Tara Halloway Churchill Born: September 27, 1977 (Moundridge, Kansas)
Moundridge High School, 1996 / Emporia State University, 2000.

Tara Holloway Churchill is one of the most decorated women’s basketball players to play at Emporia State
University. However, her love for the game began far before her collegiate career.

Churchill grew up in a household that revolved around sports, as her parents and both of her older brothers
played sports in college. As a child, she always played outside with her brothers, and they spent much of
their time on a pickup basketball court. Churchill always knew she had a future in sports because of the
connection to her family, but things started getting serious when she reached high school.

She attended Moundridge High School, where she earned an All-State selection. Before graduating in 1996, Churchill led the Wildcats to the state championship during her senior season, but her career did not stop there.

She received a scholarship from Emporia State and proceeded to compile a long list of accolades in her four years as a Hornet. The four-year letter winner led the Lady Hornets to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, three regular season MIAA titles, three MIAA Tournament titles and two NCAA Final Four appearances.

In her senior year, Churchill was named NCAA Division II National Women’s Basketball Player of the Year
and a CoSIDA and WBCA first-team All-American. She received the MIAA MVP award in 2000 and earned
two first-team All-MIAA Conference selections as a junior and senior.

When she graduated in 2000, Churchill made ESU women’s basketball history. Her 1,839 career points
ranked second on the all-time leading scorer’s list and her 815 career rebounds ranked fourth all time.
Churchill was inducted into the ESU Athletics Hall of Honor in 2010. At the time of her induction, she ranked fifth on the Lady Hornets’ scorers list and seventh for all-time rebounds.

During her fifth year of school, she spent time student-teaching and returned to ESU women’s basketball as a student assistant. Churchill developed a passion for coaching, and eventually moved to Garden City, Kansas, where she became an assistant basketball coach at Garden City Community College. She then coached girls basketball at Garden City High School for four years before stepping away to start a family.

Now, Churchill is married with two sons and is a physical education teacher at Goessel Elementary
in Goessel, Kansas.

Please welcome Tara Holloway Churchill to the Kansas Sports Hall of
Fame.

Biography by: Caroline Soro
Photos Courtesy of Emporia State Athletics.