Every high school team has players on it who you can point to and say “they will be a coach one day.”
That has certainly been the case at Kennebunk High School, which has not only produced high school coaches but currently has an impressive number of former Rams working in college athletics.
“I mean I think a big part of it is the community in and of itself and just kind of the way we all came up through the ranks together and the mentors that we had,” said Bill Russell, a 1999 graduate of Kennebunk High who now coaches football at Norwich University.
Russell, who is the associate head coach at Norwich, graduated with three other Rams who are now either coaches at the college level or working with top-notch athletes in the sports performance field.
“It is amazing. I’m sure some of these guys are on your list. Bill Russell, Dan Boothby, Eric Cressey, Tim Murphy, there has been a bunch of guys who have gone off and gotten into coaching in some capacity,” said Pete Toner, who graduated with Russell and is now the associate head men’s lacrosse coach at Penn State. “We all played football and/or lacrosse and we must have gotten a lot of that motivation from our coaches back then.”
Russell, Toner and Nick Myers — who is the head men’s lacrosse coach at Ohio State — all pointed to those mentors as a big reason why they have made it to this level.
“I think we were really fortunate. I know, for me, guys like (Kennebunk football) coach (Joe) Rafferty, Pat Moody, who was the head basketball coach at the time I was there, made such a massive impact on me as a young man,” said Myers. “I was never going to play college football or basketball, but you think about those leaders and those guys who are still involved in the community. I know coach Moody is a teacher there now and coach Rafferty is still doing it. Both amazing men and they really made an impact on me personally.”
Rafferty has clearly made an impact on athletes coming through Kennebunk over the past 40 years.
“I think what really makes him special is he has that balance where he’s very demanding, nothing was ever handed to you, you had to earn everything, but at the same time he’s got a gift for dealing with young people. He knows how to push you, but at the same time you know he really cares about you and has your best interest at heart,” said Russell on Rafferty.
Rafferty is thrilled to see some of his former players giving back to the sports that they love.
“We’ve got a lot of guys (coaching in college) and I’m thrilled for them — and I’m not taking credit for them,” Rafferty said. “They were the type of kids, like when I see some (of my current players), I’d  like to see them around kids when they get older because kids need good coaches. It’s a thrill for me to kind of see that.”
The sport that appears most often on the list of Kennebunk grads in the college coaching world is lacrosse — which is pretty impressive since the school didn’t have a varsity program until 1998.
“When I graduated we were still a club sport. We were still fighting with the school district to even recognize lacrosse as a school sport. I never lettered at Kennebunk in lacrosse,” said Nick Myers, who was part of the town’s club team when he was in school. “My mom was kind of running the program out of our house. My stepfather at the time was the head lacrosse coach at Cape Elizabeth. He gave me my first stick and really helped bring lacrosse to Kennebunk.”
Charlie Burch, stepfather to Nick and Pat Myers (now head coach at Lafayette College), would make the move to Kennebunk High after building a powerhouse program at Cape.
“Without a doubt, my stepfather Charlie was the most impactful in terms of lacrosse for us,” said Nick.
Burch would continue to mentor players at Kennebunk after his stepsons were off playing at college and starting their coaching careers. One of those players was 2007 KHS grad Mike Craig, who is now the head lacrosse coach at Husson.
“I think with coach Burch, he really gave you the freedom to be yourself, but he also demanded excellence all the time. The way to approach the game, to be a student of the game, my mindset for lacrosse really got shaped by him,” said Craig.
Craig also pointed to the Myers brothers, Toner and Tim Murphy (now head lacrosse coach at Curry College) as role models for him as a young lacrosse player.
“(Tim Murphy) the Myers brothers and Pete Toner, ran the first clinic and they were the ones who got me really hyped up about the sport and got me excited to play,” said Craig. “I remember being a little kid, going to all the games … they were rock stars in every sport and then to watch them in lacrosse was just really special.”
The other field that several Kennebunk grads ended up in was sports performance — which basically makes them strength and conditioning coaches for either individual athletes or college programs.
Eric Cressey, a 1999 KHS graduate, started a successful sports performance business (Cressey Sports Performance) and Dan Boothby is the director of sports performance at Northeastern University.
Amanda Kimball (Class of 97) ended up getting a chance to work for the most successful women’s college basketball program in history as the director of sports performance at the University of Connecticut.
“I have the best job in the world. We’ve been so successful that it’s kind of unbelievable,” said Kimball, whose sister, Rebecca, holds the same title at Wellesley College. “I’ve only worked with the team for 13 years and I’ve been to a Final Four every year — and we won six of them. It’s just unbelievable how coach (Geno Auriemma) has been able to sustain that level of play.”
The Kennebunk connection is something all of these former Rams will lean on from time to time, according to Amanda Kimball.
“(Eric Cressey is) killing it. He’s doing such an amazing job. I think he’s super smart. If it’s something where we are having a staff meeting and we want someone to come and speak, we’ll call Eric,” Kimball said.
The Myers brothers and Toner were able to team up together a couple years ago when Nick was named the head coach of the Team USA U-19 national team.
“I had the privilege two years ago coaching the Team USA U-19 National Team with Pat and Pete as my assistant coaches and that was a really special experience,” said Nick. “We were able to win a gold medal … to do that with those two guys, a couple Kennebunk guys, was pretty awesome.”
For Craig, having guys like the Myers and Toner coaching at the Division I level is certainly helpful.
“It’s nice to know if I do need to reach out to them about anything I can. It’s nice to have that resource and to have a bunch of guys who you can call up and ask questions or if there’s some kind of new rule change kind of pick their brain about it. They are all great about that,” said Craig.
The Kennebunk coaching tree is pretty impressive — and Russell believes it all started with growing up in such a “tight-knit community.”
“People were always looking out for you. Whether it was your own family or your extended family of the town — that was big,” Russell said. “They were rooting for you and supporting you. Then when you get to the high school level you start having the mentors they had there and still have like coach Rafferty, Brian Dill, Rob Sullivan and the late Dom D’Angelo, who made a huge impact on me and a lot of the guys my age … we really had some really strong mentors and role models.”
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.