For more than three decades, Kathy Taylor coached girls and women through some of the most demanding stages of their athletic and personal development. Her career spanned high school, Division III, Division II, and Division I women’s lacrosse, including coaching roles at Fayetteville-Manlius High School, SUNY Cortland, Le Moyne College, and Colgate University.

Across those lacrosse programs, Taylor worked with hundreds of young women navigating competitive pressure, injury, disappointment, leadership responsibility, and the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Wins and championships marked her résumé, but the more enduring measure of her career is found in the women who played for her and the lives they built afterward.

Those women include educators, coaches, executives, healthcare professionals, military officers, and mothers. Their reflections share a consistent theme: Coach Kathy Taylor was demanding, direct, and unwavering in her standards, but deeply invested in the people she coached.

“Having Kathy Taylor as a coach has made the biggest impact on me as a player and a human being.”
– Katie Feeley / Former player at Fayetteville-Manlius High School; later played at the University of Maryland and coached Division I lacrosse

Feeley’s perspective carries particular authority. Her lacrosse career exposed her to multiple Hall of Fame coaches at the highest level of the sport. Even so, she identifies Taylor as the most influential figure in her development, both on the field and beyond it.

At SUNY Cortland, Taylor led one of the most successful programs in Division III women’s lacrosse. There, she coached athletes who arrived unsure of themselves and left as leaders.

“She taught me to stand up for myself and to believe in my capability to be a freshman starter and then a senior captain.”
– Erin Kollar / Former SUNY Cortland women’s lacrosse player and senior captain; now a teacher and coach

Kollar entered college timid. She graduated as a captain. Years later, as a teacher and coach, she continues to rely on the confidence and leadership habits shaped during her time under Taylor.

Taylor’s tenure at Le Moyne College further solidified her reputation as a program builder. Under her leadership, Le Moyne won the 2018 NCAA Division II National Championship, and she was named IWLCA National Coach of the Year. Her teams posted a 97–12 record and reached four consecutive Final Fours.

Yet players often speak less about the trophies and more about the environment she created.

“After transferring multiple times and struggling with my mental health, Coach Taylor opened her team and her heart to me when I needed it most.”
– Madison Pritchard Killen / Former Le Moyne College women’s lacrosse player; member of the 2018 National Championship team

Killen’s experience reflects a reality common in college athletics but rarely acknowledged publicly. Transfers, injuries, and mental health challenges can leave athletes unmoored. For Killen, Taylor’s program provided stability, belonging, and trust at a critical moment.

Other players describe similar consistency even when their on-field roles changed.

“Through all of those ups and downs, I never once questioned how much Coach Taylor cared for me, and wanted me to succeed.”
– Jackie Pardee / Former Le Moyne College women’s lacrosse player

Pardee played through periods of limited playing time and personal difficulty. What remained constant, she says, was Taylor’s engagement and support. That steadiness mattered long after graduation, particularly as Pardee entered professional environments led by strong women with high expectations.

For some former players, the lessons carried directly into positions of extraordinary responsibility.

“I can state with absolute certainty that the foundation of my leadership and resiliency was built under Coach Taylor.”
– Jordan A. Miller / Former SUNY Cortland lacrosse player; later a U.S. Army Major leading more than 500 soldiers

Miller’s career took her from collegiate athletics to military command. She has been clear that the leadership habits and resilience required in that role were forged under Taylor’s coaching.

Others followed Taylor directly into coaching.

“While she demanded excellence on the field, she led with profound compassion.”
– Lindsay Abbott Byrnes / Four-time All-American at SUNY Cortland; later coached alongside Kathy Taylor

Byrnes became a four-time All-American under Taylor and later returned to coach with her, gaining perspective from both sides of the whistle. Today, as a high school coach and mother of three, she continues to apply the same balance of accountability and care in her own program.

These accounts matter because they span decades, programs, and life paths. They come from women who stayed, graduated, led, and built lives shaped by the habits they learned under Taylor’s guidance.

Taylor’s later career included her hiring at Colgate University, where she was brought in to elevate the women’s lacrosse program and raise competitive standards. As is often the case in leadership transitions, that period involved difficult decisions, roster evaluations, and cultural shifts. A third-party investigation conducted by Colgate University cleared Taylor of wrongdoing, and she was retained as head coach.

Despite that finding, public narratives often reduced her career to a single chapter rather than three decades of documented work. What those narratives omit are the voices of women who experienced her coaching across different institutions and eras and who continue to credit her with preparing them for leadership, accountability, and self-trust.

In women’s athletics, particularly in non-revenue sports, coaches are hired to make programs more competitive. That responsibility includes hard conversations and decisions that are not universally welcomed. Discomfort is not abuse, and accountability is not cruelty. The distinction matters, especially when reputations built over decades are at stake.

Taylor retired after a long and successful coaching career. Her record includes championships, All-Americans, national leadership roles, and sustained institutional trust. More importantly, it includes women who continue to lead classrooms, teams, organizations, families, and communities with the confidence they learned under her direction.

For mothers reading these stories, there is a familiar pattern. The coach who pushes. The mentor who listens. The adult who insists that young women take themselves seriously. Those influences often endure long after jerseys are packed away.

Kathy Taylor’s legacy is not defined by controversy. It is defined by the women who speak, years later, with clarity about who she was to them and what she helped them become.

About Lacrosse Coach Kathy Taylor

Kathy Taylor is a retired women’s lacrosse coach and a mother, with more than 30 years of experience coaching at the high school and collegiate levels. Her career includes coaching roles at Fayetteville-Manlius High School, SUNY Cortland, Le Moyne College, and as the head women’s lacrosse coach at Colgate University. She led teams to state and national championships, coached multiple All-Americans, and served in national leadership positions including President of the International Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association and member of the U.S. Women’s National Team Selection Committee. Former players consistently describe her coaching as demanding, supportive, and grounded in long-term personal and professional development.