February 27, 2023 by Mark Blaudschun
The formula for hiring an athletic coach can generally be found in the Athletic Director 101 section.
The procedure is fairly simple.Gather some names, put out the word to schools in the area and in your own department that a position is open.
More often than not an avalanche of responses will come, which then puts it back on the AD to make the decision as they search for a right fit for the job and the community.
Hingham athletic director Jim Quatromoni has oten gone out of the box in making decisions about new people. He has also been innovative in his hires and his direction, searching for what he feels is the right fit for the person, for the school and for the Hingham athletic community, which is fairly strong and active
Quatromini recently hired T.J. Byrne as the Harbormen’s next football coach, which had a Hingham linkage (Byrne lives in town), but also had a twist other–Byrne is a Massachusettts State Trooper.
Quatromoni is about to announce another new coach in girls golf and again there is twist in the hiring of Samantha Leary, a Hingham High School graduate, which is not all that unusual.
What is different is…well you make the call.
A year ago, Samantha Leary was finishing up on getting a Masters Degree in Special Education at Assumption College.
Two years ago she was finishing up an impressive athletic (golf) and an academic undergraduate career at Assumption, where she was pursuing her passions of golf and working on a degree which would allow her to each special education in elementary school, something she is now doing in Hull, while still living at home in Hingham.
What makes it special of course, is not the resume, which is impressive for a variety of reasons, with academic honors and athletic achievements highlighting her resume
What seems noteworthy is her age. At 24, Leary could easily blend in as a player on the team she is about to coach.
What Quatromoni saw and what comes through in talking to her, looking at her resume and what she has already done is the passion for the job
“We are extremely fortunate to welcome Samantha Leary BACK to Hingham High School, and our athletic department,” said Quatromoni. “Coach Leary is seen as a respected teacher of the game.”
In a very subtle way, Quatromoni is also downplaying the age factor with his “Coach Leary “(rather than Samantha), but it is more than that.
It is a connection that Quatromoni feels with the person and the job and what could happen.
For Leary, there was no disguising the enthusiasm, which was tempered by a confidence in what she had been doing ever since her father taught her when she was 10r.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Leary, who officially begins her coaching tenure in a few weeks. “Going back home like this with this opportunity has been great. I love the game and I love interacting with people. I heard the job was open last summer and I applied for it and they called me in December for an interview.”
Leary, who played golf at Hingham and carried her skill level to Assumption, where she maintained a 4.0 gpa, became captain of the golf team, while honing her handicap down to a 4.
While doing this Leary was also honing her skills as a golf instructor, working at the South Shore Country Club in Hingham, where she earned status as a qualified instructor in golf clinics.
She also stayed in touch with what was going on at Hingham High
“Being able to go back and contribute like that and share some of my experiences is something I’m looking forward to,” she said. “I think having gone through it myself will be helpful as a coach. We’re going to work hard and we are going to be competitive and we will be well conditioned. It’s a great challenge, one that I’m looking forward to starting.”
Again, the enthusiasm and the credentials are obvious. “It’s always been a dream of mine to do something like this,” she said, talking not only about her coaching, but her teaching.
What makes it special is the time line, which also makes it impressive.