Carl Taylor - Head Softball Coach - Softball Coaches

Carl Taylor

Title:
Head Softball Coach
Email:
carl.c.taylor@drexel.edu
Phone:
215-895-1976

Carl Taylor enters his seventh season at the helm of the Dragons. He joined the Drexel Athletics staff in February 2015 as the interim head coach before being made the permanent head coach in July of the same year.

Taylor coached the Dragons to a 32-27-1 record in 2019 – the fourth-most wins in program history and their first winning season in 10 years. Drexel went 9-12 in CAA play, good enough for a fourth-place finish in the conference and an appearance in the conference tournament for the first time since 2005. While at the CAA Championships, the Dragons went 2-2 to notch their first-ever postseason victories since joining the conference in 2002.

Three Drexel players received All-CAA distinctions following the 2019 season. Kristi DiMeo and Linda Rush both made the first team, and Megan Trivelpiece appeared on the second team. Those three also featured on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Northeast Region Team, with DiMeo receiving first team honors.

DiMeo and Rush continued their attack on the program record books in 2019, setting a plethora of single-season marks in 2019. Rush set team records in batting average (.423), runs (71), hits (80), doubles (19), home runs (22), runs batted in (80), total bases (165) and slugging percentage (.873). Additionally, DiMeo hit safely in 21-straight games for a new program record

In 2018, the Dragons recorded 21 wins and broke five individual program records. Under Taylor’s direction, freshman Kristi DiMeo claimed the top spot for four of Drexel’s single-season records (doubles, home runs, total bases and RBI) and sophomore Linda Rush surpassed the single-season mark for runs scored. In addition, the standout duo also received NFCA Division I Second Team All-Region honors. The Dragon’s 2018 All-Colonial Athletic Association awards under Taylor featured three underclassmen – DiMeo, Rush and Elena Woulfe. DiMeo led the squad as she was named All-CAA First Team and All-Rookie Team while Rush was named Second Team and Woulfe was named All-Rookie Team. Taylor also guided Rush, Taylor Kent and Jenelle Ladrido to earning their 100th hits this past season.

In 2017 the Dragons earned 19 wins including four against conference opponents. Drexel's first CAA victory of the year came as it came from behind to defeat Delaware with a walk-off grand slam from senior Jourdan Skirha. The Dragons went on to earn a series win over Towson later in the season and then finished out the year with a win in the opening game of their series against Hofstra. This marked the first time the Dragons had defeated the Pride since 2006. Under Coach Taylor’s guidance, freshman standout Linda Rush was selected as a member of the 2017 CAA All-Rookie Team after she rewrote Drexel Softball’s record book in six single-season categories. For her performance, Rush also earned Second Team All-Region honors from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

In 2016 the Dragons recorded 20 wins for the first time since 2012. Under Taylor’s direction, Paula Ueno was selected to First Team All-CAA for the second consecutive year and Jenelle Ladrido was named to the All-Rookie squad. Ueno led the conference in batting average as a senior and set the school record for single-season hits with 68. Ueno was also named to the NFCA’s Northeast All-Region Third Team for her performance on the season.

In his first year with Drexel, Taylor led the Dragons to 19 wins after joining the team just two weeks before the season began. The squad finished sixth in conference with six victories over Colonial Athletic Association opponents. Under his direction Sylvia Llamas and Paula Ueno each earned First Team All-CAA honors, making them the first Dragons to earn this recognition since 2012.

Taylor took over the Dragons after a four-year stint as the head softball coach at Winslow High School in Atco, N.J., where he had been teaching health and physical education since 1984. In addition, Taylor was an assistant coach for the Philadelphia Force women’s professional softball team based out of Allentown, Pa. from 2008-2009 after being an assistant coach at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, N.J. for the 2007-08 season.

Prior to this, Taylor served as the head softball coach at Rutgers-Camden from 1995 to 2007 during which he led the Scarlet Raptors to become 2006 Division III National Champions after a 47-5 season that included a 29-game winning streak. This marked the only time in Rutgers-Camden history that a team had accomplished this feat. Taylor and his assistants were named the NFCA Division III National Coaching Staff of the Year for the team’s outstanding performance that season.

While at Rutgers-Camden, Taylor was a three-time New Jersey Athletic Conference Coach of the Year recipient and his teams were named NJAC Conference Champions and Tournament Champions in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. In 2011, Rutgers-Camden inducted Taylor and the 2006 National Championship-winning softball team into its Athletics Hall of Fame. During his time at Rutgers-Camden, Taylor also had a brief stint as the head coach of the women’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams.

Taylor was drafted in the third round of the 1979 Major League Baseball draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is a 1982 graduate of New Mexico Highlands University where he earned a bachelor of arts in health and physical education. Taylor currently resides in Voorhees, N.J.