Taly Williams excelled in both sports and academics. Those characteristics were apparent throughout high school. Taly was an honour student who made impressive contributions in many sports throughout high school, including basketball, volleyball, track, and soccer. He is best remembered locally as a starring quarterback for the Haliburton Highlands Secondary School’s football team.
With four athletic sisters as role models (including Olympian hurdler Lesley Tashlin), Taly continued the family legacy of high achievement. He set high jump and triple jump records at HHSS that, decades later, still have not been challenged. He also graduated second in his class.
At the University of Waterloo, Taly joined the football program as a Defensive Back and Safety where he applied his intellect to read his opponents’ strategies. He became an OUA All Star for the Waterloo Warriors. Remarkably, Taly was one of three former Haliburton Highlands Secondary School football stars to play on the same Waterloo squad, teaming up with Alan Rydman and Darren Danylyshen.
Upon graduating from university in 1994 with his engineering degree in hand, Taly was signed on by the Toronto Argonauts. On one of the Argos’ special unit plays, Taly ran a fake punt for the team’s largest rush from scrimmage, helping them qualify for the playoffs in 1994. The following year Williams signed with the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
Taly dedicated his post-football career as a civil and environmental engineer to improving water quality throughout the world. He holds multiple patents for inventions in a variety of fields. His research on the mechanics of the golf swing led to the development of a golf training tool used by six of the top 30 professional golfers on the PGA Tour. Taly Williams attributes his love for the environment and an early focus on education to his youth in the Highlands.
