By Chris Rossetti

CHEMNITZ, GERMANY -- Mike Taylor, a 1990 graduate of Clarion High School who earned a master's degree at Clarion University in 1997, is a long way from home as head coach of the German professional basketball team BV Chemnitz.

But Taylor has not forgotten about his hometown or those who helped him while he was here.

"I have many positive memories about Clarion High School," Taylor said. "I really enjoyed some of my teachers, and I had a lot of fun in school. Of course I enjoyed being a Bobcat too. I used to really like ALF, and I had fun playing sports in the Clarion County League (the forerunner to the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference). We moved around a lot when I was young and lived in some bigger cities like Omaha, Neb., and Mineola, N.Y., on Long Island. I really enjoyed the town of Clarion as a place to grow up in. After I graduated we moved to Punxsutawney, and I love it there too. We have many good friends there like Bill Vassallo and his family. They have been good to my family and I."

Taylor said he loved to play sports when he was in high school and even loved the stuff a lot of players don't like.

"I loved two-a-days in football," Taylor said. "Loved them. I enjoyed Western Pennsylvania football and the strong tradition Clarion established. There are not too many things as exciting as playing in important football games. I loved basketball too. We had decent teams, and I enjoyed playing with my brother Scott for two seasons. My dad was a volunteer assistant after he got out of college coaching to be a professor at CU, so it was like a family thing. That was very meaningful to us."

Taylor said the two people who have influenced him most in life are his mom and dad, while two of his high school coaches, Larry Wiser in football and Tom Lewis in basketball, were also very instrumental to him.

"My mom and dad had tremendous influence on shaping me," Taylor said. "My mom helped me value my Catholicism and develop my spiritually. Like my dad taught me hard work on the basketball floor and in coaching, my mom helped me learn to work hard spiritually to become a better person and share every part of my day and myself with God. She helped me understand the goal in life is to develop your God given gifts and give them back to help others. I love my mom and dad very much and am thankful for their hard work in keeping me moving in the right direction.

"As far as my high school coaches, Larry Wiser stands out to me. I loved playing for him. He made football fun, and he was my favorite coach. He instilled confidence in me. My basketball coach, Tom Lewis, also made the game fun. I enjoyed playing for him and appreciate all his hard work and time he spent coaching me. Those two were very good coaches for me to play for as a high school kid with big dreams."

Taylor's thoughts of home and family became all the more important after the tragedies of Sept. 11

"Sept. 11 was like a bad dream," Taylor said. "Sly (McIntosh), Chemnitz's American player, called me, and we watched it while talking on the phone. Then our team president Thomas Hermsdorfer called us to his office. We talked with our families. Being out of country was hard. We wanted to be with our nation when it was going through it. Of course we initially had concerns about our safety here, but there were so many people that helped us and offered support. The German people are really great. They stood behind us during that tough time. Our organization went to great measures to assure us things were good. We were very thankful for that. The reaction in Germany was like everywhere else, shock, disbelief, sad, anger … a wide range of emotions. We are still very careful over here but believe we have friends we can count on if something crazy were to happen."