Kathy Taylor is known throughout women’s lacrosse as a coach who paired demanding standards with deliberate culture-building. Across decades of coaching, former players consistently describe Kathy Taylor not only as a lacrosse coach but as someone who understood how preparation, routine, and trust shape competitive teams.
For many athletes who played under her, that culture did not begin at practice. It began before school, before games, and often before sunrise.
Multiple former players recall how Taylor regularly hosted her teams at her home, cooking breakfast for as many as 25 players while raising her own three children.
“We could feel the love and belief she had in us while getting fueled up for the school day and big game ahead,” said Leah Tuck, who played at Fayetteville-Manlius from 2001 to 2004 and was part of the 2004 state championship team. “She poured into us, while also raising her own three children.”
These mornings became part of the team’s identity. They established routine, accountability, and connection long before players stepped onto the field.
Tuck recalls the morning of the state tournament, when Taylor had the team go on a short jog before boarding the bus. Along the route were messages written in chalk on the pavement.
“She spent the morning (or late the night before) writing them out so we could have a special moment before competing in a big game,” Tuck said. “We felt the love and support of an adult who truly believed in us.”
Other former players remember similar moments. Abbey Nyland, who played at Fayetteville-Manlius from 1998 to 2001, recalls team breakfasts, dance parties on bus rides, motivational quotes, and personal challenges designed to bring the team closer together.
“She was always finding ways to bring us closer together,” Nyland said.
After one particularly difficult game, Nyland remembers Taylor giving her a small plastic card. It was a simple gesture, but one that stayed with her.
Now a physical education teacher and a mother of two, Nyland says she still keeps that card. She has said she wishes her sons could have “someone so great in their lives as they go through their sports careers.”
Former players describe these routines not as isolated gestures, but as part of Kathy Taylor’s approach to coaching lacrosse. Expectations were high. Practices were demanding. Accountability was consistent.
The difference, they say, was that the work was grounded in belief rather than fear.
The breakfasts, chalk messages, notes, and shared rituals reinforced the idea that effort mattered and that players were seen as individuals within a collective. Discipline existed alongside care.
Taylor did not separate winning from responsibility. The preparation mattered. The people mattered just as much.
Years later, former players often remember these moments more vividly than specific scores or statistics. The early mornings, the notes, the sense of being believed in before stepping into pressure.
Those details endure because they shaped how players understood teamwork, resilience, and responsibility.
Kathy Taylor’s legacy as a lacrosse coach is often described in terms of competitiveness and standards. It is also remembered in kitchens before dawn, on bus rides filled with music, and in small, intentional acts that helped turn groups of athletes into teams.
