FAIRFAX, Va. – Considering more than 5,000 student athletes play Division I women's basketball, George Mason point guard Taylor Brown has reached rarified air in receiving a prestigious national honor.
On Tuesday, Brown was named to the 2016 Allstate National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Good Works Teams, which honors college basketball student-athletes that have dedicated themselves to bettering the lives of others through giving back to their communities.
Brown, a graduate student from Bowie, Md., is only one of five Division I women's basketball players to be honored. In all, just 20 total student athletes in men's and women's basketball from NCAA Divisions I, II and III and the NAIA are selected to the Allstate NABC and WBCA Good Works Teams.
Brown and the nine other members of the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team will be recognized during the 2016 WBCA Convention and at the 2016 NCAA Women's Final Fourin April in Indianapolis. They will also participate in a local service project in Indianapolis.
“Incredible honor for Taylor, our program and our university to be one of five Division I women athletes to get this award,” George Mason head coach Nyla Milleson said. “It is definitely indicative of her service to the community and her leadership to our program and our university. I've said forever that Tay Brown is a great basketball player but she is an even better person. She has been a leader all of her life. I think this is a great way to culminate her career.”
Brown, fourth on Mason's all-time scoring chart, stays involved in a plethora of volunteer efforts on campus and throughout the community. She helps as a student mentor, contributes to the Happy Heart Walk on campus, serves in campus ministry through George Mason's U Church, helps organize local youth basketball camps, films videos for the athletic department and reaches out with personal testimonies on her website, taybrowntestimony.com. Brown founded the website “to inspire others to follow Christ and to continue to spread the word of God by sharing testimonies, gospel music, inspirational videos, and faith series.”
She received her bachelor's degree in sports management from Mason last May and is currently in graduate school to pursue a master's degree in film and video studies.
“I'm still at a loss for words right now. I'm so blessed and I'm just grateful,” Brown said of receiving the honor. “My ultimate goal is to own a sports complex center so I definitely want to build that platform and be able set an example for younger kids. I want to show them that as long as you believe in yourself and work hard you can achieve great things as well.”
In their fourth year, the Allstate NABC and WBCA Good Works Teams are each comprised of 10 student-athletes; five from NCAA Division I and five from NCAA Divisions II, III and the NAIA. This year, sports information directors and coaches at colleges and universities around the country submitted a record number of nominations. In early December 2015, 154 nominees from the NABC and 103 nominees from the WBCA were announced.
The 257 nominations were narrowed down to the final team rosters by voting panels led by former Duke University student-athlete, two-time NCAA champion and seven-time NBA All-Star Grant Hill and 10-time WNBA All-Star and University of Tennessee student-athlete Tamika Catchings. The voting panels are comprised of former coaches, esteemed college basketball athletes and media members.
“There is no program that recognizes and promotes the outstanding selfless humanitarian acts performed by men's and women's collegiate athletes more than the Allstate Good Works Teams,” said Jim Haney, executive director of the NABC. “In four years, more than 850 student-athletes have been nominated for charitable works in their communities, across America and around the world. The 10 young men and 10 young women selected for the 2016 teams have added to the legacy of helping to clothe, feed and shelter those in need while nourishing hope and strengthening faith.”
