The Valley News will profile a local high school coach each week for the next two months. It’s a chance to better know some of the people guiding the area’s student-athletes. Today, we meet 2006 Lebanon High graduate and field hockey coach Amanda Valliere, who recently completed her first year as a social studies teacher at her alma mater after stops at Mascoma High, Florida and New York.
Family: Valliere’s father, Doug, and mother, Patty, are also Lebanon graduates, as is her brother, Dan, who graduated in 2008 and is now an accountant. Doug and his brother, Dave, own Northeast Foreign Cars in White River Junction.
Local Girl: Valliere grew up on Stoney Brook Road off Route 4, near the Enfield border. She competed in field hockey, ice hockey and gymnastics. She has helped coach the latter sport locally both during the school year and in the summers.
Straight Arrow: “I was definitely a rule follower and afraid to step outside the lines as a student. I took honors courses and graduated in the top 20 of my class. My junior year at Lebanon, I took world history and it blew my mind, the way human beings have come to be where we are. I was a history major in college, but I also got an education certification.”
Hail to the Hawks: Valliere played field hockey for Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. The 1,200-student institution claims Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, as one of its alumni.
Fortunate Break: Following graduation from Hartwick, Valliere moved back in with her parents and “lived in total denial that college was over.” While interviewing to be a substitute teacher at Mascoma, she ran into Royals athletic director John Kelly, who had been one of her teachers at Lebanon. Kelly helped her interview for a full-time job, and she was hired four days before classes started. She began coaching the Mascoma field hockey team the next year.
Paying Her Dues: “Those were long days. I’d come home at 6 and go right to bed. It was terrifying, but once you get that first year under your belt, you realize you can do it and you’re going to be OK. The faculty and the students were incredible with advice and helping me pick up the pieces when lessons didn’t go well. Teenagers are like sharks; they can sense your fear. I was only four years older than some of them, and they could have eaten me alive.”
Gotta Get Away: After four years at Mascoma, Valliere moved to Florida and taught sixth grade in Royal Palm Beach for a year. “It was a lot of fun, but I learned that sixth grade is not where I belong,” she said. “All middle school teachers deserve special awards.” She returned to the high school ranks with a stop in Otego, N.Y., near Oneonta.
Homeward Bound: “I felt like I needed to push my boundaries and see what else was out there, and I was all gung-ho about it. But I always compared Florida and New York to New Hampshire, and I would FaceTime my dad every Sunday to watch the Patriots. I started to wonder, ‘Why am I not living in New Hampshire?’ Then Deb Beach left the Lebanon field hockey coaching position and there was a teaching opening there, and it was like there was a giant sign saying I needed to come home.”
Mentor: Valliere credits Beach, her former coach and longtime predecessor, for tailoring her approach to different players’ needs. “I passed to a girl one day, and she fumbled it into a turnover and I laid into her,” Valliere said. “Deb pulled me aside and told me that not everyone was out there to win a state championship and that you have to know when and how to push them. Before you open your mouth, you have to think about how what you say is going to affect that person.”
Down but Not Out: Lebanon won a handful of games last fall, a steep decline after being an NHIAA Division II power for the past decade. “You always know your first year is going to be a struggle,” Valliere said. “I’ve been a player with a new coach and it can go really badly, but the seniors last year were awesome and treated me with the utmost respect. Our record was a dagger to the heart, and I felt really bad that our record wasn’t what they wanted.”
History Buff: “My favorite historical period is from 1350 to 1750. The major civilizations are established, and they’re starting to interact with each other more through trading and exploration. You have the invention of the printing press and the arrival of the bubonic plague. Those 400 years set the tone for the world we have today.”
Out and About: “I love being outside, tubing and jet skiing and water skiing. I love to ice skate and ski and snowmobile. I like to travel, and went to Italy and Germany and the Netherlands in college. Last year, I got to go to Ireland with the (Lebanon) band.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.