Old Colony Archives
The heart of a Cougar
Longtime Old Colony AD/coach Bill Hebert stepping aside after 33 years
By Jonathan Comey, Standard-Times columnist
June 26, 2005
Bill Hebert sat in one of the student desks in his math classroom at Old Colony Regional, squirming like an unprepared sophomore taking a final exam.
"I don't like to talk about myself, you know -- it's not really, well, it's about the kids," he said, in the nervous monotone that endears him to you. "It's not about me."
Next week, Bill Hebert will walk out of the regional vocational high school and into the summer air, leaving his full-time job as teacher/athletic director behind after 33 years. It's a scene being duplicated in schools all over SouthCoast, all over Massachusetts, all over the country -- wonderful, skilled educators calling it a career. You wonder how all of their experience and dedication will possibly replaced. You hope the torch is being passed smoothly, but you wonder sometimes if it's just lying there on the ground burning away, starting little fires that no one learned how to put out.
"It's just time to move on," Hebert said of his own departure, with a nod of the head, as if he was still trying to talk himself into it. "The older you get, the less you can relate to the kids. I just don't have the energy, I guess -- not like I used to -- and I don't want to do this unless I can do it the way I want to do it."
From all indications, the transition at Old Colony will be a smooth one. Hebert's replacement as Old Colony AD will be twenty-something Matt Trahan, who has been learning under Hebert for the past five months and surely has that bubbling energy. And if Trahan has been paying really, really close attention during this interim period, he'll have learned just about everything he needs to know about the meaning of high school athletics.
In the Old Colony gym, there are several league championship banners hanging in maroon and yellow. But two of the banners are bigger than the rest, and they're for the school's two District D Sportsmanship Awards.
"From all of the Cape, down to here, up north, with all those schools in District D, for them to pick this little school out here in the middle of nowhere means a lot," Hebert said. "I guess it means that we're doing something right. It's really an honor, something to be proud of."
Bill Hebert is like everyone's favorite uncle out here in Rochester -- everyone in these halls knows the small, silver-haired man with the bushy moustache, and everyone likes him. Why? Because he cares, and that caring is as obvious as obvious can be. He delights in the success of others, and wants very badly for people to succeed.
He was inspired to become an educator by one of his high school history teachers back in the late 1960s -- a not-yet-legendary Carlin Lynch, who would set the standard for sportsmanship at Dartmouth High School.
"He affected my life, I was impressed by him and wanted to do what he did," Hebert said.
And so he did, taking over the Old Colony athletic program in 1978 in just his second year with the school, juggling the duties along with teaching math and coaching girls basketball.
He won nine league titles over his tenure with the girls basketball team, and it seems significant that he finishes his basketball coaching career with 298 wins -- two short of a milestone.
"Some people equate coaching with winning, but to me it's building character, helping these kids become a reasonable, productive member of society," he said.
Bill's wife Kristine ("she's my No. 1 support") put together an Old Colony girls basketball reunion in his honor recently, and the results were overwhelming: more than 60 girls showed up, plus letters of regret from dozens more.
Old Colony has had a few stars over the years, a couple of whom moved on to play college basketball, but mostly the stories of success are to be found off the court. There was the borderline student who stuck with it because she wanted to play hoops -- and wound up with a master's degree. Or the girl with substance abuse problems, who credits Coach Hebert with saving her life and has lectured schools on the dangers of drugs. Or the normal, everyday stories of girls whose lives were simply enriched by being part of a team that cared.
"We try to keep things realistic, make kids understand that they aren't all going to be stars but that they can still enjoy being on a team," he said.
While this attitude is by no means uncommon at the high school level, at a vocational school there is even more emphasis on sports as a building block, not as a destination. The school has a no-cut policy, and participation in sports is very, very high.
"Whether it's being a role player, a team manager, a stat keeper, we just want them to participate," he said. "Don't hang around doing nothing, stay here, be a part of it. And these kids really blossom."
Superintendent David Ferreira has been Bill Hebert's boss for 14 years and, in addition to a friend, he has a kindred spirit in Hebert.
"Well, let's start with the fact that Bill is probably the best math teacher we've ever had," he said. "The way he supports kids in athletics is the way he supports kids in the classroom. That's Bill. He's the same when he's winning as when his teams are struggling."
While Ferreira has faith in Matt Trahan to keep the Old Colony philosophy alive, he knows that there aren't too many Bill Heberts out there to go around.
"Matt has a lot of energy, and he'll do a great job," Ferreira said. "I know Bill feels like his own level isn't what it used to be, but he has a moral and ethical core that keeps him performing at a high level no matter what. He'd do a great job forever. It's his choice, though, and he deserves it. He's earned it.
"But we're going to miss him."
Hebert's athletic office is approximately half the size of a prison cell, and still has pipes attached from its former life as a bathroom. The centerpiece is the small computer center, but there are trophies, pictures and knickknacks sandwiched around of the various paperwork that dominates the time between his four math classes. He's moved some of his stuff out of there, but there's a lot of packing left to do.
There's a picture of him in a suit standing next to a smiling bride -- one of his former players. There's a letter from another graduate, thanking him for the leadership he showed. "I learned to be happy!" she wrote. "You were a great example."
In the dizzying pace of educating, Bill Hebert might not have spent a lot of time pondering the good he's done. But leaving somewhere gives you a sense of what you've meant there, and Bill Hebert is leaving Old Colony with the understanding that he made a difference.
"It's amazing, I guess," he said. "You have a conversation with a kid, on a bus, or in a classroom, and they come back later and they remember every word of it; they say it was an important moment in their life. You don't realize the impact you made."
Hebert has impacted many lives over his 33 years at Old Colony, and now it's time for him to move his own name to the top of that list. He might coach Old Colony softball next year, if they need him, and he'll always be a phone call away. But mostly, it'll be Bill and wife Kristene (who is also leaving a lifetime of educational service this week), doing whatever they might want to do. Spending some time down South, seeing a few shows, reading a few books, generally reaping the benefits their careers have earned them.
Bill already has a part-time job, at the ultra-exclusive Bay Club in Mattapoisett. On slow days, when there are no members waiting to make use of their incredibly expensive privileges, he and other workers are allowed to go out there and play the course.
For everyone at Old Colony who are going to miss Bill Hebert, for those who wish he'd give it one more year, try picturing him there at the Bay Club, on the first tee. Sun shining brightly overhead, breeze wafting slowly over the manicured greens. And there he is, Mr. Hebert, Coach Hebert, Bill, a small man with a big heart and a modest pension, taking the driver out of his bag and preparing to tee off on a golf course designed to accommodate the whims of millionaires.
He might be the richest guy out there.
Photo by Paul Pereira/ Standard-Times special
Bill Hebert closes out his basketball coaching career with 298 wins, but it's something else he's most proud of as he looks back. "Some people equate coaching with winning, but to me it's building character, helping these kids become a reasonable, productive member of society," he said.