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In his day, obvious leadership ability took precedence over certification, and non-faculty people were permitted to coach in high schools. Haywood Taylor, who managed the Hoopes Estate, had been a professional runner, and as an avocation began to train the high school teams in the late teens. From this duty he progressed to coach a track team which had no track, but had the quarter-mile straightaway of Market Street. On this "oval" he developed contenders and winners of county and WPIAL championships for ten years. A few homemade hurdles, a combination jumping and vaulting pit, and space to toss a discus completed the facilities. He knew conditioning, could teach skills, but primarily he knew boys, could make them feel one inch or 20 feet tall, sometimes with the aid of a willow switch. He earned a unique kind of respect, and his appearance on Third Street in an evening during the season was an automatic curfew signal.