Kathy Taylor Reviews

This is response to the USA Today "Investigation" as well as to some of your reader's feedback. Kathy was our daughter's High School coach a few years prior to her move to SUNY Cortland. Our daughter was not a starter and fought through some injuries on those powerhouse teams. Did our daughter always love her - no - but she fully appreciated that Kathy was motivated to bring out the best in her athletes for the benefit of the TEAM. Had this USA Today Investigative Team interviewed the departing (and many) retained athletes after Syracuse University fired Greg Robinson as football coach, replacing him with Doug Marrone , there would have been a similar one-sided flavor to that article. (A feel-good coach leading an undisciplined program for his polar opposite.) The article holds Colgate out as almost a Mecca for Division I Women's Lax athletes. That is simply not the case, as the team's record over the 13 years prior to Kathy's arrival reflects. Is Division I different from Division III (SUNY Cortland} and II (LeMoyne) ? Absolutely, athletic scholarships to a highly selective, expensive University is a blessing (not without a downside for sure). Did Colgate hope to improve their program? Get more "bang for their buck" with their scholarship money? Did they seek out a coach with a record of success running disciplined programs? I'm guessing the answer to all three is yes. Kathy had athletes from our High School, years after she left, applying to play for her at SUNY Cortland. They and their parents were well aware of her expectations and style. I was glad to see that the limited positive input did include that of an athlete who chose to transfer from SUNY Cortland to LeMoyne in order to finish her career with Kathy. There is no excuse for body shaming and pushing injured athletes back into practice into play - if that is accurate, there must be consequences. But, encouraging an accomplished player to gain strength and weight in order to become an even better athlete? Isn't that in the best interests of the athlete and team? The article shared some background and game stats for some of the better starters for the team. Were they asked to modify their play for the overall benefit of the team? Did they resent this? Some of your readers have also weighed in with gay-shaming? There were some gay athletes on my daughter's team - there was NONE of that. The 6 Seniors were clear on the fact that did not like playing for Kathy. Not mentioned in the article were the circumstances of their prior coach's departure. Given the team's record, one would expect that it was not harmonious. No doubt, resentment for this may have played a part in their acceptance of the transition. To what extent did this attitude metastasize to the rest of the team? Our daughter played for four coaches in High School and College. Would her College program have benefitted from having Kathy as coach, particularly the last two years? Would she have welcomed a return to her disciplined coaching style for improved TEAM success? Absolutely. With attorney involvement on both sides, obtaining more balance for this article would have been difficult. To publish it primarily amplifying the grievances of the athletes who volunteered, with little effort to provide any perspective, feasting on low-hanging fruit, is BAD Journalism!