Remembering "Coach Tags": Louis M. Taglieri, 1961-2020

It was the summer of 2011 when Hoboken’s most famous resident was introduced to Hoboken’s favorite native son. Well, at least one who didn’t sing for a living, that is.

That summer, the National Football League was embroiled in an owner’s lockout, which was basically the NFL’s way of keeping the league’s players out of entering the respective team facilities until a new collective bargaining agreement was reached.

So it meant that if the New York Giants wanted to hold impromptu workouts, they had to do it on their own at a location that was not owned by the league.

Eli Manning, the celebrated Giants’ quarterback, knew that his team had a good chance of contending for another Super Bowl championship like they won three years prior.

So Manning wanted to hold unofficial workout sessions with his receivers, but needed a site to hold these passing and route running drills. Manning thought it would be logistically feasible to hold such workouts in his adopted hometown of Hoboken, where at the time Manning resided with his growing family.

Manning made one phone call – to the Hoboken High School head football coach Lou Taglieri.

“I got in touch with Coach Tag,” Manning said. “I told him that we had a number of guys who wanted to come use the field in Hoboken (namely JFK Stadium).”

That’s all it took, just the one phone call to establish a relationship that remained strong over the last nine years.

“Coach Tag was so helpful to us,” Manning said. “He didn’t tell anyone at all. We were able to come in and get our work done. I just remember how excited he was that we came and worked out at Hoboken High. I think it was so important that he told no one, that we were able to come in and get our work done. We were there for business. We weren’t joking around. We had work to do.”

Manning spent the better part of the summer months throwing to receivers Hakeem Nicks, Mario Manningham, Victor Cruz, Domenik Hixon, Jerrel Jernigan and tight ends Kevin Boss and Bear Pascoe.

“If anyone knew, there would have been a lot of media there and it would have been a distraction,” Manning said. “Coach Tag made sure that no one came in to bother us. To his credit, he didn’t tell anyone. He was adamant about keeping it quiet. He knew we wanted to get our work in and get out. We signed a few autographs or so, but mostly, we weren’t bothered. Coach Tag saw to that.”

The sessions became especially very beneficial to Cruz, the Paterson native who was looking to earn a permanent spot on the Giants’ roster. Cruz, an undrafted free agent out of the University of Massachusetts, became the Giants’ sensation that season, catching 82 passes for 1,536 yards (a new franchise record for receiving yardage) and nine touchdowns, complete with his patented salsa dances in the end zone.

In the next-to-last regular season game that year, a Manning-to-Cruz TD pass against the rival Jets went for 99 yards (also a club and NFL record) and catapulted the Giants to a postseason to remember. But that record breaking season all started in the Hoboken heat in June and July.

“Victor and I got on the same page from those workouts,” Manning said. “He started to learn about his routes and what he was supposed to do. That started his breakout season. A lot of that work all began in Hoboken.”

So when Manning was informed about Coach Taglieri’s untimely and shocking passing Tuesday afternoon while vacationing with his family in Virginia Beach, Manning was deeply saddened like the thousands of others who loved and admired the man known in the Mile Square City as “Coach Tags.”

“I was very sad to hear about the loss,” Manning said. “I couldn’t help but think about his family. He was a great man and a wonderful coach. He was so helpful to us over the years. We never had to use the field again after that one year, but he was willing to do anything for us. He loved the game of football.”

Manning said that he remained in touch with Taglieri from time to time ever since the two became friends in 2011.

“We made some donations to the Hoboken football program,” Manning said. “We did that a few times. I would keep up with how the Hoboken football team was doing, follow their seasons. We developed a bond between the two of us, a bond we had all these years. We stayed in touch, sending texts to each other. He was always willing to support us. I think he played a part in that (Super Bowl) championship that year. He played a big part.”

Taglieri was just 59 years old when he passed away last Tuesday. He spent more than half of his life being involved in Hoboken football, first as a player, then as a dutiful assistant coach under Ed Stinson during the Red Wings’ glory days in the 1990s, then as the Red Wings’ head coach from 2005 through 2016, and finally as an assistant to current head coach Keeon Walker for the last three seasons.

The news of Taglieri’s passing hit Stinson hard.

“I was in shock,” said Stinson, who is currently the defensive coordinator at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange. “Just to hear something like that, happening so suddenly, brings back the group concept of football. The thought of family kicked in, our Red Wing family, the bonding that takes place. I thought of our good times and our not so good times. No matter what, Louie was a major part of it.”

Stinson remembered that when he first took the head coaching job at Hoboken in 1977, he was taking over a program that didn’t win a single game the prior two seasons. But Stinson knew that if he was starting fresh, he needed an important ingredient – a quarterback. Stinson realized that the best quarterback in Hoboken was already attending Hudson Catholic.

“I sat down with Louie’s parents and I told them that I needed to bring Louie home to Hoboken,” Stinson said. “We needed a leader. We needed a quarterback. What Louie did to rejuvenate the program was huge. Two years later, we were undefeated and three years later, we won the state championship in Giants Stadium. That championship season doesn’t take place without Louie making the commitment to come back home to Hoboken.”

After graduating from Hoboken High School, Taglieri moved on to play football at St. Peter’s College with childhood friend Rich Hansen.

“When we were kids, we used to play football in the streets and later pick-up football in 10th Street Park (in Hoboken),” said Hansen, now the highly successful and long-time coach and athletic director at St. Peter’s Prep, currently the No. 1-ranked program in New Jersey. “We would also play at Maxwell House, but we were usually on opposite sides. Then, we both go to St. Peter’s (College) and we become teammates and close friends. Incredibly, we always talked about coaching together.”

That happened briefly, when both Taglieri and Hansen were part of Ed Agresta’s coaching staff at Hudson Catholic in 1981. Soon after, Hansen joined forces with his high school coach Gerry Bellotti at St. Peter’s Prep and Taglieri enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he had an extended stay and thought for a bit about making the military his career.

But Taglieri eventually came home to Hoboken after a 10-year stint in the Air Force and took that military style and approach to coaching under his high school mentor Stinson. Those two were part of the Hoboken coaching staff that has now become legendary, as the Red Wings had a stint in the 1990s that will never be matched again in New Jersey high school football history.

The Red Wings won five NJSIAA state sectional championships (1994 and 1995, then 1997 through 1999). In the process, they reeled off winning streaks of 29 games and 38 games. It meant that for a five-year stretch of the 1990s, the Red Wings were an astonishing 67-1, with the one loss coming in the 1996 state finals to Ramapo, led by All-Americans Chris Simms and Greg Toal.

Walker played for the Red Wings during that span before heading off to have a fine career at Syracuse. He remembered fondly the relationship he established with Taglieri as an assistant coach.

“Coach Tag and I had a great relationship back then,” Walker said. “We interacted with each other all the time. He was a great leader for us, with his military background. He was a little bit of a hard ass. He made sure to let you know what you did wrong, but a lot of us needed that. I think we all needed that, not just the guys and the athletes, but the girls as well. The girls all loved him. He would put his foot up your ass, but then turn around and give you a hug. He was that way with everybody. He’s a Hoboken guy.”

Wilber Valdez, the current head coach at Union City, also recalled the intensity displayed by “Coach Tags” when Valdez was a standout player for the Red Wings.

“He was a player’s coach from the get-go,” Valdez said. “Like a true military guy, he hit the ground running. He was so cool and down-to-earth with us. He just exuded confidence.”

Valdez said that he and his teammates were a little nervous going into the 1994 NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group III championship game against Sparta.

“He said, ‘Guys, if you play your regular game, you should win by 40,” Valdez said. “He was close.”

The final score was Hoboken 36, Sparta 6, giving the Red Wings their first state championship in 14 seasons.

Valdez remembered a special side to Taglieri’s personality.

“Our senior year, I remember Tag had a little white car,” Valdez said. “And Tag would give us the car. We would put the top down and just take off. We would ride around town with that car. He was always that kind of guy.”
Taglieri remained as Stinson’s assistant and kept reminding Stinson about one promise Taglieri made a long time ago.

“He said, ‘If you go, I go,’” Stinson said of Taglieri’s decree.

In 2005, Stinson decided it was time to move on and the legendary coach made one final recommendation.

“When I was leaving, I recommended Louie to take over the program,” Stinson said.

The Hoboken Board of Education wanted Joe Rotondi or Chipper Benway to take over, but both were already head coaches – Rotondi at Union Hill, Benway at Hudson Catholic – and were reluctant to give up their positions. The Board then turned to Taglieri.

“He didn’t want to do it,” Stinson said. “He took it to continue the tradition. He did it for the program.”

Taglieri did more than that. He won his first 23 games as a head coach, winning another state championship in 2005. Taglieri stayed on and won state titles in 2012, 2013 and 2015. When he left the head coaching position at Hoboken, Taglieri posted an incredible record of 95 wins and just 38 losses and four state titles in those 12 seasons.

During that time, Taglieri met someone in the next door classroom at Brandt Middle School who would eventually become his wife for the last 15 years, namely Gabriela Taglieri.

“We both had the same passion for helping students,” Gabriela said.

She said that she fell in love with Lou from the cologne he lived in, namely Patchouli Essential Oil, an expensive, unique fragrance that became a part of Taglieri.

“That cologne would leave a trail wherever he went,” Gabriela said. “We gave my sister a couch set and she said that the couch smelled like Louis.”

The two loved football together.

“It’s what he loved to do,” Gabriela said. “He loved everything that it entailed. We would go over the plays together, the strategy. We would watch videos. Honestly, there was nothing like it.”

Gabriela said that she became enthralled in Hudson County’s version of “Friday Night Lights,” namely home games at JFK Stadium on Friday nights.

“My sister (Victoria) and I were at every game,” Gabriela Taglieri said. “I’d take her with us everywhere.”

In fact, the Taglieris became a coaching tandem during Lou’s heyday as coach – with Lou as the head football coach and Gabriela as the head cheerleading coach.

Lou and Gabriela have a son together, Trey, who just turned 13. Lou had two children, son Shane and daughter Taylor, from a previous relationship.

Taglieri was all set to walk away from coaching in 2017, then thought about joining Stinson and new head coach Billy Fitzgerald at Seton Hall Prep. Finally, Taglieri agreed to remain with Walker as he took the head coaching position.

“Coach Tag gave me my first chance as a coach,” Walker said. “When I was done playing, he said to me, ‘You can always come home.’ He also told me that there was no one else he wanted to coach our defensive backs. He was like the uncle or the big brother to me. He provided leadership for me. A lot of time we would just sit there and talk about life and football. It was priceless.”

Taglieri’s passing has left a huge void in Hoboken.

“It’s going to be difficult going to Hoboken from now on,” Valdez said. “If you don’t appreciate the time you have here, then this is it. It’s going to feel weird. I’d occasionally get that ‘Good Luck’ text. It’s a big loss for Hoboken.”

“I’ve known him since second grade,” said long-time youth baseball umpire and basketball official John Madigan. “Our mothers became best friends. It was like we were all a big family all the time. He was like my older brother. He tried to get me to play football, but I wouldn’t do it. He used to call me ‘Psycho-Matic.’ He said he saw it once on a milk carton and thought of me. He was just a great, great man.”

His colleagues loved working with him.

“He was always in control,” said long-time Hoboken baseball and basketball coach Buddy Matthews. “He always said the right thing. We hung out a lot together. He was never critical, just made suggestions. When he made suggestions, you had to listen. I had a lot of respect for him. It’s an incredible loss. He made an incredible impact on so many people. He was a great coach and a great person. He will be missed on and off the field.”

Opposing coaches were also friendly with Taglieri.

“In 2009, we scored 32 points in the fourth quarter to beat Hoboken for the first time in 21 years,” said long-time Lincoln head coach Robert Hampton. “After the game, he came into our locker room and spoke to our kids. That showed me a lot of class. He told my team that they showed toughness, class and heart and that they were resilient. That meant a lot to me. In 2016, Hoboken beat us on a tipped pass that was caught (by Jim Hague Sports Male Athlete of the Year Nyjon Freeman) to win, 7-6. I was crying like a baby and Tags come over and hugged me to say it was going to be okay.

Added Hampton, “For 15 years, all our games were hotly contested, but at the end of each game, Coach Tags and I respected each other and enjoyed the passion that our kids showed against each other. We had an emotional and good natured relationship that was forged by football and our commitment to teach the game the right and honorable way.”

Taglieri enjoyed no relationship in football more than the one he shared with Hansen, as opponents, as teammates, as inseparable friends for life. They were once bouncers at several different Hoboken and Hudson County nightlife establishments and often worked as a pair together. Can you imagine causing trouble at a place like the old Good ‘N Plenty or the Down Under and had to deal with those two as they somehow escorted you to the door?

“We always had a lot of fun,” Hansen said. “We talked a lot about what we wanted to do with our lives. We had a lot of great times together. He had a PhD in ball busting. We loved doing it to each other and loved laughing. I’d bust his chops and he’d bust mine. We go back and forth and then laugh about it. Louis had a lot of friends. I’m happy to say that I was one of them. I had a different level of friendship.

Added Hansen, “He had a tough guy exterior and that might have overshadowed his great heart. His persona was one thing, but the genuine Louis was the one who truly loved people. He loved his family and his friends. I know he would be honestly proud of the mark he left. I feel so horrible for Gabby and his children. He always talked about one day us coaching together.”

“He always wanted to help people,” Matthews said. “Whenever I talked to him, he always wanted to talk about someone else. He never wanted anything in return. He was always there to do something for somebody.”

“He always spoke with such a positive approach in everything he did,” Hansen said. “I never heard him complain. And he had such great loyalty. He was a loyal dude. He was old school, a true blue friend. He was one of the guys I could truly count on. There are so many kids who owe a debt of gratitude to Louis.”

“He tried to help as much as possible,” Valdez said. “Whenever he talked to a college coach, he would make sure to tell the coach about my players.”

“He’s a legend,” Gabriela Taglieri said. “He touched so many people. He was just a complete loving and caring man. He would give the shirt off his back to anyone. And I saw him do that. He would help kids from other schools, from Memorial, North Bergen, Union City, Lincoln, it didn’t matter.

Added Gabriela Taglieri, “What I found unbelievable was his way of speaking to adults, to boy or girl, woman or man. He could always comfort them and give them confidence. He gave people strength to go through tough lines. I used to watch in amazement the way he used to act. He had such a way with people. It was so remarkable. It was soothing and comforting in whatever situation it was in. He was also a wonderful story teller without putting his opinion into it. He had a way of getting to someone and helping them out by soothing them and listening to them.”

“Every single holiday, he would call, text, send a message,” Hansen said. “With every achievement my kids got, I’d hear from him right away.”

“He never forgot anyone’s birthday or anniversary,” Gabriela Taglieri said. “He would sit there with his phone and go through the list, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas or Happy Thanksgiving. He’d sit there with his phone for hours.”

As for the two guys Louie chose to work with as an assistant coach?

“You can’t replace someone like Coach Tag,” Walker said. “He was there for so many kids. He had a good relationship with so many kids, with so many coaches and universities. He was so proud of the kids he coached. He would say, ‘That’s one of my guys’ if they did something. I don’t think any of us would have become the people we are without Coach Tag. He provided us all with the mentorship we all needed.”

“I’ll always remember the competitor he was,” Stinson said. “As a player, as a coach, he was relentless. He was that way in practice and in games, the same way. The way he trained was the way he played. And in a word, he was very loyal. He was loyal to me and to the program. He was the first relationship that I had to develop that way, from former player to a coach. He was the originator of that long line.”

It was a line that includes people like Walker and Valdez and Matt Gallo, all current Hudson County head coaches.

And there are people like Sean Fallon, Chipper Benway, Joe Rotondi, Ivan Ramos, Tyrell Dortch, Isaac Holmes, Ravon Anderson and Carlos Perez, who have served as assistant or head coaches at Hudson County schools, guys who became coaches after having once played for Stinson. There are more than likely more that escaped the mind while compiling this tribute.

Louie Taglieri was the first Stinson protégé to carve a gigantic niche as a coach. If Taglieri had failed, perhaps the list wouldn’t be as long. He certainly opened the door for others.

