It was last summer, after a game of hoops in Dawn Kish's backyard, that we decided it was time to feature our favorite person, Michele Taggart. Dawn had called that night to tell me about the game. Michele, the hussler-who-even-gets-her-own-rebounds, had roughed her up a bit, elbowing Dawn in the eye socket, which produced a big ole' shiner. (For the record: We Wiggers love a game of hoops--an elbow here and there is a given in our definition of an "evening b-ball" session.)

"Yea, she's cool," I said, knowing exactly what had happened. At 6-feet tall, Dawn had probably just scored a Lisa-Leslie-lay-up and was getting low on defense, while Michele's flying elbows socked her in the eyeball.

"Let's do it," I said.

When I called her this Fall, I was more stoked than ever to write about our friend and favorite snowboarder, for there was much to tell: Michele had made colossal changes in her life. After nine years of competing on World Cup tours racing and riding halfpipe and claiming the title of Overall World Champion four years in a row, yet still not getting a pro signature board from her sponsor, Burton, she dropped them. Michele could have been bit by the bitter bug after all this, but her undying optimisim--instilled in her by a "mom who made me see life for the good things it brought"--stepped back and re-organized her life. The following season, she rode sponsor-less. "I rode for me," she says. Which brought back her focus of what snowboarding was all about for her--fun.

But a sponsor-less Michele Taggart is like a free-agent Michael Jordan. It's too hard to believe. Bonfire/Salomon scooped her up last season, giving her a dream contract and a team of pros, including Jason Ford and Jake Blattner, that mixed well with Michele's personality. Before she new it, she was happy again, riding for fun competing in the pipe when she wanted to, and doing photo shoots in places like Chile, Alaska, and the Rockies.

That's the snowboarding stuff. What we wanted to ask Michele about were the other parts of her life--the heavy topics--like the pros and cons of being a pro athlete dropping into the big wave of women's sports popularity, gardening, and motocross.

photo: dawn kish