John Frieders, Sports Editor
If you’ve ever been to a Rams volleyball game you know that after the referees check lineups, and after the first whistle blows, the gym goes silent. Players stand still. Spectators are mute. The game will not begin until Coach Warren’s father, Ralph, shouts his infamous chant: “NEW CANAANNNN!” Then he’ll stomp his feet on the bleachers gaining support from all New Canaan fans and players.
Often when people view coaches they think about the person they are during games and practices. They think about roster management, in-game adjustments, and on-court presence. But what about coaches’ lives outside of practices and games – their family, their interactions with the community, and the relationships with players that go beyond sports?
Mr. Warren has been practicing his cheer for more than 20 years, and he refines the cheer during the off-season. “He practices before the season starts. He practices his slamming on the bleachers. He likes to get people riled up, and get them excited,” said Coach Amy Warren.
Coach Warren’s parents have become a part of every team that she has coached. This is no different from her time as a player when they attended each and every game she participated in. The players reciprocate the love that the parents show throughout the season and at the annual end-of-season banquet.“[The players] invite them to the banquets every single year,” coach Warren said. “Teams over the years give gifts with pictures of them watching or best fan paper plate awards”.
Boys Basketball Head Coach Danny Melzer has also felt the strong family environment at New Canaan High School. Immediately upon taking over the head coaching job in 2016, the community provided support to a program fighting for wins and to Coach Melzer and his wife and three kids. “Since the day I got here eight years ago, the community has always embraced and supported my family and I,” said Coach Melzer.
Being a teacher and a coach allows Melzer the opportunity to develop relationships with players not just on the court, but in the classroom and the hallways. “It’s a huge advantage to be a teacher in the building where you coach. I see them often as basketball players, but to see them as students and high school kids who are going through daily routines is a really awesome thing,” said Coach Melzer.
Coach Melzer built the New Canaan Basketball program around community and personal connection. Six out of the seven coaches in the basketball program are teachers at New Canaan High School. In addition he has been the coach or coached with six out of the seven at Stamford High prior to New Canaan.
After every game, you can find the entire coaching staff surrounded by former players and players’ families going beyond the game of basketball and into the game of life. “Well over half have come back to a game to support us and have kept in contact with me. That’s really special to me,” Coach Melzer said. “That’s the best part about coaching: Maintaining relationships. Building relationships with kids while they’re in high school and keeping them throughout their lives.”
Doubling down on the advantages of being both a teacher and a coach at the high school, Coach Melzer emphasized the coaches’ roles as teachers for the young men that come through the program.”We coach because we love coaching. But our careers, our professions, are being teachers, and I think that’s one of the best things about our program. We coach with a mindset that we’re here to make this a better experience for kids and to help kids grow, help them become young men, and help them through the ups and downs of basketball and in life.”
Head coach of the number four nationally-ranked Girls lacrosse Team in the country, Kristin Woods agreed with coach Melzer that being in the school as both a teacher and coach is unique because of the impact that teachers have on not only their players but all students in the building. “It definitely helps to be in the classroom with kids and be able to see not only my players but each and every student. In every community it goes a long way and you can make an impact on a kid just by saying a simple hello,” said Coach Woods.
Coach Woods has also molded her coaching staff around family. The Girls Lacrosse Instagram page is a representation that Woods’s teams are more than just players playing and coaches coaching. For example, recently there was a Baby Gender Reveal involving the entire team for assistant Coach Madison Straus. The girls went around in a circle taking a bite of a cupcake, looking for the cupcake with the filling. Woods credited some of the team’s success to the bonds built from coach to coach and coaches with players.
One of Coach Woods favorite parts of coaching is watching her players growth all four years “I think one of the best parts about coaching high school kids is that you see the growth over four years. The amount of skill, conceptual concepts and overall maturity and development that happens over those four years is incredible,” Coach Woods said.
