Tag: Audrey Taylor

by Mike Pavlichko

A year after joining Klinger’s staff at Rutgers Prep, Audrey Taylor takes the reigns following her friend’s retirement

“I can barely believe I’m writing this, but it’s true: I’m joining the Legendary Coach Mary Klinger’s (Rutgers Preparatory School) staff this season.”

That was the first line from a blog post on Audrey Taylor’s website on November 10th of last year. After 13 years coaching at Franklin – with some amazing teams, and players like Diamond Miller and others, who helped the Warriors win not one, but two Tournament of Champions titles and much more hardware in the process – and a year away from the high school game, Taylor was ready to get back into it, and did so by joining her friend and former rival on the bench.

Klinger had been a big influence on Taylor, who said the legendary coach “extended her hand” early in her career, something she’s never forgotten. Klinger did it again after Taylor stepped down from Franklin, but says Taylor wasn’t ready at the time.

Audrey Taylor, left, will be taking over the Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball program after Mary Klinger – right, after winning her 700th career game – announced her retirement following 42 years at the Somerset school. (Source: coachaudreytaylor.com)

A year later when they met at an event, she asked Taylor again to join her staff, and this time she accepted. And it helped lead the Argonauts to yet another Somerset County Tournament title, their 11th as a program, all under Klinger.

Now, with Klinger’s retirement after 42 years at Rutgers Prep, the school moved to immediately elevate Taylor to be the program’s next head coach.

“No one can follow in the precise footsteps that coach Klinger has left us, but we are fortunate that Audrey Taylor had accepted our invitation to be the next Varsity Coach of the Rutgers Prep Women’s Basketball Team, and she is ready for the challenge,” said Rutgers Prep Head of School Dr. Steven Loy, in an email to the school community late Wednesday afternoon.

Audrey Taylor’s Coaching Accolades at Franklin:

  • USA Today National Coach of the Year, 2019 (33-0)
  • National No. 1 Ranking, 2019 (33-0)
  • Back-to-Back Somerset County Tournament Champions: 2018 and 2019
  • Six NJSIAA North 2, Group 4 Championships: 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
  • Four NJSIAA Group 4 State Championships: 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019
  • Three Tournament of Champions berths: 2017, 2018, 2019
  • Tournament of Champions winners: 2017, 2019 (one of just 5 schools to win multiple titles)
  • Overall Record at Franklin: 138-91
by Mike Pavlichko

Franklin searching for identity as Lady Warriors get set to open the season at Rutgers Prep

The high school basketball season has been condensed, and the preseason is so short, Audrey Taylor hasn’t quite figured out her Franklin girls basketball team yet.

That’s okay, though, because her team’s opponent on Opening Night is Rutgers Prep, whose coach Mary Klinger believes the regular season is just the preseason anyway, until the county and state tournaments come along.

Graduation cost the Lady Warriors their top scorer, Christina Midgette, and her 21 points per game. But after that, everyone else is back. That includes junior Ayanna Cotton (11.1 ppg), as well as the Pecorella sisters – senior Alyssa and junior Tiffany – the next three scorers from last season down the line from Midgette.

Rutgers Prep has won the lone meeting between the teams the last two seasons – 60-34 on Opening Night last year, and 65-33 in February of 2021 – but both programs have had enormous success for quite some time. They are a combined 298-60 the last six years, and are the only teams to win the Somerset County Tournament in that span.

You can hear Thursday night’s game on Central Jersey Sports Radio beginning at 6:45 with the pregame show, and tip-off at 7. Click here to listen as Mike Pavlichko calls all the play-by-play.

