Galster steers Holliston
1st female TVL boys coach is no novelty
Holliston’s Jenna Galster is a teacher, first-and-foremost. She is also a pretty darn good basketball coach.
In 2013, the Brandeis University graduate, who teaches high school math at Holliston, was promoted from an assistant to head coach of the school’s boys basketball team — becoming the first female head coach of a boys team in Tri-Valley League history — after earning her keep as a varsity assistant for four years. All she has done in that span is turn the Panthers into a state championship contender following several years of futility.
Holliston went into Friday night’s TVL game against Millis with a 10-1 record, having already sown up a tournament berth. And with the Panthers’ uptempo offense driving the pace and a strong focus on help-defense and hardwork, Holliston finds itself squarely in the discussion as one of the state’s top Division 2 teams.
Galster’s coaching job is an extension of her job as a teacher — that is all there is to say about that.
“My job is not just on the court, I am working for them all day, every day,” Galster told the Herald last week. “When I took the program over I recognized that I really needed to start them young and start training them in terms of my expectations. I went down to the youth basketball level, ran practices and tried to make a connection as early as possible, and when they got to the high school level I told them that they were mine until the end, whether or not they were in my program or not.”
“I was going to make sure they did what they needed to do to become mature citizens. If they didn’t buy into what I am preaching, it was not going to be good, but every day I feel so lucky with how much this group is willing to give to the program.”
For Galster, gender has never been an issue.
“I never even thought about it, and to be honest, I am a coach and it doesn’t matter if I coach girls or boys because my expectation level would be one and the same,” Galster said. “People always ask me how do I handle the locker room and other stuff, well, I am a teacher and that’s my passion. A coach is just a teacher in an athletic venue.”
Along with assistant coaches and fellow teachers Joel Bernstein and Paul Hickey, Galster’s classroom concept that everything is a teachable moment has registered with a team that has never viewed Galster as anything but their coach.
“We’ve never looked at her any different, we just want to play ball,” senior captain Michael Alibrandi said. “She has been a really good coach and, I think, she has done a lot of good things for us.”
Fellow senior captain Andrew Lynch shared a similar sentiment about the only head coach this group has known. “We don’t look at her any different because she is a female and not a male; we don’t treat her any differently,” he said. “She is a good coach and she does everything right. We just listen and it has paid off.”
That improvement took a huge step forward when Alibrandi, Lynch and the rest of the team took it upon themselves to workout in the offseason, to be ready to hit the ground running this season.
“One of the biggest things that we emphasized was offseason workouts,” Lynch said. “Not only because it helps guys get better, but it also helps build team chemistry, and the more we play together the better we get.”
With a second straight Div. 2 Central sectional tourney berth already locked up, Holliston and Galster are focused on sticking to what is working, while remembering that the hard work must continue in order for the success to endure.
“From top to bottom, I have 14 unbelievable kids in terms of maturity, drive and athletic talent,” Galster said. “Everyone is holding everyone (else) accountable and that is important for us moving forward.”
Wakefield hot early
When you begin the season winning 10 of your first 11 games, people are going to stand up and take notice.
Just ask the Wakefield girls.
Coming off a year in which her team finished tied for second in the Middlesex League Freedom Division and earned a berth in the Div. 2 North tournament, coach Meghan O’Connell’s team returned eight significant pieces, and, so far this season, the results for the Warriors have been newsworthy.
“We graduated some good seniors from (last year’s) team, but we felt that with eight kids back, and with them going through that experience, we would have a veteran team,” O’Connell said. “It is not that we expected this start, but we were confident.”
Leading the way for Wakefield are senior captains Brianna Smith, Julia Hanley and Emma Butler, who along with senior team manager Jen Synan have provided the leadership needed for a program that relies heavily on its underclassmen core.
“Our seniors have been instrumental, but we have five juniors who were on this team as sophomores,” O’Connell said.
Included in that group are point guard Hailey Lovell, twins and threeyear varsity players Hannah and Olivia Dziadyk, Allyson Coggswell, Nicole Catino and Allee Purcell, while sophomores Hannah Butler and Jaime Greatorex have also contributed to the fast start.
With several league games remaining, the Warriors are in a strong position to win the Freedom Division outright, and a long run in the state tournament could be in the offing. Wakefield will not be sneaking up on anybody this time around.
“This was a group that we as coaches were excited about,” said O’Connell, now in her ninth season as coach.
Chemistry 101
To watch Archbishop
Williams coach Matt Mahoney mix and match his rotations can be deflating for the opposition. The Bishops got off to a 10-2 start, and once again should be considered the favorite to come out of Div. 3 South, based mainly on a roster that runs 14 players deep.
“The girls have been playing great all year and I have bench players that could start on other teams, so I am just trying to find the right mix,” Mahoney said after last week’s victory over Catholic Central League foe St. Mary’s.
Starters Asiah Dingle, Meagan Donovan, Mollie Manning, Monica Spain and Shannon Kelley present a nightly, nightmare matchup, but the Bishops reserves, including Kaitlynn Smith, Amanda Donahue, Lexi Hansen, Erica Silvia, Jess Knight, Meg Marcel, Grace Cuddy, Alyssa Sayers and Bridgette O’Reilly are who makes Archbishop Williams so difficult to gameplan for.
“They all work hard and they kill each other in practice, it’s like a starting unit playing another starting unit,” Mahoney said. “I knew this group was talented, it was just a matter if they had the right attitudes and I know that they all do.”