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FIRST PERSON
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF TESS LYONS.
T The Coach’ s Daughter
Growing up with a coach for a father gave a daughter the community she always wanted.
HE FIRST TIME I WATCHED“ FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS” as a kid, I was hooked. It wasn’ t just the dashing Tim Riggins on my screen or the idea that I could be whoever I wanted in high school. It was the relationships that played out on screen. The sense of community spearheaded by coach Eric Taylor was something I desperately wanted.
I felt such jealousy toward Julie Taylor, the young coach’ s daughter who reaped the benefits of the team’ s adoration for her father. Football-playing jocks showed soft sides when around their coach and used his guidance to influence their next decision while always showing up for him and his family in the way he did for them. The show identified the feeling of togetherness I’ d always wanted.
All my life I’ ve been the coach’ s daughter. It’ s a title I wear loudly and proudly. Not because we’ ve always had a perfect relationship— it’ s those closest to you who grind your gears the most— but because being Bobby Lyons’ daughter means being the product of a man who has made an impact on hundreds of students’ lives.
My father has been the head boy’ s track coach at East Providence High School since before I can remember. He coached the school’ s football team, too, until 2016, and that same year became the head boy’ s cross-country coach. He’ s coached some of the most talented athletes and national champions, notably Jamie Silva, who went on to play for the Indianapolis Colts.
Jamie babysat my sister and me and gave talks at our schools when we asked. In 2021, my dad was inducted into the RI Track & Field Coaches’ Hall of Fame. The audience was filled with kids he coached, and one of his very first track students introduced him at the ceremony.
Being a Townie means something in East Providence, and my dad is arguably Mr. Townie himself. Growing up in Riverside in the’ 70s gave my father the playground
26 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I OCTOBER 2026