Taylor Buschy visited plenty of different schools.
They were all nice and had unique qualities, but only one place felt like the perfect fit — Montana State. The Loveland track star fell in love with the location, coaches and now her soon to be teammates.
Buschy gave her verbal commit Tuesday and signed a national letter of intent Wednesday with Montana State, where she’ll run the 400-meters and 800 for the Bobcats in 2014.
“They offered me an official visit and I went up there and had the time of my life,” Buschy said. “I loved every single person on the team. They were super cool and super inviting. I went on a couple other visits and none of them really matched up to Montana.”
She was mulling her options over the past few months after making her visit to Bozeman back in August. Buschy felt an immediate connection to Montana State coach Dale Kennedy, who reminded her of the coaching staff at Loveland, and appreciated his desire to bring her skill set to the team.
The team itself appeared to be the closest group of any of the schools Buschy met with, and she remained in touch with several of them since the trip. It was a conference call between her, Kennedy and Buschy’s parents that sealed the deal.
“I’m definitely ecstatic. I thought it was the coolest thing. I never, ever thought I would have been a D-I athlete,” she said.
The Bobcats will ask Buschy to contribute right away and have a certain number of points she needs to contribute to the team throughout the season the earn her scholarship, which will pay for a large chunk of her education.
Part of what attracted Montana State to Buschy was her composure under pressure. She was apart of state championship teams at Loveland, and handles herself well when it matters most. This trait is something Indians coach Paul Quere has seen first hand many times.
“The thing about Taylor, first of all, is she’s fearless. She’ll do anything or try anything,” Quere said. “And she’s just a tremendous competitor. I think she’ll probably expand her horizons as she goes off to college, and I think what they like about her was she just has a gigantic upside because of those two characteristics.”
With her senior season still to come, Buschy said signing now was a big weight lifted off her shoulders. She’s determined to break some records and leave Loveland knowing she gave it her all.
On top of fitting in nicely with everything the track program at Montana State offers, Buschy loved what the area had to offer from an outdoors perspective. Mountains, fishing and snowboarding are all hobbies she enjoys and there’s no better place in the country for the great outdoors than Montana.
“I’m a huge outdoors girl. I love the mountains and they have fishing and hunting and I’m big into that, so that was a really big seller too,” Buschy said. “I pretty much just love everything about it.”
Cris Tiller can be reached at 669-5050 ext. 511, tillerc@reporter-herald.com or on Twitter @cristiller.
Area athletes who signed letters of intent Wednesday, or will do so in the coming week.
Loveland
Ryan Ball, Wyoming (swimming)
Cole Bundy, Wyoming (golf)
Naomi Einhellig, Denver (swimming)
Claire Hammen, Denver (gymnastics)
Hannah Payton, Colorado Mesa (lacrosse)
Brenda Rhodes, Maryland-Baltimore County (swimming)
Jordan Rausch, Hendrix College (soccer)
Kevyn Janicek, Bethel College (volleyball)
Annika Anderson, Metro State (softball)
Thompson Valley
Marina Fonseca, Grand Canyon (swimming)
Kelly Sheldon, Wyoming (swimming)
Berthoud
Kendall Baker, UC-San Diego (softball)
Zach Bracken, New Orleans (baseball)
Mackenzie Villarreal, Fort Hayes (softball)
Roosevelt
Madison Kilcrease, Colorado State (softball)
