Taya Corosdale carries Bothell into state tournament, modestly

Taya Corosdale loves to be pushed, but hates to seem pushy.

So, when her Bothell High School coaches tell her to demand the basketball, the 6-foot-1 sophomore wants to do it politely.

“I don’t want to come off as a flashy or cocky person,” she said. “I want to stay humble. … I just don’t want to be bossy to my teammates. I don’t want them to feel like, ‘Oh, we have to do this for Taya.’ I want it to just come natural.”

When she gets the ball, Corosdale generally delivers. She averages 17.7 points and 11.7 rebounds for the 10th-ranked Cougars (20-5), who play defending-champion Gonzaga Prep (24-0), in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A state tournament Thursday at 7:15 p.m. in the Tacoma Dome.

She especially gets it done when it counts, scoring 22 in a 45-39 win over Snohomish in the regional round last Saturday and 26 in an 62-58 overtime victory against Woodinville in a loser-out game to get there.

When the game is on the line, Corosdale admits she likes having the ball in her hands – as long as that’s fine with everyone else. Her teammates get it, especially longtime friend Keyonna Jones, who has played with her since sixth grade.

“She doesn’t want to come across like as mean, like ‘give me the ball,’ more as ‘if I’m open could you try to feed me?’ ” Jones said.

And the versatile Jones, Bothell’s second-leading scorer (13.0 points per game) who plays multiple positions, is happy to do just that.

“You know good things are going to happen when the ball’s in her hands,” Jones said.

Kent Schaefer, in his second season as head coach, sees steady improvement.

“Every week she’s more assertive, and that’s because she wants to help her teammates,” he said.

Corosdale is an only child and used to be more outgoing, according to her mom, Tricia Corosdale, noting Taya chose basketball over dance and ballet at a young age.

“She’s recently, in the last couple of years, been kind of shy,” Tricia said. “She never used to be at all. I don’t know if it’s a teenage thing or what it is, but she seems much more reserved and shy than she was before. She likes hearing, ‘Wow, good job,’ but to be singled out and in the limelight and having a cocky basketball attitude is so opposite of how she is.”

The adjustment was especially difficult last year, according to Taya, when she still attended classes at the junior high but was able to come up and play basketball with the high-school team (Bothell High includes grades 10 through 12 for academics).

“It was hard to build friendships,” she said.

And even more difficult to take charge on the court, but Corosdale still led the Cougars in scoring (13.0) and rebounding (11.4) as they finished 13-10. That left them four wins short of the Tacoma Dome. Corosdale went anyway, primarily to watch the 3A tournament in support of Bishop Blanchet’s Taylor Chambers, a teammate on her Seattle Transition AAU team.

As the Braves reached the championship game, Corosdale made a promise to her mom.

“We’re going to be here next year,” she said.

Then she and her teammates made it happen. Corosdale, who picked up a scholarship offer from Oregon earlier this season, can’t wait for Thursday’s tipoff.

“We made a goal to come this far and we’re achieving it, but it’s so surreal,” she said. “We’re just so excited for it to happen.”

The Cougars feel well prepared after facing second-ranked Inglemoor three times this season. Yes, they lost all three, but drew closer every time and fell by just six points in the KingCo championship game. Inglemoor coach John Augustavo said Corosdale should give Gonzaga Prep reason for pause.

“Taya is very versatile and for a big kid can run the floor extremely well,” he said. “She also has incredible range as a shooter and is a very tough kid to cover. She will definitely create a problem for GP and keep Bothell on top of the heap the next couple of years.”

That’s exactly what Corosdale modestly has in mind.