PHOTO: BOB ROCHE
Lynn Classical softball coach Erica Richard, left, and Danvers softball coach Colleen Newbury have a long history together.
By STEVE KRAUSE
DANVERS — Erica Richard walked onto the field at Great Oaks School in Danvers Wednesday and saw Colleen Newbury’s daughter, Katherine, and gave her a big smile.
“How old are you now?” she asked the girl.
“Four,” the girl replied.
“Wow,” said Richards. “Four. I remember you when you were born.”
It’s doubtful Richards, or anyone else connected to Newbury and the St. Mary’s softball team, will forget the circumstances behind Katherine Newbury’s birth. St. Mary’s was trying for its third straight Division 3 state championship, and had made the 2011 state semifinal in Taunton. Newbury, the coach, was expecting the baby literally any day. Richard, her assistant, stood ready to assume command should the baby be ready to arrive. Shortly after the Spartans lost that game, Newbury’s daughter was born.
Fast forward five years. Newbury has moved on and is in her first season at Danvers High. Richard is in her second season as the head coach at Lynn Classical. Wednesday, they faced off against each other, giving them both a chance to reflect on what it’s like for mentor and pupil to coach against each other.
“It’s fun,” said Richard after Newbury’s Falcons got the better of Classical, 2-0.
“The first time this year, I was kind of nervous,” Newbury said. “The game was at Breed, and I felt like I was in the wrong dugout (both St. Mary’s and Classical play their home games at Grace Rogato Field).
“But,” said Newbury, “I’m more used to it now. Obviously, there are a lot of similarities with the two of us. We may have changed a couple of signals and signs today because of that. And I heard Erica tell her players to watch for ‘funny stuff’ that I might do.”
That left an impression with Newbury because she also had to coach against her mentor in her first season at St. Mary’s, when she faced Shawsheen and Ed Henry in the Division 3 North final.
“We played four straight North finals against them, and I was 1-3,” she said. “I used to get really nervous. I kept expecting him to pull some of the ‘funny stuff’ that we’d all do when I played for him (at Bishop Fenwick).”
For her part, Richard said she has learned plenty from her experiences both playing for and coaching with Newbury.
“She’s such a good coach, and she knows more about the game than anyone else I know. Playing for her, we always felt like we were a family, and that she had a way of bringing everyone together no matter what was going on.
“As a coach,” Richard said, “she really sees the game, and anticipates what’s going to happen. And I swear, she knows the rulebook better than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Richard not only has had to match wits twice with a mentor who had established such a legacy at St. Mary’s, but replaced a coach who left a similar string of successes behind in Chris Warren. She said she used some of the lessons she learned under Newbury to set her new players’ minds at ease.
“Actually,” she said, “the kids did a good job of knowing that we all had to come together to have any chance at all. We had some senior leadership and they were very good in helping me bring the team together. Like I said, Colleen always made the team feel like a family, and that’s the approach I take too.”
Newbury said that while some of her other players have gone onto coach, Richard is the first one she’s had to face in a game.
“I never looked at it in terms of it being a coaching tree,” she said. “It probably has more to do with longevity of coaching than it does everyone else.
“But I like the idea of being able to call someone and talk softball, or helping people. Erica and I still talk. And it’s always fun to play against her.”