Click here to listen to CJSR’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Franklin head coach Audrey Taylor about the upcoming season:

by Mike Pavlichko

Top Ten girls teams battle tonight on CJSR when No. 5 Gill visits No. 6 Franklin

Their paths to this point in the season haven’t exactly been the same, but they are right next to each other in the Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten. And they will square off tonight on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Fifth-ranked Gill St. Bernard’s (8-3, 5-2) and No. 6 Franklin (9-2, 7-1) play each other in a critical game, where a win by the Warriors would solidify their grip on first place in the Skyland Conference Delaware Division, but a Knights’ win would give each team two losses, with Gill having beaten Franklin twice head-to-head.

Dom Savino and Chris Tsakonas call all the action with pregame at 5:45 pm, and tip-off at 6:00. Click here to listen live.

Franklin’s only division loss came to GSB on January 11th, a 38-35 ballgame that left Franklin just 3-2 less than a month into the season, interrupted by a long COVID stoppage spanning their opening game loss to Rutgers Prep on December 17th right on through to January fourth. Gill has two division losses, to Watchung Hills and Hillsborough.

Franklin is red hot, though, since that loss to the Knights, having won six in a row. Senior Christina Midgette is by far and away the team’s leading scorer, averaging 20.4 points per game, and the leader of the team’s recent hot streak; she’s scoring 26.8 a game in her last four, having scored no fewer than 24 in that span.

READ MORE: Big shuffle in Week 5 Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten, though Rutgers Prep remains at the top

Gill, meanwhile, avenged a loss from earlier this month to Hillsborough Tuesday night, beating the Lady Raiders 62-43 in a game that was tight in the first half, but saw the Knights pull away.

It was also career win No. 299 for Gnapp, who will chase 300 at Franklin tonight. In addition to coaching the girls at Gill St. Bernard’s, he’s spent time coaching both the boys’ and girls’ teams at Parsippany, and girls’ basketball at Mendham.

Click below to hear Dom Savino and Chris Tsakonas preview the Gill-Franklin game:

Chris Tsakonas with Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mark Gnapp
Dom Savino with Franklin head coach Audrey Taylor
by Dom Savino

No. 2 Gill St. Bernard’s, No. 3 Franklin prepare for divisional battle of Top Ten girls’ hoops teams

In the decade that Audrey Taylor has led the Franklin girl’s basketball program, the Warriors have faced many of the best teams New Jersey has had to offer. After all, they played in three consecutive New Jersey Tournament of Champions Finals from 2017 to 2019, winning two of them.

But this current stretch of games easily ranks among the most arduous in recent memory.

Tonight, No. 4 Franklin (3-3) will play its third consecutive top-5 team in just a four-day span, with No. 2 Gill St. Bernard’s (6-0) coming to town on High School Basketball powered by Bellamy & Son Paving on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Pre-game is at 5:45 p.m., with game time at 6 p.m. You can listen live to Dom Savino’s play-by-play from Franklin High School by clicking here.

Franklin is coming off a 68-53 loss Monday night to No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas. On Saturday, the Warriors began their trip through Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Top 10 with a 65-33 loss at No. 1 Rutgers Prep.

They will face the Knights having lost three of their last four games. The last time that happened was the start of the 2017-18 season, with a season-opening loss at Rutgers Prep, a win against Hunterdon Central, a loss at St. John Vianney, and a loss at Rumson-Fair Haven. That was also the last time the Warriors lost three in a row – a fate they will try to avoid tonight – having lost to Vianney, Rumson, and Long Island Lutheran to start the year 1-4.

Of course, that year, they would finish 25-8, win the Somerset County Tournament, win the North 2-Group 4 title, and go all the way to the Tournament of Champions final, losing to Manasquan, a year after beating them in the TOC title game.

Gill St. Bernard’s enters this Skyland Delaware Division matchup as the top team in the division and one of three remaining unbeaten girls’ basketball teams in the Skyland Conference. The Knights are led by a pair of Division 1 commits: center Caileigh Walsh (Northwestern) and guard Ella Fajardo (Fairleigh Dickinson).

Click below to hear Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mark Gnapp talk about Tuesday night’s Top Ten matchup: