Although her coaching tenure in Wellesley was short, coach Lily Woodring ’19 made a substantial impact in the town’s athletics. A graduate of the high school and former captain of the varsity girls’ basketball team, Woodring felt a connection to the school’s sports. This link remained after she left town to attend college.
Originally joining the athletic staff as an intern to the athletic director in 2023, Woodring also filled the role of JV girls’ lacrosse coach. The next year, she coached lacrosse again, and added middle school volleyball and JV girls’ basketball to her resumé. This fall, she led the freshman girls’ volleyball team to a 8-10 record.
“[Coach Lily] respects us all as players, and does her best to help us do better,” said Hsu-Yi Kuo ’28, a player on Woodring’s freshman team this past season.
Years ago, Woodring gained her first coaching experience at MetroWest Travel Basketball when she was still a high school student. She was initially drawn to coaching by older students who had trained her.
“I had high school coaches when I was in middle and elementary school and I always looked up to them,” Woodring said.
Her passion for coaching continued throughout her final years of high school. She was inspired by those who helped her when she was a player herself. She named Coach Glen Magpiong, the varsity girls’ basketball coach, as her role model. When she came back to the high school, she felt drawn to coach alongside her former mentor, assisting varsity along with being the head coach for JV.
“He always put his whole heart and soul into the program. That was a program that felt like one program,” Woodring said. “The varsity girls cheered the freshman girls on, the JV girls cheered varsity on, and vice versa…I wanted to be a part of that again but I also wanted to try to facilitate that too.”
Woodring’s desire to pass on what she learned from Magpiong shone through in her methods.
“She would bring us together and make us all laugh,” said Alysia Wong ’26, one of Woodring’s JV basketball players last winter. “She always wanted to see us improve.”
Woodring also focuses on conveying the larger impacts of sports to her athletes.
“Sports is more than just winning, it’s about learning how to be a good teammate, [and] learning how to communicate and be there for one another,” she said. “Sports are like everything in life. If you can work together with people and come together toward a common goal, things work out.”
Woodring’s message was certainly clear to her players.
“It didn’t matter if we lost the game or even if a play didn’t go as planned, she always saw improvement in us and motivated us to do better each time,” said Wong.
After fewer than two years at the high school, Woodring is leaving to pursue accounting, which she studied in college. Eventually, though, she wants to become an assistant athletic director, then hold the role of athletic director herself.
Part of Woodring’s decision to pursue a career in school athletics is the relative lack of women in those departments.
“If I was a kid and all I saw were men being athletic directors, I know it would be nice to have a woman in there,” said Woodring.
Though she is leaving this job, Woodring plans to help coach the girls’ basketball team as a volunteer this winter. She wants to continue sharing her love for sports with students.
“Sports was my favorite part of the day when I was in high school,” she said. “I like being in an environment where I can help a kid have sports be their favorite part of the day too.”