Newark Athletics

New Brunswick Athletics

Carl Taylor

Carl Taylor begins his first season as the Lady Raptors' volleyball head coach, adding to his impressive Rutgers-Camden resume which features 10 stellar years building the softball program into a national power.

For the second straight season, Taylor led his Lady Raptors softball team to the NCAA tournament in 2005, capping a campaign in which Rutgers-Camden went 35-8-1, won the regular-season New Jersey Athletic Conference title and recorded a school record for all sports with 26 consecutive wins.

Taylor's team peaked at No. 2 in the national poll and finished at No. 11, the highest NCAA rankings for any Rutgers-Camden sport.

The Lady Raptors also produced the first All-American in program history as junior Michelle Schlichtig was named to the 2005 Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America First Team, one of only two pitchers in the nation to earn that honor.

Schlichtig's All-America recognition capped a season in which six Lady Raptors earned various awards, ranging from NJAC weekly and post-season honors to regional and national accomplishments.

The 2005 season helped Taylor earn his second straight honor as Rutgers-Camden's Coach of the Year. It was the third time overall he has won that award, including the 1999-2000 school year.

In the last two seasons, Taylor's team has posted an amazing 71-19-1 record on the way to the only two NCAA berths in program history. Taylor has coached 283 games at Rutgers-Camden (50.3 percent of all games in program history). With a 171-110-2 record, he owns 69.2 percent of all wins in the history of a program which dates back to 1979.

After spending the early part of his Rutgers-Camden career rebuilding the softball program, Taylor's teams have posted a phenomenal 156-67-2 over the last six seasons.

Rutgers-Camden's 2005 season came on the heels of a banner 2004 campaign, which earned Taylor honors as the NJAC Coach Softball Coach of the Year. Taylor's 2004 team produced a program-record 36-11 mark on its way to a feat accomplished by only one other team in the history of Rutgers-Camden. That team won the program's first NJAC championship - one year after the women's basketball program captured the school's first NJAC title - and earned a berth in the NCAA Regionals at Salisbury University. Playing in the first NCAA tournament in program history, the Lady Raptors advanced to the winner-take-all regional final before losing to Salisbury, which went on to finish third in the country.

The Lady Raptors' banner season not only earned Taylor his NJAC Coach of the Year honor, but produced the program's first NJAC Softball Player of the Year in Schlichtig. The Lady Raptors placed a program-record six players on the All-NJAC First Team: Schlichtig, Mo Baney, Celeste Chinappi, Stacy Haas, Becky Johnson and Autumn Millett. They won eight more games than the previous program record, which was set during their 28-11-1 season in 2003. They also temporarily produced the school's best NJAC mark at 12-6. That mark was shattered by a 12-3-1 NJAC run in 2005.

The Raptors' 2004 success was built around the incredible pitching of Schlichtig and Johnson, who combined to lead the nation in team ERA (0.59).

The Raptors' 36-11 record allowed Taylor's program to improve its record for an unbelievable seventh consecutive year, and set a program record for victories for the fifth straight season.

The 2004 season improved on the banner accomplishments from 2003, when Taylor earned his 100th collegiate coaching victory, helped the program qualify for its first NJAC playoffs berth since it became a four-team event, set short-lived program records for best overall (28-11-1) and NJAC (11-6-1) records, and reached the ECAC South Softball Championship final. By posting a 2-2 mark in the 2003 ECAC South tournament, the Lady Raptors set their program record for most post-season wins. That mark was quickly shattered in 2004 when Rutgers-Camden posted a 7-3 post-season mark in NJAC and NCAA tournament play.

Taylor's milestone 100th victory came May 10, 2003 with a 3-1 win over Drew University in the opening game of the ECAC South Softball Championship. That win allowed the Raptors to tie their 2002 school record of 27 victories, a mark which they broke the next day with a 1-0 win, also against Drew.

The 2003 season allowed Taylor to climb over the .500 level for his career, erasing the hole created in his first four years when he was building the program.

The 2003 Lady Raptors featured a trio of All-NJAC First Team performers in Sarah O'Malley, Lindsay Davis and Chinappi. Taylor's squad also saw three more players earn NJAC Second Team honors B Allison Cooney, Beth Laputka and Johnson.

Taylor not only has kept the program's success climbing to new heights each season, but he has enhanced the whole softball experience at Rutgers-Camden as well. The Lady Raptors played their first season on the new Rutgers-Camden Community Park field in 2002, and it turned out to be quite a year. In addition to setting a record for victories, which has since been broken, Rutgers-Camden saw O'Malley lead the nation in ERA, posting a stingy 0.47 mark to top all NCAA Division III hurlers.

The 2002 season included a school-record 14-game winning streak (tied in 2004 and broken in 2005), the first season the Raptors went .500 (9-9) in NJAC play, three no-hitters, including a perfect game, and numerous other single-game, single-season and career marks.

In addition to his tenure as the Lady Raptors softball coach, Taylor served as an assistant coach with the Rutgers-Camden women's basketball program during the 2004-05 season.

Taylor has been involved in sports for years, as a player and as a coach. He has coached several levels of ASA Travel Softball, producing three ASA Fastpitch New Jersey state champions and two NSA Fastpitch New Jersey state champions. His teams also have earned one Northeast Regional ASA championship and one USSSA Fastpitch national championship.

Taylor also coaches football at Winslow Township High School, and coached high school baseball at Northern Burlington, Cinnaminson and Edgewood. He has been an instructor at several area baseball camps, including the Phillies' camp, and has participated in many clinics.

Taylor also has played semi-pro baseball for years in South Jersey.

Taylor played four years of football, baseball and basketball at Maple Shade High School, graduating in 1976. Following two years at Camden County College, where he played baseball, he attended New Mexico Highlands University. He played baseball and football for the Cowboys, earning all-conference honors as a pitcher. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third round of the 1979 amateur draft, but did not sign.

Taylor graduated from New Mexico Highlands in 1982, earning his B.A. in Physical Education and Health. A New Jersey-certified Physical Education and Health teacher for grades K-12, Taylor works at Winslow Township High School.