Now a New Hope resident, Will Taylor is a long way from where he grew up in Saugerties, New York – 1,156 miles and 17-hour car ride to be exact – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
He misses the beautiful mountains and the delicious Italian food but doesn’t mind having a much milder winter than the ones back home.
“(I) much prefer seven months of summer compared to seven months of winter,” Taylor said.
Not to mention, the 55-year-old has made quite the life for himself in Mississippi. His parents are from West Point and Starkville, and he enrolled at Mississippi State in 1988 because of their quality engineering programs. After graduating in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, Taylor never moved from the area.
He is now an owner of two local businesses, a small group youth leader in his church and has an unwavering love for soccer that’s kept him coaching the sport at New Hope since 1996.
“I started as a player at a young age, 5-6-years of age,” he said. “(I) loved the sport, had some really good coaches who fed into me and shared with me their love for the game, and that was impactful in my life. … I have a passion and I enjoy working with kids and helping them grow up and learn, and I think sports is a great tool for learning how to deal with challenges and expectations and … learning life lessons that they are going to have to deal with as they get older.”
For 24 years, Taylor has helped coach the Trojans boys and girls soccer programs, only taking a five-year break from 2008-2013 when his children were going through high school, and his participation there all started at Mt. Vernon Church in Columbus. As a youth leader he learned about the team through some of the players and eventually the head coach at the time asked him to come help. He coached the boys and girls programs at New Hope to a state championship appearance each and was even on staff when the school debuted its first-ever girls soccer team in 1999.
“(I’ve had) a lot of great experiences (and the) opportunity to be involved with a lot of great students, administration and parents,” Taylor said. “Soccer has been a growing sport in Mississippi for the last couple of decades, so it’s come a long way. When I started (there was) very little participation. Very few kids participated in any soccer as a younger child growing up, but that has changed a lot.”
It hasn’t been easy, though, to get new groups of kids interested in playing it every year, especially at a school more-so known for its baseball prowess, but Taylor said wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’ve been fortunate to have several really good administrators, support system and coaches that I’ve worked with that have made it an enjoyable experience,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of kids go on to play college soccer.”
From winless to a force
Last week, Taylor was on the sidelines yelling and shouting out coaching points during New Hope’s sweep of Columbus last week. The boys won 6-1 and the girls earned a 10-0 victory.
“A lot of good kids, we’re really young,” Taylor said. “We start one senior on the boys (team) and two seniors on the girls (team). So, very young teams, which presents new challenges than say in the years past (because) the last couple of years we’ve had some older teams. … They’re eager and they are trying to catch up. Our job is to keep pushing and keep throwing information at them.”
His favorite memory? It’s not coaching the boys team to a state championship appearance in 2021 or the girls title game showing in 2013, but when the girls program won its first-ever game. The season of its inception went winless in 1999 and the team came back the following year looking to finally break through – and did.
“That was very memorable,” he said. “That was a big deal.”
What made the moment so much more special was knowing just how rough it was then the program started. There wasn’t a practice field for them, not much equipment for them to use other than hand-me-down jerseys. After tryouts, it took a fundraising effort to get the bare minimums to practice and field a team.
Forty signed up to play, and he was there to teach them from the ground up.
“It was teaching them like they were 5 years old,” he said. “We started, ‘This is how you trap, this is how you kick,’ and they didn’t even understand the rules. They were just eager to participate in something new to the school. They were very, very eager and they did a fantastic job. They were fantastic to work with and (we) had a great start thanks to them.”
In his free time when he is not coaching or working at his two local businesses – Windshield Express and Taylor Motors – you can find Taylor in the woods if it’s deer season or tuning into a soccer game on TV. He doesn’t have a favorite to watch, he just enjoys seeing the game be played. He’s also still very active in church and has led a small youth group for the majority of the last 30 years.
Coaching, though, is still central in his life, even after all his years spent at New Hope. His love of the game and his passion for teaching keeps him coming back year after year.
“I love the kids, they make it enjoyable, and the coaches I get to work with,” he said. “They are fantastic. They make it enjoyable and you like going to work everyday because of the people around you. That’s a lot of the case as to why I keep going back.”
Posted in Columbus & Lowndes County
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