Dave Chase will still be teaching and coaching baseball at Hopkinton, but he’s found a new winter home.
On Monday night, the Concord School Board approved the selection of Chase as the new head coach for the Concord High boys’ basketball team.
“He’s the total package. He’s what I’m looking for in a program builder,” said Steve Mello, Concord’s Director of Physical Education and Sport who recommended Chase to the school board.
Chase replaces John Finnegan, who was Concord’s coach from 2013-16. The Crimson Tide was 13-60 in those four years and made one trip to the Division I playoffs.
Chase coached basketball for 19 years at Hopkinton. For the first six years of that tenure he coached the girls’ team and won 109 games. For the last 13 years he won 193 games coaching the boys. Chase’s teams went 63-18 in the last four years and made four trips to the Division III playoffs, including two semifinal appearances. The Hawks went 16-5 this winter and reached the semifinals.
“It’s kind of bittersweet. It was a situation where I think I had gotten to the end of what I could accomplish at Hopkinton,” Chase said.
“My ultimate goal when I was first starting out was I wanted to coach in college. Once we started our family, I knew I wasn’t going to coach in college, so I got embedded in the community here and started coaching, whether it was middle school field hockey or JV soccer or girls’ basketball, boys’ basketball, baseball. For the last 19 years, that’s just kind of what I do. So this isn’t going to be like college, but it’s definitely a step up, going to a Division I program that has struggled, and it’s intriguing to think that maybe I can help turn that around.”
Chase, a physical education teacher, is also in his 20th season as the Hawks’ baseball coach, and he will remain in both those positions.
“I did talk to our superintendent (Steven Chamberlin) and principal (Chris Kelley), and in Hopkinton one of the nice things is they encourage you to grow,” Chase said. “And when I said here’s an opportunity that’s been presented and what do you think, they both thought that it was an opportunity that I had to try because I always would have been second guessing myself if I didn’t.”
Concord will have an experienced and talented senior leader next year in Matt Giroux. The Tide also has some good young talent, like current sophomores Tyler and Teddy Blodgett, and a promising freshman class led by Tyler Bruns, who was a varsity starter this winter.
“I think the young guys are the best group that we’ve had in probably a decade,” Mello said. “They might not all know how to play, but (Chase) has a reputation for being a really good teacher of the finer points of the game.”
Chase also has a reputation for getting the most out of his players. Hopkinton has had plenty of talent, but it is traditionally one of the smaller schools in its division. Hopkinton has 301 students (according to NHIAA figures), which this year made it the smallest school in D-III, where the average school size was 473.
“When Concord called, they asked if I was interested and I said I’d come down to the interview,” Chase said. “I liked what Steve Mello was saying about there’s a lot of good kids at Concord High that really like to play basketball and want to get better … and I think that’s my personality, to motivate the kids to go a little bit harder and get them to work that little bit more where they could be successful.”
It likely will take time for Chase to develop the same kind of program he had in Hopkinton. He spent years building a foundation by coaching elementary school kids on Saturdays and middle schoolers in the summers during Hawk basketball camps. He taught the kids in P.E. and coached them on the baseball diamond. Plus, he was in the same building as his basketball players, a change that Chase admitted will be a challenge when he makes the move to Concord.
“I won’t be able to keep a constant thumb on them in Concord as far as what are they doing, is everything going well, what’s going on in their lives,” Chase said. “That might be a tougher piece for me being there.”
Mello, for one, believes Chase has the kind of dedication needed to overcome such an obstacle.
“I want someone that can’t wait to go to practice,” Mello said. “I want somebody that’s all in. That’s the way I am, that’s the way all our best coaches are and I think Dave is that kind of guy.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)