Swamspcott girls soccer coach Day steps down

SWAMPSCOTT – Swampscott High girls soccer coach Fred Day has resigned after seven years as head coach and six years with the junior varsity.The Big Blue finished 14-5-0 this year, losing to Wakefield in the first round of the state tournament. Day’s teams have compiled a 90-34-15 record and qualified for the post season every year, beginning in 2002. His best season came in 2003 when the team went 17-4-1 and reached the Division 2 North Final, where it lost to Danvers. Two yers later, the teams met in the North semifinal and Danvers won in two overtimes and 20 penalty kicks.Day said he had been thinking about stepping down for the last few years. He met with athletic director Frank Kowalski last week and made the decision to resign over the weekend.Day said although the team has been successful on the field, there were some issues off the field that factored into his decision to leave. Two seasons ago (2007), several players were suspended as the result of a drinking incident and although the team weathered the storm and actually had a good year (12-3-4), Day said some of the effects lingered into this past season.Despite the various ups and downs over the past few years, Day said he loved the experience and hopes the program will continue to be strong.”I loved every minute of being here, despite the problems,” Day said. “I have a lot of good memories.”Day said he loves the game and has always tried to instill that passion for it into his players. He said he’s been fortunate to coach many great players, including Nikki Shribman, Sarah Benson, Cara Cadigan, Kellie Connolly, Annie McNerney, Mara Sussmen and current players Skylar Sabbag and Marissa Gambale.”Some of my fondest years were in the beginning when we really started to grow as a program and we moved from Division 3 to play in the much stronger Div. 2 North,” Day said.Day said he takes great pride in the success of the program and he’s encouraged by the many young players coming up through the youth soccer program who have dreams of some day playing for the Big Blue girls soccer program.Day, who served as an assistant to former coach Cindy Lavender before getting the head coaching job, said his plan is to devote more time to the LavenderDay Soccer Camp that he runs with Lavender during the summer.He also hasn’t ruled out returning to coaching at some point.”I just felt it was time to move on,” Day said.