Twenty-nine years. 457 victories. Winning over 83 percent of the time. All done at three different levels.

While the numbers speak to a legendary career, Kathy Taylor sought a higher calling this summer: Division I lacrosse.

On June 21, Taylor was named head coach of the Colgate Raiders, completing her career trajectory that has touched the high school, Division III and Division II levels.

Uniquely, Taylor has done all this while never leaving a 40-mile radius.

If you had two and a half hours, you could leave Taylor’s first gig, Fayetteville-Manlius High School, travel to SUNY Cortland, Le Moyne College and to her current stop, Colgate. And each stop along the way has provided a puzzle piece to the Raiders landing a coach whose collegiate winning percentage is .880.

Personally, the stops carried significance for Taylor’s career and home life. In fact, the travel from the greater Syracuse area to Cortland, and thus taking the job at Le Moyne, played a key decision in moving to Hamilton.

“When I had the job at Cortland my family was younger,” Taylor said. “I actually drove 45 minutes (each day) for six years down I-81 and drove home. The change I made to Le Moyne was to connect home life and work life. I thought I could do that closer to home. And I loved that, I loved being closer to work.”

And while Taylor has been based out of the Greater Syracuse area, save for her four playing years at Cornell, she had strong connections to Hamilton.

“It feels like I’m going home in a lot of ways,” Taylor said to Spectrum News back in June. “I know this community really well. I know this campus really well. I grew up right around the corner in the summertime, I have this little lake house just 10 minutes away over the hill.”

Moving her life eastward an hour was the first step, assembling a staff was the next. Taylor, like many new coaches, relied on familiarity. Enter Jessica Antelmi, who Taylor introduced in August. Antelmi, who spent three years at the Division I level as an assistant at Boston University and Bryant, was an integral part of Taylor’s success at Le Moyne and Cortland. In addition to Antelmi, Taylor added Katherine Sweeney who was an assistant last year for Quinnipiac and two years at Wagner.

“They were the first recruits we landed here, I like to say that,” Taylor mused. “I believe I got lucky. The cohesiveness of our staff is very genuine, very real, just fantastic. We seem to be very collaborative and open and positive. It’s the feeling I like going into a new coaching position.”

Taylor was quick to admit that she’s the newbie at the Division I level, while her assistants have both played (Antelmi and Sweeney both played at Albany) and coached at this level. As such, Antelmi will serve as recruiting coordinator.

“The biggest challenge for me is navigating the recruiting at the D-I level,” Taylor noted. “It’s really just learning to navigate the club coaching network, which often represents the student-athlete. Previously, I often dealt with the players themselves, now we are interacting with club coaches. That’s different.”

With the newness of the job and assembling a coaching staff behind her, the concentration is with the team on the field. The first step is to cultivate something that seemingly every coach craves: culture.

“Every fall, wherever I’ve been, it’s always been working on culture,” Taylor admitted. “I know that culture is a buzzword, but as a new coaching staff, our vision for the program is to play at a higher level. It’s definitely that culture that wins. We are developing a culture that is hardworking, fitness- and fundamentally-driven.”

Taylor wants her Raiders team to move the ball more efficiently and increase speed. Her 2019 Le Moyne squad ranked 17^th in Division II with 15.64 goals per game, while Colgate’s 2019 squad was 84^th at 10.56 goals per game. The goal is to have that speed on both sides of the ball. Last season, Le Moyne allowed a stingy 5.82 goals per game, which ranked second nationally.

“I would expect to play an up-tempo style of game,” Taylor said. “We are aggressive on defense and aggressive going to cage. We have work to do.”

As for whether this season will be a rebuilding year due to the coaching change, Taylor was boosted by the returning players in the locker room and the momentum created at the end of last season.

The 2019 season was unique in playing for an interim coach, but the players rallied to a winning record in Patriot League play, avenging an early loss to Boston University to reach the conference semifinals.

“[The players] said that they loved it, they were so excited about that day,” Taylor said of the Raiders’ win in the Patriot League quarterfinals. “One of the captains said it was the best lacrosse experience she ever had. It was very exciting day. ... I was excited to find out that we had as much talent as we already have here.”

FALL FOCUS
Colgate

Taylor described starting at a Division I institution like “drinking out of a fire hydrant” for her staff. She is looking to install her systems quickly in a program that was one step shy of a conference tournament final.

1. Seeking Cohesiveness

“We’ve encouraged the sharing of the ball and limiting the possession for any one individual. We’ve been working better off the ball. There’s been a tremendous commitment to how we can beat people by putting the ball in the air and really establishing a transition game into a motion offense.”

2. Single-Year Focus into Long-Term Plan

“I think every year we aspire to be (in the Patriot League semifinals). I think a lot of times that people believe they have to get their recruits to be able to impact movement that way. We have a great team right now. This is the seniors only year they have left. We’re going to try and do some exciting”

“Everyplace I’ve been I’ve always looked at the end as being a championship, so yes I do think you have to keep and look at doing that. Is it a process? Yeah, I think we just need to put a little more muscle and energy behind it. I’m very excited about the climb, I love the climb.”

3. Expanding Recruiting Map

“September 1 was the first for me at the D-I level, that was like drinking out of a fire hydrant for me and my staff. It is exciting to see the student-athletes that we have and can secure here. I was really pleased that we have some competitive, talented players already here. We’d like to stretch our footprint to some areas that we are not representing that have great lacrosse. Hopefully time will tell. This university draws from national and international areas that we can go into and recruit. On the same note, I want to make sure we can take care of the players in our backyard.”