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What makes sports so entertaining to watch are the many opportunities that develop before, during and after a game.

The opportunity to score, to create a big play, to turn the momentum, to make the game-winning play. It is the players who can create and capture those opportunities at any moment.

For Taylen Carver, an opportunity was presented to him before the season even started and, since then, he has grabbed it with both hands and run with it.

The 19-year-old Louisville, Ky., freshman stepped onto the court as a starter during Montcalm Community College men’s basketball team’s first official game on Nov. 1, ending a 40-plus-year hiatus of the sport at the Sidney-based campus. The starting point guard role was supposed to be Ornie Brooks Stewart’s, however, after he suffered a season-ending injury in September, the role was handed to Carver.

Throughout his high school career, attending duPont Manual High School and then transferring to Eastern High School, where he graduated, Carver was never in a leadership role, so taking on the starting point guard position at MCC was a huge responsibility.

“It’s more on me now,” he said. “In high school, I would not take the shots I do now.”

With the point guard controlling the offense, setting the play-by-play tempo and the rest of the team looking at him to lead, Carver said he has embraced the leadership role as soon as he was named the Centurions’ starting point guard.

“You just have to tell the guys, you have to let them know when they mess up,” Carver said. “Coach (Zach Ingles) will put that on you. You have to talk and communicate and push harder.”

Carver shot out like a bottle rocket at the beginning of the season, scoring a team-high 22 points in the first two games of the season. He posted a 29-point game in a win against Alma College junior varsity Nov. 19 and recorded a career-high 35 points in the Centurions’ win over Kuyper College Dec. 1.

He is averaging 16.1 points a game.

“What makes Tay so good is his ability to score at all levels,” said MCC Assistant Coach Asher Vissman. “He can shoot from anywhere on the floor, hit mid-range jumpers and get to the basket, all at an elite level.”

Vissman said Ingles and the rest of the coaching staff have been impressed with how Carver has handled the starting point guard role for the Centurions team, so far.

“Tay had to take over the ball handling in a big way and he did so without hesitation,” Vissman said. “He’s progressed from the start of the year to now in his leadership role. He’s starting to be more outspoken and leading with his actions.”

Carver said the biggest influence in his life that motivates him on the court has been his father, Brandon Carver, who played college ball at Lindsay Wilson College in Columbus, Ky.

“He keeps pushing me no matter what I do, in a good way,” Carver said of his father. “He’s always there for me.”

Carver’s family includes his father, his mother, Tabitha, and three siblings, two sisters, Tiana and Tamara, and a younger brother, Keelan, 13, who, Carver said, is big into AAU baseball.

Being so far away from home wasn’t easy at first for Carver. However, spending so much time with his teammates and coaches, he feels he has developed a family-like bond with them that has eased the yearning for home.

“I really like this team,” he said. “We’re all brand new here and we’re still settling in. We’re all good friends and we all hang out, on and off the court. It’s all buddy-buddy.”

He said the team’s goal is to reach the national tournament, but as a young program, he knows the Centurions must develop more and keep working hard to improve.

“Everything we do, all the work, it all builds up to getting to nationals,” Carver said. “Personally, I just have to keep leading the team and do all I can to help win. We just have to all keep working.”

Carver is interested in studying business management and, when he’s not devoting time to basketball, he enjoys playing video games and exploring new places in the West Michigan area, stating he has really enjoyed Grand Rapids.

He especially loves the Sidney and Stanton areas and MCC campus.

“There’s not a lot of distractions here, and I like that about this area,” he said. “It helps me stay on track with things.”

Media inquiries, please contact:

Shelly Springborn
Director of Communications and Public Relations
shellys@montcalm.edu
989-560-0833