Honoring the Legacy of Beloved Football Coach Dylan Taylor

M-A football coach Dylan Taylor died at the age of 30 on Tuesday morning in a bicycle accident. Along with assistant coaching the Bears’ freshman football team, Taylor worked as a paraeducator and coached sports teams at multiple local middle and elementary schools. 

Taylor began working as a paraeducator in 2020 for the Achieving Independent Minds program, which is dedicated to supporting students with special needs. He spent time at each of the Menlo Park City School District and Las Lomitas Elementary School District sites throughout his career. 

“Dylan did a great job working with students and really making sure they felt special. I think he always worked toward making sure students always felt like they belonged, and it’s very clear to us that he was good at that,” MPCSD Superintendent Kristen Gracia said. 

Gracia was also Taylor’s first grade teacher at Laurel in 2001. “He’s just one of those students that’s easy to remember. He was very much a hugger, he always wanted to be right next to me, and he was a ball of enthusiasm,” she said.

“I had the privilege of knowing his first-grade self and then seeing him as a thriving adult,” Gracia said. “The little person he was in first grade, those positive attributes about his personality, his enthusiasm, his love—I could see that in all the stories people are telling now and all the connections he had in our community.”

Taylor started working at Hillview Middle School in 2020 as a paraeducator and coach. This year, Taylor coached flag football in the fall, seventh grade basketball in the winter, and track and field in the spring. 

At Hillview, he worked closely with P.E. teacher and Athletics Commissioner Nick Fogel. “Dylan is someone that began as a coach for me and developed into a lifelong friendship,” Fogel said. “Dylan was a firm believer in life lessons being taught through sports, and he coached to make connections with our families and students in the community.” 

“He never took himself too seriously, and he was the first to make a mistake and let others know that’s part of sports and growing as a person—learning from your mistakes and trying again,” Fogel said. 

Fogel recalled a moment when a few girls were hesitant to try hurdles. “Coach Taylor made a deal with them that he would do a cartwheel if they completed the hurdles, and sure enough, Dylan was doing his cartwheel. Dylan could not do a cartwheel, to be clear, but he gave his best effort and laughed at himself and reminded the students not to take themselves too seriously and give their best effort,” he said.  

Taylor started out as an M-A freshman football coach over the summer. “He made it a purpose and a goal of his to come join M-A’s community and football program,” M-A Head Football Coach Chris Saunders said. “It was very clear to me early on that he was a guy who had all the right intentions and really enjoyed working in education and athletics.”

Freshman Jaime Parada Hernandez played football under Taylor this past fall. “He was so positive all the time. Even when he was angry with us, he still had that smile on his face,” Parada said. “I feel like that’s just who he was as a person—you could never wipe that smile off his face.” 

“Even when I didn’t know a lot about football, as I got to know more, he encouraged me to get better at what I do,” freshman Kennedy Monroe, another player, said. 

“He always looked at the brighter side of things,” Parada said. “Our second-to-last game was a loss, but we scored the most touchdowns we had in the entire season, and instead of focusing on our loss, he focused on the little wins that we had.”

While Taylor and Parada’s relationship started as just coach and player, it soon became a friendship. “I knew some of his hobbies, the types of music he listened to, and I feel like I really got to know him. He was always supportive. I think he’s one of the coaches who got me the most.”

Coworkers and players described Taylor as a cheerful and spirited figure in the football community. “I was always impressed with how consistently positive and smiling he was,” Saunders said. “He broke his foot last year and was hobbling around in this boot, but he just refused to let it be a crutch for him. Football is obviously a very active environment—big field, lots of space to cover—and he just powered through.”

Taylor began an ultimate frisbee club with local parents and students at Burgess Park on Sundays. “Every Sunday, he would text me and say, ‘Hey, can you come to ultimate frisbee?’” Hernandez said. “People went because of who he was: he was a fun, loving guy who wanted to bring people together,” Fogel said.

“It’s important to know that he was more than a coach to everyone in the football community because everyone really looked up to him and everyone is saddened by this news. Just to say he was a coach is downplaying his life,” Parada said.

On Taylor’s Ultimate Frisbee Facebook page, his father announced there would be a Celebration of Life in the Sequoia Room Patio at Arrillaga Recreation Center on Sunday, May 18, at 2 p.m.