Montclair Athlete Spotlight: Birgitta Taylor-Lilliquist, MHS, Basketball

by Andrew Garda

garda@montclairlocal.news

Senior Birgitta Taylor-Lilliquist may be in her last year on the Montclair High School girls basketball team, but she’s still working to improve every day. From her first game as a freshman to her most recent work in the paint on the 2018-19 varsity squad, Taylor-Lilliquist has always worked to improve.

“As a player, under my coaches, I’ve just been able to become a person who handles and has been able to drive to the basket. I feel like I’ve gotten so much better over the course of this season,” Taylor-Lilliquist said.

It’s been a tough year for the Mounties, who find themselves in a transitional phase, with few older players and a host of youngsters.

Taylor-Lilliquist said that along with gathering rebounds, her job is to help the younger players adjust to life at the high school level.

“I know when I was a freshman, it was so scary stepping onto the varsity floor when you just weren’t used to it,” she said. “So I just tell them be calm, play your game and it’ll be fine.”

Taylor-Lilliquist was kind enough to chat with us for this week’s Athlete Spotlight:

Do you know where you’ll go to college? I don’t exactly know where I’m going, but I’m going to wait until March to decide. I know I want to major in biology or history.

Why those two subjects? From MHS at least, I’ve had amazing teachers in both biology and history. I’m in CSJ, (Center for Social Justice), so that’s been an amazing program for me, in terms of history. And I had an amazing biology teacher, so I’ve just loved both of those subjects and want to continue studying them in college. I don’t know what I want to do with those yet, but I want to study them.

What appeals to you most about history? I like how history repeats itself and we need to learn from our mistakes. You can see trends in history over and over again. I like how I can connect something from 200 years ago to now.

What do you do for fun? I like to watch TV of course, and hang out with my friends. I like to do calligraphy and bullet journal, because that really calms me down.

How did you start doing calligraphy? I saw Instagram videos of it and I thought it was really cool. I just decided one day “Oh I’ll try it” and I ordered a pen off Amazon. Then I just taught myself how to do calligraphy one summer. I put all my emotions into basketball, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but I put all of it in. So I just need something to relax when I get home when I’m not doing homework.

What are you most looking forward to for the rest of your senior year? I’m really looking forward to senior option. I’ll be doing an internship with a professor I know in neuroscience [at Montclair State].