North AD's exit strategy includes final stint as coach
NEWTON -- T.J. Williams has decided that a person's most valuable possessions are time and health.
Because he knows that both time and health are fleeting, Williams will be stepping down as Newton North High School's athletic director after classes end next spring.
``I'm 59, turning 60," he said recently, ``and that's when the numbers work where I can get enough of a pension to enjoy my life and do the things I want to do before I'm too old to enjoy them."
He plans on finishing with a bang, not a whimper. Besides riding herd on the school's sports programs, Williams will return to the sidelines this fall, as head coach of the boys' soccer team.
``When I was first hired by Newton North in 1975, I came in as the boys' soccer coach, and I figured that I might as well finish my career here as soccer coach, too."
There's no question he's qualified. In his first stint at the helm, he coached the boys' team for five years, resigning in 1981 after being promoted to athletic director. Then, in 1989, he took over as coach of the girls' soccer team, and led Newton North to five Eastern Massachusetts and three state titles in eight years.
He also coached the Greater Boston Bolts, one of the premier youth soccer teams in the region, for two decades, and over the years has worked at several summer soccer clinics.
For the past two years, Williams has served as an assistant to Newton North soccer coach Jim Burstein, who resigned this spring to take a position as a guidance counselor at his alma mater, the Northfield Mount Hermon School in W estern Massachusetts.
This fall, the Tigers, who finished last season at 11-5-4, will be without All-American Alex Redding, who scored 32 goals and 45 assists during his four years on the team. Captains Mike Salvucci, Zach Trubow, and Jesse Simmons will attempt to fill the void.
Williams will take a three-day hiatus in late September to travel to his alma mater, the State University of New York at Brockport, where he'll be inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame.
Williams wanted to play soccer when he was young, but he also became hooked on golf after college and wants to pursue it more in his retirement.
He carries a 4-handicap, which means he is among the top 5 percent of golfers in the country.
With his two children grown and out of the house -- a son in Buffalo and a daughter in Denver -- he plans to purchase a home in Clearwater, Fla., and join a golf club where he can overdose on the sport.
``I'll probably play golf every day for a year and get bored silly," said Williams, who entertains visions of playing senior amateur golf at a competitive level.
``It's not that I haven't enjoyed teaching and coaching. I have. It's just that there so many other things I'd like to do." 