This is the final installment of the summer’s Coaches Corner series. It’s been a chance to better know some of the people guiding the area’s student-athletes. Today, we meet Sunapee High baseball coach and athletic director Tom Frederick, who’s been involved in Upper Valley school sports for more than 25 years.
Family: Frederick’s wife, Jen, is a Newport High science teacher. They have three daughters, 14-year old Ellie and 17-year olds Katie and Meghan, each of whom is a Sunapee High athlete.
Growing Up: “I’m the oldest of three kids. My sister was a really good athlete and my brother could fix anything. My mother, Sheila, taught me how to play baseball by playing catch with me and she thought it was a great idea until the day an errant throw broke the window on her car. My dad, Tom, Sr., was a police officer and a brick mason and a salesman at Sears. He’d work two or three jobs at a time to pay the bills.”
Rough Rider High:“I learned from three baseball coaching legends. One of our neighbors was Fred Ebbett, who’s in the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. He was the varsity coach and vice principal at Harwich High and he saw me pitching one day as a kid and straightened me out. Charlie Horan was my JV coach my freshman year before going up to the (Harwich) varsity, where Fred Thacher was his assistant. They taught me how to really think the game and both went on to win a number of championships.”
Owl Be There: “I applied to Westfield (Mass.) State without ever seeing the school. They had (physical education) as a major and I could afford it, so I just thought I’d go there and see what happened. I pitched for four years but we weren’t that good, .500 at best. I didn’t take my training seriously enough. I wish I’d known as a player what I know as a coach.”
Junkballer:“I was a lefty finesse pitcher. My fastball topped out at about 84 or 85 mph. I remember throwing what I thought was the best pitch I’d ever thrown in my life and the batter fouled it off on purpose. I knew then that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.”
Loading Up: “I got into coaching with a high school JV boys soccer team when I was a senior in college, but I’d wanted to be a teacher and coach since I was in high school myself. I figured out that P.E. teachers were a dime a dozen, so I thought it would be important to have a master’s degree to differentiate myself. I got it from Springfield (Mass.) College in a year because I couldn’t afford to be there for longer than that. I took 36 credits and still managed a 3.3 grade point average.”
First Job: “I went to the career center one day and saw a job post to be a P.E. teacher and athletic director at Indian River School (in Canaan). The principal there, Andy Mellow, had gone to college with some guys I’d coached with. I was at Indian River for 10 years and learned a lot about time management and making connections and learning to accept other people’s help.”
Royals Flush: During the final six years of Frederick’s 16-year tenure in the Mascoma Valley Regional School District, he was also the athletic director at Mascoma High. The Royals won three girls basketball state titles and were perennially strong in boys basketball and field hockey.
Lakers Leader: “This is my 11th year at Sunapee and like at Mascoma, I’m the athletic director for the middle school and the high school. You get to know all the athletes from grade six on and they know what the athletic expectations are. We’ve really worked to streamline the whole experience and get the high school coaches to work quite a bit with the middle school coaches.”
Curtain Call: “We try to get all the kids to participate in something. I’m proud that 75 percent of our high school students play at least one sport. We want them to be active and that can even be in something like the backpacking club. The director of the high school play wants more athletes involved this year and I think that’s awesome.”
Title Town: “The best part of my job is working with our coaches, bouncing ideas off each other and enjoying the camaraderie. Last school year, we had state champions in girls basketball, volleyball and softball. We were runners-up in girls skiing and baseball and we were in the semifinals in girls soccer, so I think we’ve proven we have an outstanding staff.”
Quiet Observation: “My kids have their own coaches and they don’t need me saying anything during their games. Our rule is that if they want feedback, they say so in the car or at home, but it’s on them to ask. They’re not going to play professional sports and they need to enjoy the experience.”
Diamond Aces: Sunapee’s baseball team has reached the NHIAA Division IV title game five times during the past six years and has won it three times. The Lakers have lost the last two such contests, however, and this season’s setback was sealed when a Sunapee pitch hit a batter. “After that, I didn’t want to see a baseball for the rest of my life,” Frederick said. “You’d rather be beaten on a home run or a base hit, but it wasn’t meant to be. It’s a cruel game some days but it’s still a great game.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.