It is late into a chilly January night on UCLA’s campus. Many of the students have gone home for the night, huddled up with textbooks and coffee in their dorm rooms.
Yet down at Pauley Pavilion, the arena is alive with bouncing basketballs, the squeak of sneakers and the roar of a crowd that looks on to the frenzied intramural basketball game in progress on center court. The Solid Gold Sound ““ the team representing UCLA’s marching band ““ is attempting a hefty comeback, urged on by dozens of band members who have lined the sideline on this night to cheer on their friends. Down at the end of the sideline stands one unexpected figure, dressed in a set of UCLA athletic sweats, clapping and yelling just as loudly as all the rest. Yet she is not a member of the band.
It is Allison Taka, junior shooting guard for the UCLA women’s basketball team. She cheers on her fellow classmates, just as the members of the band do during her games on the same floor. These are the kinds of things that make Taka such a favorite among fans and teammates. On this night, The Solid Gold Sound lose, but Taka applauds anyway.
Consider it a fan favorite returning the favor.
Off the bench
Allison Taka knows what it’s like to sit on the pine, waiting for her turn that it sometimes seemed would never come. Under former Bruin coach Kathy Olivier, the former Culver City High School standout struggled to find any meaningful playing time, passing much of each game at the end of the bench, discouraged.
“It was really hard to sit the first two years,” Taka said of her freshman and sophomore seasons. “I had to change my mindset to get through the season.”
Each season was a long one for Taka, who began to feel frustrated and wondered if her choice to attend UCLA, her longtime dream school, was the correct one after all.
“You don’t come expecting to sit, so my first year I questioned my decision to play here a lot,” she said.
Yet Taka continued to work hard, persevere and dedicate her time to becoming a more effective player. This season, under first-year coach Nikki Caldwell, Taka has made a name for herself as a key player off the bench, expected to contribute offensively from the perimeter. But the road from a benchwarmer to key component was not an easy one.
Earning her role
One of the most important challenges for Taka was to regain her confidence as a basketball player and as a shooter. After two years of sitting on the bench, however, this was no small step. It was a problem that needed to be overcome with a little soul searching and some help from teammates. Junior guard Erica Tukiainen is one of Taka’s best friends on the team and has seen her progress throughout her career at UCLA.
“Allison is one of the hardest workers on our team,” Tukiainen said. “She’s really worked hard to get where she is now. Sometimes I would just talk to her and tell her not to get too down, that her chance was going to come.”
Last year, there were times when the pair of best friends would be sitting courtside as other teammates were in the thick of the action, with Tukiainen continually shuffled in and out of the starting lineup. That uncertainty was something that they shared.
“I think that Erica is really hard on herself too,” Taka said. “There’s a similarity there. But my teammates have been so supportive, keeping me going. They get excited for me and help me out. It’s so nice to have that support. Honestly, if it weren’t for my teammates, I don’t know if I’d still be here at UCLA.”
After her struggles for her first two years as a Bruin, Taka got the chance she needed with the arrival of new coach Nikki Caldwell from Tennessee. It was during a meeting with Taka that Caldwell began to see that she had a diamond in the rough with the local standout and crowd favorite.
“I think Allison is one of our hardest working players. She’s someone who is really about the team and has been a great teammate,” Caldwell said. “She gives us a boost. She’s expected to come off the bench and nail a three. The special thing about Allison is that it doesn’t matter what time it is in the game ““ she’s always going to play hard.”
In that meeting, Taka said she made it clear to her new head coach that she was concerned with the apparent lack of a role she had on the team. Caldwell, however, was quick to soothe those concerns, falling back on what has become a team mantra over the course of a season.
“She did have concerns,” Caldwell said. “Our meeting was about her getting to know what my expectations were of her. I wasn’t basing those expectations on anything except what we’ve seen this year.”
“I told her minutes are going to be earned, never given, and she’s earned it.”
Taka now comes off the bench regularly and is relied on to hit shots from the outside, provide an energy boost and challenge opponents defensively. It is a role reversal that has taken some time to get used to. Coaches and teammates have all made an effort to help Taka establish confidence in her playing ability, something the guard says has been difficult.
“It’s taken me awhile to start believing in myself, to really grasp that everyone was important, from the starters to the bench players,” Taka said. “It’s still hard for me to grasp that I actually have an important role.”
That all came to a head one day in practice at the Student Activities Center. After repeatedly turning down open shots, a frustrated Caldwell warned that the next shot Taka passed up would mean a set of sprints for position coaches Tony Perotti and Tasha Butts. Before practice ended, each coach was forced to run.
“They weren’t very happy about it,” Caldwell smiled.
Since then, Taka has grown more confident in her shooting abilities, citing Caldwell’s unique motivational techniques as one contributing factor.
“It was a lot easier for me to take shots after that,” Taka laughed. “The coaches came up to me and yelled, “˜We don’t want to run again!'”
A dream come true
But Allison Taka is more than just a basketball player.
She is a hardworking student who takes great pride in her academics. She can be found on a rainy Friday afternoon with an open textbook at Kerckhoff Coffee House, intent on succeeding in her studies.
“School is really important to me,” Taka said. “I want to do the best I can, because otherwise it just seems like a waste of time.”
The junior is a sociology student, with a background in academics from her parents. Her father works as a mathematics professor and her mom works in the UCLA School of Nursing. Taka, however, has yet to decide what to do after her career as a basketball player is through.
“It’s probably going to just be college basketball for me,” she said of her career as an athlete. “I’ll want to move on to other things. I’m not sure what yet. I want to go to graduate school.”
Her teammates often find her working on homework in the locker room or on road trips.
“They call me a nerd sometimes when I tell them I’m studying for a midterm a couple of weeks away,” Taka laughed.
For the third-year student, UCLA is a dream school. Both of Taka’s parents are former Bruins, and according to Taka, this made her college decision an easy one.
“I’ve always been around this campus, ever since I was little,” Taka said. “My parents used to take me to games here. UCLA was pretty much the only acceptable school, the only one I knew, and the only one I ever wanted to go to.”
That school pride translates to the practice gym, where Taka has earned a reputation throughout her career as one of the hardest working players on the team. Late in practice, she can be seen attacking her sprints with a vengeance, a quality that her teammates and coaches see as invaluable.
“Allison is one of the hardest workers you’ll see,” Tukiainen said.
Caldwell concurred.
“She’s shown and established herself as someone we can give time to based on how she plays in practice and how she scores in practice,” Caldwell said. “She understands the game.”
This work ethic, according to Caldwell, is one of the traits that earns her the fan favorite reputation.
“I think the fans see Allison for the person she is. They see someone who is very giving. She’s got a quiet soul about her, but she will help anyone who needs it. She has built friendships along the way because of that.”
As for Taka, she will continue to bring that fight and perseverance that earned her the significant role on the team that she sought for so long.
“It’s so crazy to compare the beginning of the season and now in terms of how much more comfortable I feel now,” Taka said. “It’s like a dream come true.”