BERLIN- Longtime Worcester Prep boys’ varsity soccer coach Tom Westcott last week collected his 300th career win at the Berlin school, defeating old rival Saints Peter and Paul, 2-0.
Westcott has been coach of the school’s soccer team for more than three decades. In addition to being varsity soccer coach, he also teaches Advanced Placement biology and physics and is considered by some students to be just as impressive in the classroom as on the field. Senior and varsity soccer coach Matt Carey is one such student.
“He really brings biology to life and when he’s in front of a class, you know he loves science and teaching,” said Carey. “You also know that he cares about you as a person and will do all he can to get you prepared for your future.”
While the win last week was a milestone, Westcott said that it was actually his first game with the school that he remembers most fondly.
“It was September 28, 1976 when I coached my first game at Worcester,” said Westcott. “Greg Shockley, a sophomore, was our goalie and helped to record our first win, 8-2, against the Tome School.”
Westcott went on to praise how far Shockley has come since that first game nearly forty years ago. Like so many of Westcott’s former players and students, Shockley has gone on to bigger and better things.
“Greg, now a successful local businessman, was recently appointed by the Governor to serve on the Maryland Tourism Development Board,” said Westcott. “Greg is also on the BB&T Regional Advisory Board and the Maryland Restaurant Association Board, but he hasn’t forgotten his alma mater or his love of soccer. He is an assistant coach for our team in this 2010 season. That’s how it is with my players, their success and their dedication.”
Shockley isn’t the only former player to stay in touch. Philippe Hennebert stopped by Worcester Prep this summer to give his children a tour of his former school and to introduce them to Coach Westcott. Hennebert attended Worcester Prep as a foreign exchange student and is now an international banker. He traveled all the way from Belgium to visit the school.
It seems fitting that such a career-defining win like his 300th should occur so close to the anniversary of his first. Westcott’s success in all areas of student life from athletics to academics has made him a figurehead at the school and in the community.