Soccer Season Takes McWilliams over 300 Win Mark

Coach McWilly, as he is affectionately known, began coaching boys soccer at Millbrook in the fall of 1976. Having completed 36 seasons coaching soccer, he admits how has the game changed over time: "Tremendously! We've always had good athletes, but the technical skills and conceptual knowledge of the sport have improved greatly. We start off at a much stronger pace."  He admits that the popularity of the sport has grown as kids are watching international soccer on tv. "Everyone knows Lionel Messi and Barcelona in Spain, his one-touch passing, moving the ball qround quickly. All the good teams are emulating moving the ball around faster. It's been a gradual thing over the last 10 years. So the expectations of playing better soccer are there."

Coach McWilliams has both taught and learned a whole lot over the years. "As a young coach, I learned that in soccer you win by building your defense and teaching defense first. In a low scoring game, that's what you have to do." The most rewarding part of coaching for him: working with the kids. "It's the pride of learning how to truly teach the sport in a way that it should be played and in a way that is a good and enjoyable way to play for the kids. It's been great taking all different kinds of kids, teaching them the sport the right way, and seeing that [the program's] working through our winning seasons."  

Coach McWilliams is not only proud of the successes of his players, but he commends them for their determination and hard work, which is the reason Millbroook soccer regularly wins titles in both the Western New England conference and in the New England finals. "One of the reasons we are always in the hunt for the New England title is that we play mostly A and B competition throughout our season. Out of the A and B teams who competed in the New Englands this year, we played three of the As and two of the B teams in our regular season schedule." Only two class C teams are part of Millbrook's schedule, and this has been the case for decades. It makes the most sense for Millbrook geographically and programatically. "The other teams [on our schedule] have brought their teams to the top level, and we have done so, too," explains McWilliams.

Millbrook has also won the Western New England title thirteen times during McWilly's tenure, and this is ultimately an extremely competitive title to win. While the New Englands competition is decided within a single week of play (based on teams entering with a better than 500 record), the Western New England title is based simply on an entire season's record and goes to the best all-season team. Millbrook came in 2nd this year in Western New England. As Hurricane Sandy's wrath was felt by many of the schools on our schedule, we were extremely fortunate to avoid the long-term power outages and other damages felt by our competitors. Three of Millbrook's games, however, were cancelled the week after Sandy hit, which meant that we did not play a single Class C school all season and finished at 6-4-2 after three matches were cancelled due to the hurricane and its devestating effects.

This past weekend, however, was all about celebrating their strengths and particularly their ability to deliver a scoring punch while controlling the defensive play. "It's a team effort and team development," says McWilly. The kids were ecstatic. "I like to sit back and watch them after the game is over (and let my blood pressure come down)." This year we also had a great parental participation - thanks to Sabrina Ackerman Bluestone '82 and many other parents who came out to support the team made up of 25 boys, including 12 seniors.

The celebration of Coach McWilliams' 300th win on Saturday commenced only after the team's celebration of their moving into the finals. Not wanting to take any of the glory away from the players, their coach didn't give even a hint of the magnitude of his achievements until well after the game had ended. The team readily congratulated him on this incredible milestone. Past Millbrook soccer players also took the opportunity to congratulation their former coach, as they particularly realize how significant Coach McWilliams contributions have been to the athletic program at Millbrook.

What's next for Coach McWilliams? Another season and, hopefully, another New England title!