Weidman named new Lynnfield football coach

LYNNFIELD – Lynnfield co-athletic director Neal Weidman has a new title. It was announced last week that he’ll be filling the shoes of longtime varsity football head coach Bill Adams, who’s retiring after 22 years.”I’m looking forward to working with the kids and making them better football players individually, so we can become better as a whole team,” said Weidman.Weidman is in his second stint in Lynnfield athletics. He originally came to town in 1999 and lasted three years before moving on to coach for Ayer and Marlborough. In 2004, he came back and signed on as an assistant football coach and co-director of athletics, a position he’ll continue to hold next year, as will Adams.Prior to his local coaching days, Weidman was setting passing records as the starting quarterback at Ithaca College. After graduating as a Bomber in 1997, he stuck around campus, lending a hand as a coach for his alma mater.Although he is now officially Lynnfield’s head coach, his days on the field won’t begin until the start of the high school football season on Aug. 20.”There won’t be a whole lot of change,” said Weidman of his new responsibilities. “I had a lot of responsibility as an assistant, so a lot of the things I would implement are already implemented. The biggest thing that’s changing is we’re getting more kids to play, which is a great thing.”Weidman promises to continue the important coaching method of his colleague and predecessor: always putting his players first.”In general, the biggest thing for (Bill Adams) when he made decisions, was to keep the best interest of kids in mind, and I think that’s what you have to do,” said Weidman. “Whether it works or doesn’t work, is popular or not popular, you have to keep all the student athletes in mind that are on your team.”And, just incase Weidman needs any help along the way, Adams will be just across the office.”The nice thing is that obviously he still works here, so it’ll be nice to have someone that can be used as a resource,” said Weidman.