First iteration of the Waltham High School Coaching Summit arrives with success

The pathways for Waltham High School athletes and their parents to have meaningful conversations with coaches and program personnel about the future success of the Hawks continue to expand.

The Waltham Coaching Summit could become a major part of this movement. Boys basketball coach Mike Wilder hosted the inaugural version of the event on June 8 and plans to make it into a series of seminars to build these bridges of communication.

“Overall it was a great starting point,” Wilder said about the afternoon. “This is what I anticipated it being for the first time doing it.”

Approximately 60 people were in attendance at the summit, held in the high school auditorium. The majority of participants were local coaches, who heard from a panel of speakers featuring Dave Melchiorri of Professional Physical Therapy, Wentworth Institute of Technology women’s basketball coach Kelly Cole, Rivier University men’s basketball coach Tom Glynn and WHS science teacher Marisa Maddox.

“The speakers were great,” said Wilder. “In Melchiorri’s case, there is an appetite for the medical aspect of multi-sporting and not burning out. Most people want to take care of their athletes, so Dave’s words were impactful. He really stole the show because his perspective is very technical and unique. It’s something that I can’t speak about.”

The coaches in attendance brought a plethora of questions to the table, opening up the engagement and making it an inviting discussion. The afternoon even lasted a bit longer than Wilder initially expected based on the intrigue from the crowd.

“A lot of that was because of interest and questions,” Wilder said. “I need to learn what channels to seek out in the next stage.”

Wilder plans to build on the success of this first summit and provide Waltham coaches and parents with a voice moving forward.

“Doing it more than once gives us the opportunity to improve the approach,” Wilder said. “We are trying to connect people. In any good community people connect and have conversations. It gives people a chance to explain things.”

The next installment of the series is likely to come once school returns in the fall. Wilder plans to evolve upon what he saw last Sunday and hone in on the coaching aspect in the second edition. 

Then Wilder plans to shift the summit to the parenting side of the game.

“Our conversation will be around development and why that is important for kids, not just winning,” Wilder said. “We really want to zero in on youth coaches there. In the parent one, we are really going to talk about Waltham High and what it offers academically and athletically in addition to how to keep athletes safe. My next thing is going to be narrowing the audience, shortening the presentation and making it super targeted at these groups.”