By Miara Sasdi and Corina Gencarelli

Ms. Chandley, one of the new physical education teachers this school year at Westborough High School, has also  joined the high school girls basketball program as the varsity assistant coach. With the need of a new assistant coach, she gladly took on the role with a great attitude and a love for basketball. She easily transitioned into her roles as well as taking on some new experiences.

Chandley has quite the interesting and unique background considering how she ended up in physical education.  Majoring in liberal arts at Holy Cross where she played tennis, she then moved to New York to work in finance.  She  then moved back to Worcester as she realized dressing up was not her thing.

She shares, “I hated New York City and I hated dressing up everyday and I realized I loved fitness and interacting with people. I made my way from New York back to Worcester, and I started to get more into the fitness world.”

From the fitness world she then went on to teaching classes and working with kids and adults, which Chandley claims “is the perfect blend of everything I’ve done so far.”

As she is enjoying her time here at Westborough High School as a PE teacher she also filled an extra role of the girls basketball assistant coach. Watching and playing basketball since she was a young girl and volunteering to coach in Worcester, Chandley was excited to help coach this year. She really enjoyed her time with the team as it is not her usual type of coaching.

“I love it because a lot of the stuff I’ve done is team training and individual training for athletes but I haven’t in a while worked in a group or been with a team day in and day out so it’s really been fun to be a part of,” remarks Chadley.   

Coaching and teaching can definitely have its similarities and differences. Chandley finds that “with teaching a class, in general, you are motivating a wide variety of people with different backgrounds and interests and in PE some people love it but some people also hate it but with a varsity sport everyone wants to be there and they all enjoy the sport they are participating  in so the expectations are a little higher.”

Although the basketball season is coming to a close, Chandley has had a positive coaching experience this year and is grateful that she got to learn and work with coaches Mr. Kittredge and Ms. Power.  

She reflects that the season was “really good. It’s been really good. It’s been nice to get to know the girls and to see their progress.”

This experience hopefully is just the beginning of her time involved with the girls basketball team as she intends to return next year.  She hopes that although she is starting her masters degree in April,  it won’t get in the way.  Westborough High School is excited to have Chandley involved in our school community.