Hobart and William Smith Colleges Athletics

Edward Jeremiah Award (AHCA Division III Men's Coach of the Year): 2023, 2024

Edward Jeremiah Award Finalist: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

NEHC Coach of the Year: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

ECAC West Coach of the Year: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2015, 2016

Just the fourth man to lead the Hobart hockey program, Mark Taylor continues to add to his reputation as the most successful coach in Hobart hockey history. In 24 seasons, he has compiled a record of 435-177-56, including three consecutive national championships (2023-25). Taylor has guided the Statesmen to 14 NCAA tournament bids.
 
A two-time AHCA Division III Coach of the Year, Taylor was inducted into the Hobart Hall of Fame with the Class of 2023. He is a 11-time finalist for the National Coach of the Year award and has been named conference coach of the year 10 times.

When Taylor was hired to lead the Statesmen in July of 2000, he inherited a program that had suffered seven consecutive losing seasons. In 23 of his 24 seasons, Taylor has registered at least 10 wins. He has produced all 11 of the program's 20-win seasons. Taylor’s team won a program-record 29 games on its way to claiming the national title in 2023 and repeated the feat in 2025.

A tremendous motivator and recruiter, Taylor has mentored 81 all-conference selections and 27 all-rookie team selections. All 25 of Hobart's All-Americans have come during his time in Geneva. Seven Statesmen have been named conference player of the year under Taylor’s leadership: Craig Levey ’05, Shawn Houde ’08, Matthew Wallace ’11, Mac Olson ’16, Luke Aquaro ’25, Artem Buzoverya '24 and Tanner Daniels '26. Aquaro, Buzoverya and Daniels were the runner up for the Sid Watson Award. Taylor has had four players earn conference defensive player of the year recognition, one goaltender of the year and eight rookie of the year.

Taylor's charges have also excelled in the classroom, boasting 241 conference all-academic team honors, 52 AHCA All-American Scholars awards and two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.

Committed to enriching the lives of his student-athletes, Taylor supervises a team trip overseas to Europe every four years. In 2004-05, the Statesmen traveled to Germany and the Czech Republic, in 2008-09 the team visited Switzerland and France, and in 2012-13 the Statesmen traveled to Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Germany. In 2016-17 the team explored France and Switzerland. Along with experiencing the countries culture’s first-hand, Hobart played exhibition games against local teams.

Taylor has guided Hobart to an unprecedented level of success over the past three seasons, winning three consecutive NCAA Division III National Championships while guiding the Statesmen to an 86-5-2 record that also includes three straight NEHC Championships. His 2022-23 and 2024-25 teams both won a program season record 29 games. Between Nov. 11, 2023, and Jan. 25, 2025, Hobart posted a NCAA record 42-game unbeaten streak (41-0-1), the second longest streak in all of college hockey. Even more impressive, Hobart has won a NCAA Division III record 53 consecutive games on its home ice.

The 2018-19 season marked Hobart's fourth 20-win season in the past five years. Hobart The Statesmen earned their fifth straight and ninth overall trip to the NCAA tournament. Hobart advanced to the national semifinals after earning an at-large bid. The Statesmen ranked No .5 in the final USCHO.com poll and fourth in the final D3hockey.com poll. 

From 2014-15 to 2017-18, Taylor's Statesmen won four consecutive conference championships, including three ECAC West titles and its first NEHC championship. Hobart also skated to three 20-win seasons during that four-year span.

In just his fourth season at the helm, Taylor led the Statesmen to the first conference championship in program history, defeating RIT 3-1 in the ECAC West Championship game. Two years after that, the Statesmen advanced in the NCAA tournament for the first time, defeating Norwich 3-1 in the quarterfinals before falling to St. Norbert 5-4 in overtime in the semifinals.

An active member of the hockey community, Taylor has coached in the USA Hockey Development program for several years, most recently the 2003 Select 14 Development Camp in Rochester, and mentored monthly clinics for Geneva Youth Hockey.

In the summer of 2005, Taylor was a featured coach at the A.P.O.C. Aboriginal Prospects Opportunity Camp, in Quebec. The mission of the summer camp is to expose Cree and Aboriginal players to Junior A and college coaches.

In 2023, Taylor guided the United States to a silver medal at the FISU World University Games in Lake Placid. The U.S. hockey team went 5-2-0 in the tournament picking up wins over Great Britain, Korea, Kazakhstan Hungray and Japan. The Americans won Goup B and won just their second medal in the the tournament. 

Prior to joining the Hobart family, Taylor served five seasons as the top assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. With the River Hawks, he was involved in all aspects of coaching and was in charge of recruiting. A highly successful recruiter, he attracted five players to the program who were selected in the NHL draft, including the Montreal Canadiens 1999 first round pick (13th overall), Ron Hainsey.

Prior to joining the staff at UMass-Lowell, Taylor spent five seasons as the top assistant coach at Cornell University. Under the supervision of then Cornell head coach and current Buffalo Sabres Associate Coach Brian McCutcheon, he helped guide the Big Red to an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Taylor began his coaching career in 1987 with single-season stints at Middlebury College, Brown University, and the University of Vermont.

A 1985 graduate of Elmira College, Taylor was the Soaring Eagles MVP and an All-ECAC selection as a senior. He transferred to Elmira after a pair of National Junior College Athletic Association Championships at SUNY Canton, earning All-American defenseman honors for the Northmen. Following his graduation from Elmira, Taylor played two seasons for Ange in the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation.

A native of Canton, N.Y., Taylor and his wife, Lauren, have three sons, Alexander, Dylan, and Jonathan.