By: Tess Garrity and Bridget Donahue

A new year, a newstart, and a total blank slate for Varsity Girls’ Basketball and Coach Kittredge. This season is Coach Kittredge’s tenth year coaching the girls’ varsity basketball team. With five freshmen, four sophomores and three juniors on the team, it is one of the youngest varsity basketball teams Westborough has had in a long time.

“It’s a total blank slate, We have a new coaching staff and a ton of new players, so its exciting. I also need to be cautious that we have a lot we can learn and that I can’t assume that people already know things. I have to stop and make sure I explain a lot, so that’s kinda different,” comments Coach Kittredge.

With only two returning varsity players, the girls will need to quickly learn the high standards of playing on a varsity team.

Coach Kittredge has coached basketball at Westborough High School for the last fifteen years. He coached the JV boys’ basketball team for the first five years and later switched to girls’ varsity basketball. Not only did Coach Kittredge play basketball when he attended high school,  he loved it so much that he wanted to continue being involved in athletics and competition when he became a teacher.

“I like that it’s about as much as a team  game as you’ll ever see,”  Coach Kittredge says. “I mean, if everyone’s not working together then you’re not going to be successful. And if you work together, you can be a lot more successful  than even your individual talent, which is pretty cool.”

Coach Kittredge is also a math teacher here at Westborough High School; he remarks teaching has influenced his coaching techniques. His philosophy greatly revolves around accountability and consequences; as well as togetherness and learning by doing. Whatever actions occur on the court will have a consequence, sometimes good and sometimes bad, and it’s the players job to take charge of the moment in order to maintain possession of the ball, which he also praises in his math classes.

Curious and excited, Coach Kittredge is leading the girls’ varsity team in what he thinks will be an awesome season. With a record of 2-4, Coach Kittredge is very hopeful for the young team as the season progresses. “It’s a learning experience… [with a] coachable group, the girls are willing to learn and try what we are showing them. Because of that we will hopefully improve at a rapid pace.”