On a personal note, Louie was a very close and dear friend. We spoke regularly about anything and everything. He was constantly concerned about my health, always asking me about a doctor’s appointment and subsequent treatment. I wasn’t allowed to ask him about his health, just him about me.

Right before the pandemic hit in March, I had to get a CAT scan of my head and brain. In typical Louie fashion, he got his chance to bust chops.

“How’d it go?” Louie asked.

“It was fine,” I said. “They found nothing.”

“Well, we all knew that before you went in the tube, but what did they find?” Louie said.

Good one, Louie, I said. I gave him a point for those who were keeping score at home.

In 2007, I had ankle surgery a day before the Hoboken baseball team was going to Toms River to play in the NJSIAA Group I state championship game against Middlesex. I wanted to go to the game and felt like I could have gone, except that I couldn’t drive or walk.

“Don’t worry,” Louie said. “I’ll come pick you up. I’ll drive and put you in the (wheel) chair and push you.”

Now that’s what I call a friend.

Lucky for both of us, the anesthesia from the surgery wore off and the real pain kicked in, so that eliminated any chance of me getting to see the Red Wings that day. But it showed, once again, how truly great of a friend Louie was to me.

I made sure to get Louie a T-shirt from the NCAA Final Four every year, especially if and when his beloved North Carolina Tar Heels were involved. Every year I went to the Final Four, I made sure that Louie was on my list for souvenirs. He also received his share of Maguire University memorabilia after he heard the true story of Maguire.

When I had the gastric sleeve surgery almost three years ago to the day, Louie somehow got my address from someone and made a surprise visit at my front door. It was a complete shock, a move that made me feel a little better. Plus, I got the chance to smell Louie, which was always a treat. I made sure I hugged him every time I saw him to take in what I called, “The Essence of Louie.”

We all ache today, that deep visceral pain that simply will not go away, no matter how hard I try to dull it or mask it with an assortment of prescriptions or even alcohol. This was clearly the hardest thing I’ve ever had to write. It took me three full days to do the interviews, to make sure I got the right quotes and set the right tone. I had to make sure I included his wonderful and beautiful wife Gabriela as part of it – and I’m very gracious and thankful that she took the time to talk to me Friday.

Failla McKnight Memorial Home in Hoboken will handle the services. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, August 18, beginning at 2 PM and concluding at 8 PM. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

I’ll close with this note about my friend Louie. In 2012, the Red Wings won their second state championship under Taglieri’s tenure as head coach. Like always, in each of the Hudson County-record setting 10 state championships, a parade was held to honor the Red Wings right down the center of Washington Street, complete with floats and the band and cheerleaders and balloons.

Well, Louie wanted to bring Trey along for the experience, but for safety reasons, Taglieri was not allowed to bring Trey, by then already a tough-as-nails cancer survivor, on the main float with the players and the cheerleaders. It was believed to be too dangerous for Trey, then seven years old, on the float.

Louie was told that they were going to hold the parade without Trey. In typical Lou Taglieri fashion, he was not going to have his son miss the festivities. By that point, Trey was really into his Hoboken football, just as much as he loved his Penn State football. Having Trey sit out the parade would have been a crushing blow to the entire Taglieri family.

So what does Louie do? He puts his boy on his shoulders and marches with Trey the entire route of the parade. I will never forget the faces of both Taglieri men that day, father and son, creating a memory for a lifetime. So the coach wasn’t on the float, big deal. He was there with his son. That was the big deal – and it’s the image that will be seared into my brain forever and ever, when I think of my wonderful beloved friend, who we might have lost in person this week, but we will never ever lose him in spirit.

And that’s the enduring memory we can all share about Coach Tags, my dear friend Louie. In perhaps the biggest understatement I’ll ever write, you will be missed, my friend. You most certainly will be missed.

My love and my heartfelt condolences go out to Gabby, Shayne, Taylar and of course Trey Taglieri. Shayne is proud to say that he is a 14-year veteran of the United States Air Force in honor of his father. Louie also had a granddaughter named Kennedy, who is six months old. He was proud to be a grandfather and adored little Kennedy.