Former local hoops star still standing tall as Baptist Health Floyd ER nurse

Missy Taylor-Celichowski said her athletic career helped prepare her to work in the emergency room. “Sports can be stressful. You have to maintain focus and that helps a lot in an emergency setting,” she said. “You have to be able to handle stress. You have to maintain your calm.”

Missy Taylor-Celichowski always stood out in a crowd. She was the tallest girl in school growing up and used her height to excel in both volleyball and basketball at Floyd Central High School.

She still gets plenty of attention today. There are not too many 6-foot-6 female registered nurses roaming the halls of hospitals in this area.

“I have never shied away from my height. I guess I liked being the center of attention a little bit,” she said. “People thought it was cool; my height was a good conversation starter. There are not a lot of women my size around. I am proud of it and never wished I was shorter because I take after my Dad and I always thought that was amazing. People still recognize who I am … I am proud of that.”

There is good reason why they still recognize her. Taylor-Celichowski played volleyball and basketball for four years at Floyd Central. She finished her basketball career in 1992 as the school’s all-time leading scorer for girls’ basketball with 1,663 career points. She was a force in the middle, grabbing 928 career rebounds and blocking 355 shots. She also helped lead the volleyball team to the 1990 state finals.

Following her senior year, she was named to the Indiana All-Star team and has a banner hanging in the school gym to recognize that accomplishment.

“It was amazing …. I loved it,” she said of her high school career. “I loved playing both sports. I have a lot of pride having my jersey hanging in the gym. It took a lot of hard work to make the Indiana All-Star team.”

In 2017, she was named to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Anniversary team.

Taylor-Celichowski went on to Oakland City College to fulfill a dream of playing both sports at the collegiate level. She was named second team All-American in women’s basketball in 1993.

With her legacy on the hardwood already established, Taylor-Celichowski decided she wanted to help people. So despite having three young children at home she enrolled in Ivy Tech’s nursing program. At 38 years old, Taylor-Celichowski graduated with a nursing degree and has worked in the Baptist Health Floyd emergency room as an RN for the last 11 years.

“Having a family, it was hard,” she said. “I worked fulltime when I went to nursing school and had three kids and a husband at home. But I was determined.”

She actually began her hospital career at Baptist Health Floyd in 2001 as an ER tech before going back to school to get her RN degree.

“I had become an EMT (after Oakland City) and was working here as a tech. I just really liked the excitement and the thrill of the ER so I decided to become a nurse,” she said. “I love it. The nursing field is now hop, hop and hop. However, this is my home. I have been here so long I do not want to be anywhere else. Everyone here is your family. You get to work with your friends and I think we take really good care of our patients here.”

She said even though her father was a phlebotomist, she had no interest in going into the medical field, or working in a hospital, since he died when she was only 12 years old.

However, she reconsidered.

“I thought I wanted to be a teacher but I didn’t like it,” she said. “As an EMT I was always here with the ambulance and met a lot of friends so I decided I wanted to work here.”

She said her athletic career helped prepare her to work in the emergency room.

“Sports can be stressful. You have to maintain focus and that helps a lot in an emergency setting,” she said. “You have to be able to handle stress. You have to maintain your calm.”

Two of Taylor-Celichowski’s children have inherited her height and athletic ability. Her son Wes, who is 7-foot tall, will play basketball next season at the Air Force Academy while her daughter Callie has signed to play volleyball at Grace College.

She also said she enjoys being the work mom to many of her ER co-workers.

“Everyone calls me mom because I have been here so long,” she said.

While she said her kids joke with her all the time and tell her she doesn’t know what she is talking about when it comes to basketball and volleyball advice, she always gets the final word. All she has to do is take them to the Floyd Central gym and point to the wall where her all-star jersey hangs.

“We would be in the gym and I would tell them ‘see that jersey on the wall,’” she said with a smile, ‘“I do know something.”’

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Former local hoops star still standing tall as Baptist Health Floyd ER nurse