Yale head coach Tim Taylor announced today that he will remain in New Haven and has withdrawn his name from consideration for the head coaching vacancy at Harvard.
Taylor, who has led Yale for 21 of the last 23 years, was captain of Harvard’s ECAC Championship team in 1963 as a senior. He spent seven years as an assistant at his alma mater before becoming Yale’s head coach in 1976. He is a three-time ECAC Coach of the Year, and he was the head coach of the 1994 US Olympic Team in Lillehammer, Norway.
“It is the right thing for me to remain at Yale,” said Taylor. “So much of my coaching life has been committed to this program. I guess it could be said that the Yale hockey program bears a stamp of my coaching style, personality and efforts over the past 22 years.
“I have worked with tremendous student-athletes, both of great skill and character here in New Haven. Thanks to the never wavering support of the Yale community, student body and most recently Athletic Director Tom Beckett, President Richard Levin and Dean Dick Brodhead, Yale Hockey has never been healthier or more vibrant.
“We have been able to build a great collegiate franchise here at Yale. To be able to combine hockey and academic excellence at the same institution has been a unique and ever so rewarding coaching experience. How could I ever leave this environment?”
Taylor becomes the third person to publicly take his name out of the running for the Crimson head coaching position. On July 12, St. Lawrence head coach Joe Marsh announced that he would not seek the position. Earlier in the month, Bill Beaney, who has won five straight Division III National Championships at Middlebury (Vt.) College, withdrew his name from consideration, citing the length of the process as a concern.
Harvard’s coaching search now turns its attention to the only remaining candidate among the three finalists listed in published reports last week — Miami head coach Mark Mazzoleni. Mazzoleni could not be reached for comment.
The opening was created on May 14, when Ronn Tomassoni resigned after nine years as head coach of the Crimson.
Mazzoleni just completed his fifth season as head coach at Miami. He is a 1980 graduate of Michigan State. Mazzoleni has already compiled over 225 wins in 11 seasons as a head coach overall. In 1996-97 he was named the CCHA Coach of the Year after guiding the Red Hawks to a second place finish in the CCHA and an NCAA Tournament berth.
With so many top candidates withdrawing their names from consideration, Harvard could return its attention to former captain Kevin Sneddon, who just completed his first year as head coach at Union. Or the Crimson could turn to assistant Jerry Pawloski, who also interviewed for the position.
