Four-day-old Taryn Timmons has signed her letter of intent to play basketball for the Eastern women’s basketball team.

OK, not really.

In the thick of a battle for conference supremacy, the Eastern women’s basketball team took pause last Friday to welcome a new member of its family.

Assistant coach Quacy Timmons gave birth to her second child, a girl named Taryn, at 2:08 p.m. Friday.

“I was really excited because she already signed a letter of intent to play for me,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said jokingly, referring to the 6-foot-5 Timmons’ history as a basketball player.

Timmons has a son, T.J. Bell, who is currently a 6-foot-7 freshman forward at Charleston High School.

Timmons went into labor during the team’s practice last Friday and after practice concluded, assistant coach Jackie Moore informed the team that Timmons had given birth.

Senior forward Lindsey Kluempers said the team went to the hospital together immediately following practice to visit Timmons and the new addition to their family.

Timmons said the girls on the team have been great to her, and the whole group is just like family.

“The girls have shared some important times with me as far as the wedding, moving into a house, expecting, and having a baby,” Timmons said. “They’ve all been around. I give them a hard time saying ‘Oh, gosh, another girl,’ because they’re all my babies. We’re all very close-knit. They’re a great group of kids.”

Timmons said that the girls spent an afternoon with her a few weeks ago getting ready for the baby. The entire team went to her house and spent the day putting a crib together, assembling everything and painting a nursery for baby Taryn.

“When they put everything together it was like Christmas morning for them,” Timmons said. “They were ripping stuff open, making notes of what batteries I need for the toys. They were really into it.”

Senior guard Ellen Canale said that she was really excited for Timmons and the team has been there to assist her in any way possible.

“We’ve been with her every step of the way,” Canale said. “It was really great to go out (to the hospital) and see her and show our support for her. We got to see her, and meet her, and hold her. She’s a new addition to our team. We’re all already signing up for babysitting times and making sure we’re going to be around to help her.”

Sallee said that, as a father, he knows that there’s nothing like having a child. He said that his job has been to make sure that things are as easy as possible on Timmons so she can take care of everything she needs to with her family.

“I couldn’t be more excited for her,” Sallee said. “The longer you work with somebody, the closer you get. I know she’s in a really good place and her family’s in a really great place. I’m looking forward to see little Taryn grow up around us and hopefully they’re around for enough time to see her and have fun with it.”

Timmons said that while she’s eager to get back to coaching on a regular basis, she plans to take a little bit more time to rest. She said that since her primary responsibility is coaching the post players it has made it easier on her having so much experience on the team.

“The good part is that they’re a junior and senior-laden team,” Timmons said. “I’ve been dealing with the post for a long time and I just tell them to hear me, don’t get overly excited, and I have a really calm voice and I think they miss that.”

Timmons is in her third season as an assistant coach with the Panthers. The 1998 Indiana graduate has played professionally in the WNBA and also overseas.

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.

Eastern assistant coach Quacy Timmons talks to players on the sidelines during the game against Tennessee Tech on Jan. 29 in Lantz Arena. Timmons gave birth to her second child on Friday. (Alycia Rockey/The Daily Eastern News)

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