BIO

An Attleboro native, Coach Naylor was for 32 years a fixture in the Barnstable High School classroom and on the tennis courts. A graduate of Coyle Cassidy where he played tennis, baseball and ice hockey, he went to Boston College for two years and then to Holy Cross for his last two years of college before receiving a commission in the United States Navy in World War II.

A second lieutenant, Coach Naylor served in the European Theatre as well as the Philippines during the war. While in Europe, he piloted various landing crafts and was present in combat during the second wave on D-Day. He received the Bronze Star with Combat V for that mission.

For close to 30 years, Barnstable High did not offer boys or girls tennis until Naylor – along with Eldon Lawson – re-established the sport in the early 1960s with Naylor taking the varsity boys reins in 1966. From that point forward until he was named Coach of the Year in 1979, Naylor’s boys’ teams never staged a losing season and captured multiple league championship titles including four of his last six seasons at the helm. Additionally, Naylor was instrumental in helping solidify a varsity girls tennis program and he served as that team’s head coach from 1966 to 1969.

It was during the 1959-60 school year, however, that Naylor’s influence may have had an equally historical impact on the Red Raider athletics program as he joined fellow hall of famer Elliot MacSwan in creating the school’s first-ever varsity ice hockey program. As the program’s first assistant coach, Naylor was on hand in the inaugural varsity campaign, one which saw the Red & White play its home games outdoors at the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Memorial Skating Rink in Hyannis, prior to its being covered in 1965. He was inducted into the BHS Hall of Fame Nov. 24, 2012.