By Jim Stout
MaxPreps.com
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. --- Tom Taylor, a long-time high school football coach in Connecticut and the MaxPreps territory manager for New England and the New England prep schools, will be honored this fall by his alma mater, Marist College, in conjunction with the renovation and reopening of its football stadium.
Taylor, long a successful businessman and presently entering his fifth season of coaching football at the Canterbury School in New Milford, will be cited at Marist for his work in starting the football program in 1966 and for his contributions to the development and renovation of its stadium, Leonidoff Field. The ceremony honoring Taylor and inaugurating the new and improved multi-purpose facility will take place at Marist's Homecoming game, Oct. 6, when the Red Foxes face MAAC rival Duquesne University.
Also to be honored in association with the Division I-AA program at Marist and its new-look stadium will be Taylor's father, Gordon, who led the fund-raising effort to start football in 1966; Bob Finn (Marist, 1966), the team's first president and driving force, and Father James Driscoll, the team's first faculty advisor.
"I can't believe it when I look at the (new) stadium, which is built right on the grassless rock pile that we practiced on and played on for years," said Taylor. "Every day after practice, you'd have to pick up 50 rocks before you went in."
The original Leonidoff Field was basically nothing more than a large high school field, with aluminum bleachers, an old wooden press box and a natural grass surface. The new version will include a FieldTurf synthetic playing surface, chair-back seating in the middle portion of the stands (2,700 seats in all), a modern press box (complete with media booths and VIP suites), locker rooms and training facilities, restrooms and concessions stands.
"As I look at the campus as a whole, I can only say that I am proud to be a Marist graduate," Taylor said.
Marist has vastly upgraded its football schedule in recent years. In addition to their abbreviated three-game MAAC schedule, the Red Foxes now face opponents such as Lafayette, Columbia, Bucknell and San Diego. The new Leonidoff Field will also serve as the home of Marist men's and women's soccer, and men's and women's lacrosse.
"Tom has a special legacy at Marist," said the College's President, Dennis J. Murray.
"Along with his good friend, Bob Finn, Father James Driscoll and his own dad, he helped start the Marist College Football program in 1965. Over the decades, he has sustained an intense interest in Marist football and is among its greatest advocates and supporters.
"Tom's passion for football is also reflected in his successful coaching career," Murray added. "His ability to build championship teams is underpinned by his commitment to molding fine young men. Tom's generous support of our stadium project is consistent with his love for Marist and the game, but most of all, his dedication to helping young people be all that they can."
Anyone who knows Taylor, however, would not be surprised by any of these highly-productive developments.
In addition to his coaching football and passion for athletics, he has started, owned and sold over 35 businesses since 1975, businesses ranging from magazine publishing to real estate development.
On the coaching side, Taylor has enjoyed extraordinary success at rejuvenating once-dormant programs. He is the former head football coach at Brookfield High School, directing the team during a 12-year period in which it went 82-39-2 and won four division championships, three conference championships and one state title. Forty-two of his players went on to play college football.
He later resurrected the program at New Milford, taking a team that had long been down on its luck, and in two years winning a South-West Conference divisional championship.
As head coach at Canterbury from 2003 to the present, Taylor took over a team that had a 2-6 record in the season prior to his arrival. Since then, the Saints have been to the NEPSAC Prep Bowl three times, winning the New England crown in 2003. His four-year record at Canterbury is 28-6-1, second-best among New England Preps for that period. The Saints are expected to challenge for another post-season bid this fall.
Thirty-four of Taylor's Canterbury players have gone on to play college football and 100 percent of them have gone to college. He also coached the once-struggling Canterbury boys basketball team to the 2000 Tri-State championship.
Jim Stout is the MaxPreps.com Regional Media Manager for the Northeast. He may be reached at 203-563-2297 or at jstout@maxpreps.com.
