The heat engulfs you as you walk into the gym at Pembroke Academy. The smell of sweat and excess deodorant spray percolates through the thick air.
The boys’ varsity basketball players stagger across the six hoops putting up shots during warm-ups – some haphazardly, some with a clear purpose.
Mingling among them is Julia Valotto, the 22-year-old entering her first full season as Pembroke’s assistant coach. She looks ready to play herself, with black athletic shorts, high black socks and basketball shoes painted in a popping orange and magenta and white. But the whistle around her neck distinguishes her as the boss.
As head coach Mike Donnell chats with some of the other coaches on the side, Valotto’s right in the middle of the action.
“She’s not only liked by the kids, they respect her tremendously because they know that when she talks, she knows what she’s talking about,” Donnell said. “(When) she tells the kids to run, they sprint. She’s everything you ask for in a coach. I’m just very lucky to have her.”
As practice gets underway and the team runs through some offensive sets, Valotto watches from every angle, pacing from the baseline to half court, from the right corner to the left. She reminds players on defense to keep their arms up. She gives pointers after each play.
At one point she blows a play dead. The players aren’t dribbling with a purpose. After play resumes, the ball starts hitting the floor a little harder.
In a space that’s historically been dominated by men, Valotto is a pioneer. There are only two female head coaches out of the 30 basketball teams in the Monitor’s coverage area, and both lead girls’ teams. Donnell speculates that Valotto is the only woman on the coaching staff of a boys’ varsity basketball team in New Hampshire. She might even be the first.
“It’s definitely something that I think is super cool. I obviously hope that I’m not gonna be the last,” Valotto said. “I try not to focus on it that much. … But it is super cool to have this opportunity at this age. I hope one day to run a varsity program, whether it’s boys or girls.”
The significance isn’t lost on the players either.
“It’s a statement,” junior Joseph Fitzgerald said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a boy, you can coach any type of basketball if you have a good knowledge of the game.”
Basketball coaching has been Valotto’s calling for quite a while now. When she was in eighth grade, she’d volunteer with the kindergarten basketball program in Chichester. At 15, she knew she wanted to become a varsity coach. Three years later, she started coaching the Chichester Central middle school boys’ team.
Despite the quick ascension, she still never expected to be on a varsity staff at 22. But last year, when she started working at Pembroke as a math tutor, Donnell approached her about coming on board. He’d seen her coach middle school practices. He knew she was ready for the next step.
“I went down and I watched her practice (at Chichester), and I was like, ‘God, she’s more organized than some of these JV coaches I’ve had in my time!’” Donnell said.
He continued: “I’m one of those believers that first impressions are lasting impressions, and it was that first talk,” he said. “I don’t think it took more than five minutes, and I was like, ‘I’ve got the chef that I want working in my kitchen.’ She had all the ingredients of what I was looking for.”
When Valotto was first offered the job, Donnell asked her if she wanted to be the JV coach. She turned it down. She wanted to learn from Donnell, who’s coached for upwards of 40 years.
A couple of weeks into the season, the returns have been positive.
“I had a problem with my release. I was releasing too low,” senior Brayden Casey said regarding the mechanics of his shot. “She taught me to get my hand up higher, release it higher, and that improved my shot significantly.”
Valotto’s also now a full-time math teacher at Pembroke, so she has some of her players in class. Between her role in the classroom and the fact that she’s closer in age to the players than most varsity coaches usually are, she’s excelled at developing the off-the-court rapport that’s commanded her respect from the team.
“It’s easier to tell her when something’s stressing me out about basketball or school,” senior Shondell Hadley said. “She’s just like an older sister, basically.”
During practice, Hadley stood at half court, a chance to catch his breath as his teammates continued running through plays. A towering 6’4, he and Valotto analyzed the previous plays as beads of sweat slid down Hadley’s left cheek.
Hadley’s hoping to continue playing basketball in college next year. He’ll take whatever advice Valotto can give him.
“All I can say is I’m just glad to have her as a coach,” he said.
As the Spartans prepare to tip off their 2022-23 season, the aspirations are as high as they could possibly be.
“A championship,” Fitzgerald, the junior, said of the team’s goal. “A championship is on our mind. Championship or bust. That’s kind of our motto here.”
And if Pembroke is going to reach that goal, Valotto will undoubtedly be right in the middle of it as she embarks on this new chapter of her coaching career.
While she said she doesn’t like to think about herself as a trailblazer for women in coaching, especially women coaching boys’ teams, the significance of what she’s doing has certainly crossed her mind. Once the season gets underway, there will be young girls sitting in those bleachers in the steamy Pembroke gymnasium who look across the floor and see Valotto in that coaching chair.
“I hope that they can look at what I’m doing and think that they can do the same thing one day, whether it’s coaching girls or coaching boys,” she said. “If there’s just one girl that watches a game and sees me on that bench and thinks that, that’s huge.”