenville, S.C.
Furman is a Division 1 program and a member of the Southern Conference, which includes Mercer, Western Carolina, Wofford, Samford, The Citadel, Virginia Military Institute, East Tennessee State University and North Carolina-Greensboro.
Taborn finished her career at Sidney with a school-record 1,456 points, including a school-record 603 points her senior season. And it came despite teams surrounding the 6-foot-3-inch post player with two and three players every time down the floor.
“I liked Furman because the coach was a post player and understands where I’m coming from,” Taborn said. “This past season was really, really hard because we didn’t really have a guard. So teams were justing ganging up on me. It was annoying.”
She had several other offers, but Furman went the extra step.
“They scheduled a workout with me,” she said. “One of their assistant coaches came up and watched me. They weren’t really (concerned) about my speed. They like how I can shoot the ball, so they said I can trail.”
Taborn was named the Greater Western Ohio Conference American North Athlete of the Year in what must have been an easy decision – she averaged 26.8 points per game, 12.3 rebounds, 4.0 blocks and shot 59.8 percent from the floor. She led the entire 20-team GWOC in all four categories.
And on her way to that 26.8 average, she scored 40 or more points five times last season. And she also pulled down over 1,000 rebounds in her career.
She went on to be named first-team All-Southwest District, and second-team All-Ohio in D-1.
She plans to study special education at Furman. “They have a good academic program, and are strict about academics,” Taborn said. “That’s another reason I liked it. I’m happy with my decision. It’s pretty much what I wanted.”
And, by the way? Taborn decided to play volleyball last fall, the first time she played the sport in high school. And she broke the school record for blocks.
