His Own Playbook

For Harlem Taylor ’26, football opened doors — but curiosity, creativity, and community shaped the journey.

BY KRISTIN DUISBERG

When Harlem Taylor ’26 joins the Dartmouth Big Green’s defensive line in the fall, it will be the realization of a dream he’s held since early childhood: to play college football for a Division I team. The youngest of 13 siblings, Taylor had plenty of role models when it came to choosing a path for himself, and when he started playing football at the age of 5, he was following in the footsteps of his father and older brothers. But as the first of his family members to play collegiately, as well as the first to attend St. Paul’s School, the Manchester, New Hampshire, native hasn’t exactly stuck to the family script — instead, he has blazed his own trail, one that has included not just athetics but also academics, arts, and his sense of what it means to be a role model.

From a young age, Taylor says, his father impressed upon him that academics had to come before football — even as he found himself on travel teams playing across and beyond the state. “So in eighth grade, I knew I wanted to go somewhere I could play high-level football and possibly play at the next level in college while also getting a great education,” he says. “And obviously it doesn’t get much better than St. Paul’s.”

At St. Paul’s, Taylor’s football success came quickly. As a Third Former, he made a varsity squad that went 7-2, and the highlight reel of his four years includes playing on a 2024 team that went undefeated and claimed a 23-20 John Papas Bowl victory over Buckingham Browne and Nichols at Boston College, a game where his name appears frequently on the stat sheet. “That group was really special,” he recalls. “We were all willing to put everything on the line for one another, and we knew how we had to execute to win [the championship] and we did a really good job of it. I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything in the world.”

Beyond the gridiron, Taylor played basketball, put in a season with the wrestling team, and competed in track and field, serving as a captain for that team this year. Ask the 6’3”, 240-pound defensive end what SPS experiences have had the greatest impact on him, however, and you might hear how meeting Languages Department Head Jenny Li P’21 during the summer Bridges program before his Third Form year inspired him to take four years of Chinese, and led to him traveling to China on a Spring Break Experiential Trip this past March. Or how he discovered a passion for photography that culminated in an exhibit of his images at Crumpacker Gallery with other Senior Art Seminar students in the weeks before graduation. Or the role models in the forms of 2023, 2024, and 2025 who shaped his own approach to mentoring younger students in his capacity as an Omar Brown Fellow dedicated to service and building Beloved Community, one of the student leaders of the Onyx affinity group, and a prefect in Coit North.

I didn’t necessarily notice it in the moment, but looking back, I see that everything I’ve experienced at St. Paul’s really shaped me into the person I am today.

— Harlem Taylor ’26

“My prefects my freshman and sophomore year really did make my experience better in the dorm,” he says, “and I wanted to give that to other students, especially the incoming freshmen. As a prefect, you’re kind of in that in-between place between adviser and student. You’re someone the younger students can talk to who are close to their own age who have maybe experienced the same things they’ve experienced.”

Taylor also points to older student role models in terms of the faith identity he’s developed during his time at St. Paul’s — an experience he describes as life-changing.

“St. Paul’s has really changed my way of viewing people,” he says. “The support I’ve gotten, the faith I’ve developed, and just talking to new people … I’ve learned it’s possible to have things in common with people whose experiences are different from mine.”

As he moves on from Millville, Taylor says that what he’ll miss most is the bonds he’s created with teachers and other students and the resources and support that made his four years at SPS such a success. Even as he prepares to trade his Big Red uniform for that of the Big Green, he says, he will carry those things with him. “I’m the first person in my family to attend a high academic school. I’m going to be playing football in the Ivy League,” he says. “I didn’t necessarily notice it in the moment, but looking back, I see that everything I’ve experienced at St. Paul’s really shaped me into the person I am today.”