Taylor Brown is leaving the GDS community and moving to Savannah, Georgia to continue his teaching and coaching career after 16 years at GDS. As a farewell to the legendary PE teacher and coach, we decided to do the second and final “In-Depth Deliberation With the PE Legend.”
We met up with Brown at the lower/middle school cafeteria at lunch on Thursday to talk with him one last time for the Bit:
Q: What’s your favorite memory of your time at GDS?
Grinning while he scooped an entire bowl of watermelon on top of his already heaping lunch plate, Brown said, “It’s hard to put one particular memory down as my favorite, to be honest. There’s been a lot of memorable lacrosse seasons and particular practices.”
Q: What’s your favorite workout to run for 9th and 10th graders?
Brown, before answering, quickly downed a glass of lemonade in mere seconds. “Tabata, it’s got to be Tabata,” he said with a wide smile. “It gets the kids moving, gets me moving, and it’s always been one of my favorites,” he added.
For the reader: Brown’s Tabata workouts include the classic interval training paired with renditions of famous hip-hop songs such as Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” sung by female vocalists. He is also known to shout “ALL DAY” and “IT’S GAIN DAY” during workouts.
Q: You’re moving to Savannah, Georgia. Will you be teaching there? What are you looking forward to?
“I’m going to be teaching PE and coaching football and lacrosse. I’m really excited about it,” he said. Brown told us that he was especially excited to be coaching football. “My dad’s been a football coach for over 20 years, so I’m just excited to get back into the shoulder pads,” he added.
Q: Do you have a favorite professional sports moment that occurred while you’ve been teaching at GDS?
Brown, a die-hard New England sports fan, was quick to answer. “I do. Probably one of the many numerous Super Bowls that Tom Brady won,” he said. He grimaced and added, “There’ve also been some not-top-ten moments—I’ve been through some New England choke jobs while teaching here, but the 2007 Patriots Super Bowl loss was the toughest to swallow.”
Q: Would you rather have a Patriots Super Bowl, a Bruins Stanley Cup, a Red Sox World Series or a Celtics Championship?
Brown, with his trademark brevity, answered with a smirk: “I’ve had all of those at some point already. I don’t have to choose.” He was quick to add that he would always rather have a Patriots Super Bowl win than any of the other assorted New England teams’ comparable wins.
Q: In the original article written by Nicholas Howe in 2017, you were asked if you ever compare yourself to Tom Brady. Now, with Brady no longer in New England, we’ve revised the question: Would you ever compare yourself to current starting quarterback Mac Jones?
“Absolutely not,” he responded disapprovingly. “He’s just not my style of athlete. I like the fast athletic type,” he added.
Q: So if you were a New England athlete, who would you be?
Smiling widely he responded, “The Gronk” (referring to now-retired Patriots tight end Robert Gronkowski). “He’s just more my style,” Brown explained.
Q: What’s the craziest excuse that you’ve gotten to get out of a PE workout?
“I’ve heard every excuse you could possibly imagine, from needing a haircut in the middle of class to having injured pinky toes,” he said. Brown told us that his favorite excuse was when a student told him they had suffered a concussion from a badminton shuttlecock.
“Yeah, that one just lives on,” he said pensively.
Q: Are you excited for the new fishing opportunities in Georgia?
“Savannah is right near the ocean, so I’m super excited about it. Some new opportunities. Haven’t done much fishing down there, but I’m sure I’ll find some spots to go for sure,” he said.
Brown, who becomes most animated during discussions of fishing, described some of his fishing trips in New England to us: “There’s nothing that beats the New England waters in terms of coastal fishing. You turn the corner and have a sandy beach, then a ripping current in another. It’s very rare that you have all those environments in such close proximity, which is why it makes good fishing,” he said.
Back in the gym, Brown told us that he had to let us go because he was advising a group of seniors on their backpacking trip. Walking out of the gym, we couldn’t help but feel satisfied that our quest for answers about Brown’s legendary status at GDS had come to an end. Brown was soon going to bring his Eminem remixes and infamous one-liners to a new community.