Prince Tech honors late basketball coach Kendall May: ‘Every day, he bled purple and gold’
HARTFORD – Mark Snyder remembered Kendall May coming into his office sometime in 1989 or 90 and telling him he wanted to coach basketball at Prince Tech.
“He had a passion in life he talked to me about, he wanted to be a coach and more than anything he wanted to coach at Prince Tech and he followed that dream,” said Snyder, the former basketball coach and athletic director after whom the Prince Tech gym is named. “We hired him as a freshman coach and for the past 31-32 years, he lived his passion. He was a great coach, winning over 400 games, and he was a great mentor. It was amazing how he came here to give back to his community.”
May, of Bloomfield, was killed by a hit and run driver last March in Hartford. He was 56 years old. On Wednesday night, friends, family and alumni gathered at Mark Snyder Gym before Prince Tech’s game against SMSA to pay tribute to a man who had coached boys basketball, boys cross country and girls outdoor track for over 30 years at Prince Tech, where he worked as the school’s in-house suspension officer.
May, a graduate of Prince Tech who played for Snyder, became the varsity basketball coach in 1998 and won over 400 games.
Broderick Beckford, who played for May on the team that went to the Class M championship game in 1998 and was an assistant basketball coach with him from 2009-21, took over as coach this season. He addressed the crowd before the game.
“Coach May, he gave his life to this school; every day he bled purple and gold,” Beckford said. “Everything he’s done over the years is going to continue to live on.
“I ask that everybody keep his name alive.”
It was announced that the Connecticut Technical Conference tournament trophy will be named after May and May’s name would be added to the Prince Tech holiday tournament named for Snyder.
After the game, a 76-50 loss to SMSA, Beckford said it was an emotional night.
“It was tough,” he said. “I was able to get my cries out earlier in the day, so I was able to hold it together a little bit.
“He’s been here for over 30 years. That’s a long time. It’s a lot to have to replace. He’s done so much, he meant so much – he bled Prince Tech basketball, when you think Prince Tech basketball, you think Coach May.”
A life-size cardboard picture of May was placed at the end of the Prince Tech bench, behind which 25 or so members of his family sat to watch the game.
“It’s really tough,” said his son, Kendall May Jr. “It’s still unbelievable to me but knowing the person he was, you can’t really fold under pressure when you’re in a tough situation. I just had to keep that mindset and keep pushing and keep being the person he taught all of us to be and keep family first. We going to definitely stay strong; it was a big hit.
“It was him, then his mom (passed away) right after so….we got a big family so we just hold each other up.”
May Jr. was presented with his father’s framed Prince Tech jersey before the game.
Prince Tech athletic director Dennis Mercado was also emotional Wednesday.
“For me personally, I didn’t have to worry … if there was something happening in the gym, I’d go, ‘Hey, Kendall…’ and he’d go, ‘I already know, Mercado, don’t even bother,’” Mercado said. “He knew about things before they happened.
“You don’t know what you have until it’s not there. He was literally a pillar for this place.”
